Destruction, Part 2: Most Sacred Privilege

Now there was no law against a man’s belief, for it was strictly contrary to the commandments of God that there should be a law which should bring men onto unequal grounds. For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Now if a man desired to serve God, it was his privilege, or rather if he believed in God, it was his privilege to serve him; but if he did not believe in him, there was no law to punish him.

—Alma 16:2 RE

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

You may not normally place Chief Governor Parhoron high on your list of scriptural authors. But he said something important and profound in his epistle to Captain Moroni:

Therefore, my beloved brother Moroni, let us resist evil. And whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yea, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in the great privilege of our church and in the cause of our Redeemer and our God. Therefore, come unto me speedily with a few of your men and leave the remainder in the charge of Lehi and Teancum. Give unto them power to conduct the war in that part of the land according to the spirit of God — which is also the spirit of freedom — which is in them. (Alma 28:3 RE)

From the above we learn that the freedom most prized by Parhoron and Moroni was the freedom of worship, which they were both willing to defend with their lives. After all, noted Parhoron, the spirit of freedom IS the spirit of God. This is entirely in keeping with his oath of office:

Yea, he was appointed chief judge and governor over the people, with an oath and sacred ordinance to judge righteously, and to keep the peace and the freedom of the people, and to grant unto them their sacred privileges to worship the Lord their God, yea, to support and maintain the cause of God all his days (Alma 22:9 RE)

Captain Moroni cut from the same cloth when he hoisted the Title of Liberty: “In memory of our God, our religion and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.” (Alma 21:7 RE). 

The freedom of worship is something to which you and I are so accustomed that we have difficulty even considering how recent, revolutionary, and fragile the idea is. So to gain some perspective, let’s go back to a time when the notion was considered dangerous, even seditious. Actually, we could pick nearly any time in history and find such circumstances, but for our purposes in this blog post, we’ll pick 1600’s England. 

This was a time during which the Church of England controlled all religious life and clergy in England, though multiple movements existed within the church. The Puritan movement, for example, sought to purify the church from Catholic practices. And the Separatist position demanded a complete separation of Protestantism from the Church of England, which was viewed as irredeemably corrupt.

In this environment, a young man named Roger Williams received his education, took ordination in the Church of England, became a Puritan, and began championing the Separatist position, which put him at great risk. Realizing these actions and ideas denied him any future in the Church of England, or indeed in England itself, he boarded a ship for the American colonies on December 1, 1630, bound for a new life in the Puritan settlement of Boston.

Upon arrival, Williams was offered the temporary position of Reverend at the Church of Boston, but he declined because the church was not fully “separated” from the Church of England. The Church of Salem, which had more separatist leanings made him an offer, but the Boston church objected so strenuously that the Salem church withdrew the offer. So Williams moved to the Plymouth colony and assisted in the church there. 

Trouble soon found Roger Williams in Plymouth when he realized the colony had taken land from Native Americans without paying for it. He condemned this practice and wrote a tract openly accusing King James of dishonesty, which caused quite a stir and threatened legal problems. Once this trouble passed, he found himself back in Salem as Reverend of the Salem church, but was repeatedly brought up on charges of “erroneous” and “dangerous opinions” including his beliefs that the civil government should have no authority to enforce or punish strictly religious matters, and that all people should enjoy freedom of conscience in matters of worship, without government control or demands.

After being charged and tried a number of times, Williams was finally removed from his church position by the General Court. Ultimately, he found he could no longer associate with the church and instead began worshiping in his home with likeminded believers. Finally in 1635, the General Court convicted Roger Williams of sedition and heresy for teaching “diverse, new and dangerous opinions” and ordered that he be banished from Massachusetts Bay colony. Because winter was approaching and he was ill, the court agreed to let him stay temporarily, provided he stop teaching his ideas. Naturally, he didn’t stop teaching, and upon learning the sheriff was coming to arrest him, Williams fled in a blizzard and traveled 55 miles in deep snow, finding refuge with a local Indian tribe until spring. 

When spring came, Williams and his followers found a suitable location for a new settlement outside the borders of the Massachusetts Bay land charter, and purchased the necessary lands from the Narragansett tribe. They named their new settlement Providence, based on their belief that divine providence had led them there in their exile. It still retains that name today, incidentally, and is now the capital of Rhode Island. 

What made the Providence settlement unique was that it was intentionally set up to be a haven for those “distressed of conscience.” The government of the settlement was specifically limited to civil matters and excluded from religious matters, and all citizens of the settlement were expressly granted freedom of conscience in matters of religion. Naturally, the settlement soon attracted a variety of dissenters and religious free thinkers, welcoming Jews, Quakers, Baptists and all who were elsewhere persecuted for their beliefs. All were treated as equals in matters of government and citizenship, regardless of their religious leanings.

Thus, Roger Williams founded the first place in modern history where citizenship and religion were completely decoupled from one another, providing complete religious liberty and separation of church and state. Though that may sound quite unremarkable to us now, in 1636 it was so revolutionary as to be considered seditious and heretical. Church and state power had been so intertwined for so long that the mere idea of a secular government was practically unthinkable. But Williams thought it, acted on it, and changed the world. 

Roger Williams lived a magnificent life, filled with heroic and magnanimous deeds. He learned the language of the local Narragansett tribe and published the first book ever written detailing a Native American language. In it, he stated:

Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood;
Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good. 
Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All,
As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal.

He earned the tribe’s trust and respect to the point that he was often called upon to keep the peace between the colonies and the Native American tribes. On more than one occasion, he pledged himself as hostage to ensure the safe return of Indian Chiefs from colonial court proceedings. 

Williams worked tirelessly to stabilize relations between the colonies, even returning to England to secure an official charter for Providence Plantations. Ultimately his efforts united Providence Plantations and Rhode Island, again under the charter of freedom of conscience. When others sought to usurp control over Indian lands or tribes, Williams fought to have them removed, at one point selling his business to pay for another trip to England, which resulted in a more secure charter, greater protection for Native people, and removal of the usurpers. 

Roger Williams opposed slavery and sought every opportunity to limit it. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law sanctioning slavery, Providence Plantations under Williams’ leadership passed laws limiting the amount of time a person could be held in slavery, bringing it in line with indentured servitude, and also sought to prevent the importation of enslaved Africans. 

By the end of his life, Roger Williams was known as the founder of Rhode Island, the founder of the Baptist church, a tremendous and gifted advocate for Native American rights, a friend and defender of marginalized groups including Jews, Quakers and others, an opponent of slavery and infant baptism, and an able preacher, governor, writer and Christian thinker. But his greatest accomplishment is summed up in the following two paragraphs I pulled from Wikipedia:

Williams was a staunch advocate of separation of church and state. He was convinced that civil government had no basis for meddling in matters of religious belief. He declared that the state should concern itself only with matters of civil order, not with religious belief, and he rejected any attempt by civil authorities to enforce the “first Table” of the Ten Commandments, those commandments that deal with an individual’s relationship with and belief in God. Williams believed that the state must confine itself to the commandments dealing with the relations between people: murder, theft, adultery, lying, and honoring parents. Williams wrote of a “hedge or wall of Separation between the Garden of the Church and the Wilderness of the world.” Thomas Jefferson later used the metaphor in his 1801 Letter to Danbury Baptists.

Williams considered the state’s sponsor of religious beliefs or practice “forced worship”, declaring “Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils.” He also believed Constantine the Great to be a worse enemy to Christianity than Nero because the subsequent state involvement in religious matters corrupted Christianity and led to the death of the Christian church. He described the attempt of the state to pass laws concerning an individual’s religious beliefs as “rape of the soul” and spoke of the “oceans of blood” shed as a result of trying to command conformity. The moral principles in the Scriptures ought to inform the civil magistrates, he believed, but he observed that well-ordered, just, and civil governments existed even where Christianity was not present. Thus, all governments had to maintain civil order and justice, but Williams decided that none had a warrant to promote or repress any religious views. Most of his contemporaries criticized his ideas as a prescription for chaos and anarchy, and the vast majority believed that each nation must have its national church and could require that dissenters conform.

Roger Williams’ true legacy is not the Baptist Church, the city of Providence, the state of Rhode Island, the books he wrote or the lives he saved. No, it is the ideas for which he fought, suffered and labored. These very ideas, though revolutionary at the time, were inherited a century later by the founders of America and incorporated into our founding documents. The first amendment to the U.S. constitution is the direct result of the thoughts, ideas, and sacrifices of Roger Williams. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Such a wall as this had never been erected between religion and government on a national scale. This grand experiment in freedom of conscience is frankly responsible for all other freedoms we enjoy. 

When you think about it, freedom of worship is the most basic and fundamental freedom of all. If the power of the state stops where the individual’s relationship with God begins, then the state is permanently and properly subordinated to God and to the individual. Agency—the issue at stake from the beginning and fought for in battle before the foundation of the earth—is preserved. The value of the individual soul is greater than the value of the entire combined power and wealth of the state, and therefore all other freedoms flow from the value placed on the individual soul in the image of God. We have freedom of speech because we have freedom of conscience. We enjoy freedom of the press because we have freedom of conscience. Indeed, the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, the right to a fair and speedy trial by a jury of peers, the freedom from cruel and unusual punishments, the right to bear arms, and even the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness all spring from this first, most inalienable, most fundamental right to an individual relationship with God—unmolested, uncoerced and uncontrolled by the government. And for that, we have Roger Williams to thank. 

In fact, I think it no exaggeration to call Roger Williams the founder of our nation. Seriously. Everything that is unique and good and godly about the highest aspirations of our founding can be traced directly to Roger Williams, who had the courage to stand against the evils and corruption of church and state, at peril of his own life, and who then acted on his principles to establish the first government and society in modern times based on those principles. If this nation was ever a city on a hill that could not be hid, it surely burned with the spirit of God, which is the spirit of freedom, brought here and established by this “man among the gentiles” who laid the firmest of foundations in our freedom of worship.

And I looked and beheld a man among the gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man, and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren who were in the promised land. (1 Nephi 3:20 RE)

He was among the gentiles, indeed among the “mother gentiles” of this nation in England (1 Nephi 3:20 RE). The spirit of God, which Captain Moroni and Parhoron correctly define as the spirit of freedom—religious freedom, to be precise—clearly wrought upon Roger Williams, causing him to go forth upon the waters and come to the promised land. He ended up in very close vicinity to the area of the final Book of Mormon battles, and therefore the remaining remnants of the Lamanites, and more than perhaps any other settler, came “unto” the seed of the Lamanites, learning their language and becoming their friend, champion, and defender. That spirit of freedom that wrought upon him throughout his life shaped the foundation and formed the underpinnings of our nation and all other freedoms we enjoy. 

I realize there are many theories as to the identity of the man shown to Nephi and that cases can be made for each candidate. I’m not interested in arguing the relative merits of the various candidates. In this introduction to Roger Williams, I have made the case that he *could* be the man—meaning, his life and history conform very well to the pattern of the man Nephi saw. But I have not yet made the case why I believe he *is* the man; we’ll come to that in future posts. For now, I’ll just state that I have good and sufficient reasons to believe that Nephi saw Roger Williams. And as I said in my last post, this matters a great deal.

And yet, there’s still more to uncover. Why was he shown to Nephi? Why does it matter that we understand who Nephi saw? And how might this all relate to the topic of destruction? Stay tuned…

God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.

----------------------------------

The God of Peace, the God of Truth will shortly seal this truth, and confirm this witness, and make it evident to the whole world, that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace. 

Amen.

—Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience 

Destruction, Part 1: A Man Among the Gentiles

And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all because of the destructions of my people, for I had beheld their fall.

—1 Nephi 4:1 RE

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

Christopher Columbus has a disturbing history—but growing up Mormon, I never knew it. Like many of you, I was raised not only with the standard American veneration of Columbus, but also with the notion that he was the very man spoken of in the Book of Mormon, the man who was “wrought upon” by the spirit of God in this famous statement from Nephi’s vision:

And I looked and beheld a man among the gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man, and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren who were in the promised land. (1 Nephi 3:20 RE)

As the “man among the gentiles” who was “wrought upon” by the spirit of God, Columbus has nearly achieved Sainted status among the LDS people, with lesson manuals proclaiming he is the man of prophecy, articles written in support of the notion, “modern prophets” stating as much, and even a whole book dedicated to making the case. But, I believe they all are wrong, that the man in question is most certainly NOT Christopher Columbus, and the thing that wrought upon Columbus most was the spirit of greed, not the spirit of God. Hey, the spelling is close, but accuracy matters.

Here are some quick items of interest from the life and doings of Columbus:

• First and foremost, his primary motivation was making money. He worked in various positions of trade before making his proposal to find a new route to Asia, and he pressed the idea for years knowing of the huge money to be made in supplanting the overland Silk Road trading route with shipping. He also wrote often in his logs of his desire for huge quantities of gold.


• Contrary to modern misconception, the spherical shape of the Earth was common knowledge in Columbus’s day, though he repeatedly understated the distance to Asia by a huge factor. Other learned men of his day pointed out repeatedly that the distance he was trying to sell to investors was actually only about a fourth of what his proposal would require. In other words he was either bad at math or unscrupulous in misrepresenting his proposal to investors. 


• The deal Columbus negotiated was designed to give him massive wealth and power. The contractural promises he received from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella upon a successful voyage included the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea, appointment as Viceroy and Governor of any lands claimed for Spain, and 10% of all the revenues from such lands in perpetuity.


• Columbus left his wife and son for extended periods in prior voyages. When he returned from a lengthy African voyage to find his wife had died, he settled her estate and promptly impregnated his 20-year-old mistress (16 years his junior), who also bore him a son. All this before his famous voyage to the New World.


• Columbus’s first landing in the New World was on the island now known as San Salvador in the Bahamas. Though the lookout on the Pinta was the first to spot the land, Columbus later claimed to have seen a light the night before, thus claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to sight land.


• Upon landing and noticing the gold ear ornaments worn by the island’s native inhabitants, he took some of them prisoner and insisted they guide him to the source of the gold. This became a theme of his future conquests, and he regularly imprisoned and tortured natives, trying to discover where gold could be found.


• Columbus brought a few notable things back from New World to Europe from his first voyage: Tobacco, slaves and syphilis (fun fact: syphilis didn’t exist in Europe prior to Columbus’s first voyage. He and his crew introduced it to Europe).  


• Columbus earned a reputation as a brutal and incompetent governor of the new territories, employing imprisonment, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, slavery and murder as common punishments and governing tactics. 


• Columbus conquered and enslaved many thousands of natives, including men, women and children. He gave enslaved women to his men to be raped, and caused enslaved populations to be worked to death in terrible circumstances. His lust for gold could not be satiated, and he required tribute in the form of gold dust from the native population every six months. Those who couldn’t pay had a hand chopped off. Most subsequently bled to death. What he failed to realize was that the islands had no native gold resources, and the native populations weren’t holding out on him. There really wasn’t any gold to be had.


• Columbus varnished his conquests with the patina of piety by claiming he invaded and conquered in hopes of converting the native populations to Christianity. This kept the clergy and royalty at home happy and supportive, but in practice he failed to do much converting or baptizing. Later in life, Columbus took quite a shine to scripture, claiming to have been guided by God in fulfilling a number of prophecies as an instrument in God’s hand. His lofty claims granted him, at least in his own mind, scriptural importance not seen since the days of the apostles. He made lavish claims about scriptural passages that spoke of him personally.


• During his later years, Columbus wrote two books: the Book of Privileges, detailing the rewards and privileges he believed he and his family were owed by the Spanish crown, and the Book of Prophecies, in which he detailed the Bible passages he believed spoke directly of him and his achievements. 


• Columbus is joined in his scriptural claims by a chorus of Book of Mormon fans who assert he MUST be the man in Nephi’s vision, because, well, isn’t it obvious? I mean, unless you’ve studied some history, who else can you name that came from Europe to the Americas? Right?

Now, a couple of disclaimers are in order before we move on. First, some of the negative information about Columbus is disputed. But there are also assertions that he was even worse—much worse—than what I listed here. Of course, he himself claimed to be a saint (mostly) and only engaged in what destiny required and God approved. Ultimately, it’s generally clear he was a confused or dishonest seafaring trader with limited navigational ability and unlimited dreams of wealth and glory, who happened upon the New World by luck rather than intent. It appears that to his dying day he never realized the land he found was not India. He was a slaver, a brutal and bloody governor, and a greedy claimant of souls, gold, lands, glory, and importance. 

After reports of incompetence and brutality caused Columbus and his family to be stripped of the right to govern the conquered lands, he spent the remainder of his life in failing health while attempting to reclaim the wealth and honor he thought he was owed. He died at age 54, having never set foot in North America. Columbus is known or suspected to have reached several Caribbean islands, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica. Despite common claims to the contrary, he was most certainly not the first European to have discovered America. Evidence now indisputably shows Viking settlements and landings in Canada nearly 500 years before Columbus entered the Caribbean.

Now, with this information before us, let’s take another look at that Book of Mormon statement. 

And I looked and beheld a man among the gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man, and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren who were in the promised land. (1 Nephi 3:20 RE)

OK, so Nephi sees a man among those he labels gentiles. Elsewhere in the vision, these gentiles are shown to be divided from the seed of Nephi’s brethren by many waters, organized into many nations and kingdoms, and universally suffering under the great and abominable church which had altered scripture. These gentiles ultimately cross the great waters and displace the seed of Nephi’s brothers to set up a great nation in the promised land. These gentiles therefore seem pretty clearly to be European, and Columbus clearly started out among them. Fair enough.

We’re told the spirit of the Lord wrought upon the man in question. It’s therefore worth considering what spirit seems to be manifested in the history and motivations of Christopher Columbus. Was it the spirit of the Lord working in him that guided him to the Bahamas and launched him into his reign of lust, terror, torture and destruction? 

Further, did Columbus reach the “seed of [Nephi’s] brethren” in the “promised land”? If we are to take the prophecy literally, we would have to conclude some portion of the peoples of the Caribbean islands, South America, and lower Central America are the “seed” in question, and that those lands, or at least some portion of them, form the “promised land.” 

The trouble is that in the same vision, Nephi sees quite a bit more information about the promised land and the nation upon it. 

Behold, saith the Lamb of God…I will be merciful unto the gentiles in that day, insomuch that I will bring forth unto them in mine own power much of my gospel which shall be plain and precious, saith the Lamb. For behold, saith the Lamb, I will manifest myself unto thy seed, that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious. And after thy seed shall be destroyed and dwindle in unbelief, and also the seed of thy brethren, behold, these things shall be hid up to come forth unto the gentiles by the gift and power of the Lamb. And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation. (1 Nephi 3:23 RE)

This statement specifically identifies the gentiles in question as those to whom the Book of Mormon will be brought forth.

And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and confounded, that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land, and by them shall our seed be scattered. And after our seed is scattered, the Lord God will proceed to do a marvelous work among the gentiles which shall be of great worth unto our seed. (1 Nephi 7:3 RE)

We see here a prophecy of a “mighty nation” among the identified gentiles on “this land.” Elsewhere, Nephi’s brother Jacob speaks further about this nation to be raised up on this promised land:

But behold, this land, saith God, shall be a land of thine inheritance, and the gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land who shall raise up unto the gentiles, and I will fortify this land against all other nations. (2 Nephi 7:2 RE)

These statements and others from the Book of Mormon demonstrate the promised land, and the nation (singular, not plural) thereon, hold all the following characteristics:

• Delivered by the power of God out of the hand of all other nations (not conquered once established)


• Delivered from their “mother gentiles” or no longer ruled by the nation from whence they came


• A land of liberty that has no king


• Fortified against all other nations


• A marvelous work will be done in that nation, which includes bringing forth much of the gospel—specifically the Book of Mormon record upon that land

What's wrong with this picture?

These explicit scriptural statements do not favor any interpretation that claims any of the Caribbean islands, Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, or Costa Rica are the nation in question, nor the land in question. The only nation, and therefore the only land, that checks all the required boxes is the United States of America. Being that Christopher Columbus never reached any land that is part of the United States, it’s hard to argue that he was the man in the vision who came to the seed of Nephi’s brothers on the promised land, unless you’re willing to make very broad interpretations about the “promised land” being, well, the whole western hemisphere, and the “seed” in question being whatever natives were encountered, whether tied to Nephi’s family or not.

But the Book of Mormon text is so entirely specific that it precludes any such broad interpretation. Indeed, the text demands we take note of the very specific statements that identify the land and the nation first and foremost. Then having done so, we might consider who the man in question might be. 

In summary, there’s no indication Columbus was led by the spirit of God, no indication he came to the “promised land,” and no indication he encountered the seed of Nephi’s brothers (the Lamanites). The idea that he was the man spoken of therefore ought to be viewed as a false tradition of our fathers that impedes us from finding greater understanding. And believe it or not, this matters a great deal.

And with that, we’ve reached the end of Part 1. If you’ve been paying attention, you may have some questions—like the following: 

• What was the point of trashing the idea that Christopher Columbus was prophesied in the Book of Mormon? 


• And what’s the big deal about the prophesied man anyway? He’s mentioned in one sentence and all it says is that he was wrought upon by the spirit and came to the promised land. That’s it—no other mention, no other history, and no seeming importance tied to him in any way at all.  (By the way, if you had this question in mind, my hat’s off to you. It’s a really important question with some really surprising answers.)


• And finally, what on earth does this all have to do with destruction—which, judging by the title of this series, seems to be the theme? 

Bear with me. It will all become clear as we move ahead.

For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men, a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other, either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds, unto their being brought down into captivity and also unto destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the Devil of which I have spoken. 

—1 Nephi 3:26 RE

Focal Adjustment

Brian Allred submitted this thought and asked me to publish it. I think it is a very important reminder to us all. 

As a process engineer and one who recognizes the details, I recommend a small but important change of focus. Consider these definitions:

1. THE work is coming to know your Lord. All items listed in the covenant documents are THE work. For the sake of discussion I condensed all the items listed in the documents to: Love one another.

2. A work is a task, an errand of the Lord, a work among us, like translating the Book of Mormon, temple fund, stand independent, etc.

Unfortunately my experience so far has been that often times when I have tried to help and work with people who are fully engaged in A work, that work or task becomes more important than THE work of loving each other. I think in all cases that people involved in A work are not aware that offenses were made to THE work. It simply was not the focus.

I invoke a scripture, I think I now understand it better. Note: I am not qualified to render judgment to how this applies to any other person who is attempting to serve the Lord. 

And many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I say unto them, You never knew me. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. (Matt 3:47 RE)

If we lose focus while doing tasks and fail to see that we are neglecting to learn to love one another—THE work—are we by definition working cross purposes to God’s objectives and thereby “workers of iniquity”? If so, do we run the risk of needing to say, “Lord, Lord have we not done many wonderful works in your name?” Trying to point out how important and hard the tasks were. I always thought that this scripture was kind of harsh but if I am seeing it correctly then it seems justified.

I am a task-oriented person. I always have been. People and dealing with people have always been secondary. I have slowly come to learn I am far more productive and happy when I start with the person first. I don’t have any suggestions on how to realize if we are neglecting THE work at the expense of the tasks at hand. This is a goodly movement, lots of smart folks out there. I leave it right there, lets see what turns up.

Thank you for your consideration. Thank you all for your efforts, both successful and not. Thank you for friendship, whether realized currently or in the future. May we all keep a focused eye on THE work. Are you persuaded?

Regards, Brian Allred

Rescuing the Restoration Conference and Book

There was a conference last weekend with excellent information for those who may be questioning their LDS faith. The goal of the conference was to prevent the all-too-common complete loss of faith that frequently results from questions about church history and teachings without satisfactory answers from the LDS church. 

The recordings can be accessed at this link.

In conjunction with the conference, a new book was released. 

Rescuing the Restoration: The Lord Sets His Hand Again gives a history and overview of the Restoration Movement, from the perspective of participants in the movement. This book ultimately resulted from a prior blog post I put up in late 2020. In that post I suggested someone might want to take an existing outline I wrote for a different project and do something with it. That someone turned out to be Chris VanCampen, who voluntarily took on a project to produce a book, assembled a team of writers, editors, an illustrator, a typesetter, and an ample level of determination to bring it all together. 

The result is a worthy effort and wonderful resource for all who may be curious about the Restoration Movement. I highly recommend sharing the book with all who may be interested. The book is available for order at this link.

Kentucky Conference: Hear and Trust the Lord in the Storm

The organizers of the upcoming conference in Kentucky asked me to post this announcement. I'm very much looking forward to this conference, and hope you will consider attending.

The Kentucky conference March 25-27 is just weeks away. There are only a few rooms available on site. The deadline to book a room or sign up for meals is March 4th. The website for the Kentucky Conference is www.trustthelordinthestorm.info. 

Matt Lohmeier, Vern and Whitney Horning and Denver Snuffer speak Saturday. Denver’s Saturday talk title is Christianity is Alive and Well. Christ is Actively Preparing To Return. He and others will be speaking Sunday as well. 

For more Conference details, please visit www.trustthelordinthestorm.info.

We hope to see many of you there. 

Lexington Kentucky Conference committee

Guest Post: The Hurdle

Brian Allred wrote the following and asked me to post it in response to a previous post. I thought he made some good points and consider his ideas worth noting. 

I am finally responding to the post titled “Brokenness of Man and Plural Marriage.” I think that post illustrates an important hurdle that we as a group must surpass if we hope to achieve a community worthy of God’s designation of Zion. Truth be told, writing is like unto torture. More often than not my attempts at expression usually fall short. I would like to take credit for seeking wisdom in advance, to guide my attempts of expression contained in this post, however I was mostly lazy. This allowed time for wisdom to sneak up and ambush me. I am sure that if I had posted in haste the result would have been far less appropriate. 

I consider Doug Mendenhall a good friend. As a byproduct of his efforts I have found a wonderful movement of like-minded people, for that I am grateful. I tried to find a way to thank Doug and acknowledge his efforts at the last conference in Challis, and also to see how many have likewise been affected. Unfortunately my efforts were lacking and nothing came of it. I would like to say much more about our friendship and the sense of loss I feel, but for brevity’s sake I will not. 

I usually believed or resonated with maybe half of the concepts Doug presented. The other half went to the “we shall see” shelf. Recently however I had several important questions about things that were reportedly said by Doug, then add those question to the experience listed in the the post by brother Richmond and also statements from good friends what are members of the movement that they were very sure that Doug was actually teaching polygamy and though not stated perhaps implied that he may be practicing. All this just didn’t square up. Finally my “get off your butt and do something” gene kicked in and I went to work. I figured that if I am persuaded to believe Emma Smith’s accounting of Joseph’s fidelity and Joseph Smith’s childrens’ accounting of the relationship of their parents then I could do the same in the case of Doug Mendenhall. So I called Debi (Mendenhall) James. We had a long productive and pleasant conversation. Diane, Doug’s wife, is a very private person and preferred that Debi be her voice in these matters. This is a summary of what I learned. 

1. Four of seven personal questions were answered with almost complete clarity, the other three I left for another day because of time constraints.
2. I was able to verify that there was interaction between Denise Mendenhall and Brother Richmond. Denise was under the fatherly care of Doug Mendenhall at the time. As a result of that interaction and other factors, Brother Richmond and family did experience many years of pain and turmoil. 
3. Polygamy – one of the seven questions – The testimony of Doug’s wife and family is that Doug was not practicing polygamy or any variation thereof. The rumors and allegations are an amalgamation of statements on the subject, new and old, that keep cycling. My synopsis of Doug’s beliefs on multiple wives is that it’s not for the temporal man. It may be acceptable for the dispensation head and is probably practiced in the hereafter. Doug clearly taught that Christ was married to two or more women, the second being invalid. I personally find this claim inconsistent with Book of Mormon teaching, Joseph Smith’s teaching and Denver’s teaching and thus resigned this to the “we shall see” shelf. I can see how this teaching of Christ’s multiple wives produces enough energy to keep an ongoing rumor-mill active. 
4. “Bonus” an insight I had not supposed. Debi described the flow of events from the perspective of the parents and family. In her youth Denise had suffered a severe diabetic coma, which caused among other things a degree of brain injury. Years of therapy were needed to retrain the brain to achieve a measure of normal-ness. Normally this degree of openness may not be appropriate; however the Mendenhalls are very open about these issues and have pre-reviewed my comments. Denise is undergoing ever increasing magnitude of swings, like bi-polar, with high functioning, lots of possibilities for good at the top, and deep depression and possibility for ill at the bottom. At some point they realized that at the bottom end Denise can get derailed. They are also realizing that their ability to help and intervene is correspondingly declining. 

Special request: If you fee so inclined, send a note of thanks to the email account listed for Doug’s service to you, or perhaps a note of reconciliation. I think it would be a work of healing and or gratitude. 

As a result of my discussion with Debi, I felt a new sense of compassion for the Mendenhall family. I admit that my relationship with Doug was too one-sided. I was in need of help to figure out the twists and turns of the journey. I was unaware of the burden he was carrying. I could have done better, I could have been of assistance. I ask myself “how would I have done if I were in his shoes?” How would you have done? 

Now, about the hurdle we need to surpass to be pre-Zion compatible. First, this is an instructive lesson we can all learn from. A recent teaching reminds us that God is a jealous God and there is to be no Gods, or anything else, between us and God. We can expect disastrous and painful results if we do. 

Second, what then is my course of action? Since I am seriously attempting to follow Christ, I need forgiveness so I just have to forgive. There appears to be no exclusions to this requirement, we are required to forgive all. I need patience so I just have to be more patient. I need kindness so I just have to be more kind. I need to be understood so I just have to be more understanding. I need grace so I have to give grace to others. If I am to emulate the action of Christ, I must do good and pray for those who have hurt me. This is the heavy lifting part of the gospel. If I return evil for evil I become evil. I must do the words of Christ to rise up, then I can attempt to lift another. I am also trying to keep claim of covenant status. The following excerpts from the covenant documents seem appropriate. 

T & C 157: 50-51: I descended below it all, and know the sorrows of you all, and have borne the grief of it all, and I say to you, Forgive one another. Be tender with one another, pursue judgment, bless the oppressed, care for the orphan, and uplift the widow in her need, for I have redeemed you from being orphaned and taken you that you are no longer a widowed people. Rejoice in me, and rejoice with your brethren and sisters who are mine also. Be one. 

You pray each time you partake of the sacrament to always have my spirit to be with you. And what is my spirit? It is to love one another as I have loved you. Do my works and you will know my doctrine, for you will uncover hidden mysteries by obedience to these things that can be uncovered in no other way. This is the way I will restore knowledge to my people. If you return good for evil, you will cleanse yourself and know the joy of your Master. You call me Lord, and do well to regard me so, but to know your Lord is to love one another. 

T & C 158:19: But if you do not honor me, nor seek to recover my people Israel, nor teach you children to honor me, nor care for the poor among you, nor help lighten one another’s burdens, then you have no promise from me and I will raise up other people who will honor and serve me, and give unto them this land, and if they repent, I will abide with them. 

In conclusion, we are under specific obligations. Sister Mendenhall is a widow among us. Denise Mendenhall, though of age, is fatherless. There are others as well, sister Corbridge and etc. Can we set aside our desire for accusation? Can we set aside our desire for condemnation? Can we extend the olive branch? Can we do good to our foes? Can we forgive? Can we build peace? 

Debi Mendenhall James will field all polite and considerate questions that anyone may have. She can be reached at publishinghope@gmail.com. There is still work to be done to care for Diane. If you wish to assist I know it will be appreciated. As for Denise, I suspect she will not live very long in the current dynamic, perhaps prayers of faith are all that remain. 

I know as a father if I were to pass away today (as I am currently recovering from covid) I would want the movement to rally around my wife and family. I would hope they would not focus on my worst days. Note: also I have life insurance; brethren take care of your wife.

Follow Up on the Fast

The youth who invited us all to join with them in fasting have asked me to post the following note. I'll add that I joined in the fast and was blessed personally by doing so. I appreciate and thank the youth, and all who supported this effort.

To those that fasted with the youth:

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the holy ghost.” 3 Nephi 5:15″

As the fast that everyone was invited to join comes to end, we, as the youth of the remnant, would like to thank those who joined, for their sacrifice. We hope that this was a good experience and helped you draw closer to the Lord and the people striving to be His. Doing this fast together as a people was a great way to start off 2022. To keep the Lord with us throughout the rest of the year we invite you to continue fasting, praying and studying on your own. There are many challenges that we will still face ahead, but with all of us joining together we can overcome them as one. We are excited for more opportunities for us to band together and see the fulfillment of the Lord’s work.

With Love from the youth of the movement.