Stand up for Freedom

LDS Stand for freedom!

2011-07-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Here for the 4th of July, is what was to have been the last section of the Doctrine and Covenants; Section 143.
God Bless America all free lands and all those who cherish the same!

1We believe that agovernments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men baccountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.

2We believe that no government can exist in apeace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the bfree exercise of cconscience, the right and control of property, and the dprotection of life.

3We believe that all governments necessarily require acivil bofficers and magistrates to enforce the laws of the same; and that such as will administer the law in equity and justice should be sought for and upheld by the voice of the people if a republic, or the will of the sovereign.

4We believe that religion is instituted of God; and that men are amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of aworship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish bguilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul.

5We believe that all men are bound to asustain and uphold the respective bgovernments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments; and that sedition and crebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience.

6We believe that every man should be ahonored in his station, rulers and magistrates as such, being placed for the protection of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty; and that to the blaws all men owe crespect and deference, as without them peace and harmony would be supplanted by anarchy and terror; human laws being instituted for the express purpose of regulating our interests as individuals and nations, between man and man; and divine laws given of heaven, prescribing rules on spiritual concerns, for faith and worship, both to be answered by man to his Maker.

7We believe that rulers, states, and governments have a right, and are bound to enact laws for the protection of all acitizens in the free exercise of their religious bbelief; but we do not believe that they have a right in justice to deprive citizens of this privilege, or proscribe them in their opinions, so long as a regard and reverence are shown to the laws and such religious opinions do not justify sedition nor conspiracy.

8We believe that the commission of crime should be apunished according to the nature of the offense; that murder, treason, robbery, theft, and the breach of the general peace, in all respects, should be punished according to their criminality and their tendency to evil among men, by the laws of that government in which the offense is committed; and for the public bpeace and tranquility all men should step forward and use their ability in bringing coffenders against good laws to punishment.

9We do not believe it just to amingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied.

10We believe that all religious societies have a right to deal with their members for disorderly conduct, aaccording to the rules and regulations of such societies; provided that such dealings be for fellowship and good standing; but we do not believe that any religious society has bauthority to try men on the right of property or life, to take from them this world’s goods, or to put them in jeopardy of either life or limb, or to inflict any physical punishment upon them. They can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from them their fellowship.

11We believe that men should appeal to the civil law for redress of all awrongs and grievances, where personal abuse is inflicted or the right of property or character infringed, where such laws exist as will protect the same; but we believe that all men are justified in bdefending themselves, their friends, and property, and the government, from the unlawful assaults and encroachments of all persons in times of exigency, where immediate appeal cannot be made to the laws, and relief afforded.

12We believe it just to apreach the gospel to the nations of the earth, and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption of the world; but we do not believe it right to interfere with bbond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in cservitude.

Thanks for reading!

2010-10-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

Henry David Thoreau once said "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the roots." We have all heard the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree, and after honestly admitting to it, planting anew. That is not the tree I wish to mention here. The figurative tree I wish to mention, is that "Grand Old Tree" which our founding fathers planted. That tree which was founded in freedom and watered with the blood of those who cared for it. It seems as though the good tree our founders planted continues to grow. However, somewhere along the line another group, grafted into the good root, a corrupt branch. This corrupt branch has grown and gained strength, and seems as though it will overtake the good root. So the problem we now face, is how to rid ourselves of this corrupt branch, without destroying the good root our fathers planted.
It seems during this past few years we have been reaping the rewards of a tree that has become increasingly corrupt. Now comes election year and we see many candidates for office all promising to change things in government; to, "reform social security", "end government corruption" and a list of others. But this is a "government of the people for the people and by the people." If the government has started to produce sour fruit that is hard to eat, do we not have to look at ourselves? The thought might come that we are not the cause of corruption, and our officials lie continually to us. These are valid thoughts, but do we not continually allow these lairs into office? How many of us justify lies in our own lives, steal minor things from our work, cheat on our spouses, and the list goes on. Yet when one of these elected officials should "do as we do" we sound the self-righteous trumpet. Now this does not apply to all people, for there are many good honest people in this conflict. However, it is an important to note that in this corrupt branch does not have roots of its own. It relies on the good root to get its nourishment. So these truly good people are having to bare the burden of many associated with the corrupt branch.
There surely is a conflict raging on the inside of this tree. The conflict is between the old root and the corrupt branch. In the bible dictionary we read about a similar war-The war in Heaven.

"This term arises out of Rev. 12: 7 and refers to the conflict that took place in the premortal existence among the spirit children of God. The war was primarily over how and in what manner the plan of salvation would be administered to the forthcoming human family upon the earth.
The warfare is continued in mortality in the conflict between right and wrong; between the gospel and false principles, etc. The same contestants and the same issues are doing battle, and the same salvation is at stake.
Although one-third of the spirits became devils, the remaining two-thirds were not all equally valiant, there being every degree of devotion to Christ and the Father among them. The most diligent were chosen to be rulers in the kingdom (Abr. 3: 22-23). The nature of the conflict, however, is such that there could be no neutrals, then or now (Matt. 12: 30; 1 Ne. 14: 10; Alma 5: 38-40)."

The above quote was taken from the LDS Bible Dictionary.(http://scriptures.lds.org/en/bd/w/2)

For those of you who are familiar with the Prophet Mormon you can remember this passage "12 And it came to pass that when I, Mormon, saw their lamentation and their mourning and their sorrow before the Lord, my heart did begin to rejoice within me, knowing the mercies and the long-suffering of the Lord, therefore supposing that he would be merciful unto them that they would again become a righteous people. But behold this my joy was vain, for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin.
And they did not come unto Jesus with broken hearts and contrite spirits, but they did curse God, and wish to die. Nevertheless they would struggle with the sword for their lives."(Mormon 2:12-14).

So my question is: How do we rid ourselves of this corrupt branch and heal the "Grand old Tree"?

None dare call it conspiracy-Ether 8

2010-03-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

The Book of Mormon was given to us in our time to help us sift through the theories of the world and come to the Light and Truth of the Gospel, President Tomas S. Monson said when speaking at the Celebration of the first missionaries to travel Sweden, "I dont believe in coincidence, if I did I would be denying the truth". How many stories in the Book of Mormon are about Secret Combinations? How many of these secret combinations sought to overthrow the freedom of the people?

Is it any wonder Captain Moroni was in tears and heartbroken when he prayed and wrote these words "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children" upon his rent coat.(and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land, and the freedom of the land might be favored.
18 And he said: Surely God shall not suffer that we, who are despised because we take upon us the name of Christ, shall be trodden down and destroyed, until we bring it upon us by our own transgressions.

While in on this earth it is so important that we remember the vast difference between God's plan and Satan's. Satan wanted to enslave mankind, to force them to do right then take the Glory for himself. God wanted us to learn for ourselves "virtue from vice, good from evil" So that we with him might enjoy glories, worlds without end. Elder Oaks said when speaking on this same subject at BYUI, "And this is Freedom or liberty"

Freedom has never been given freely to any people. When we wanted a free land here in America, I took many good lives to get it. I cant think of anytime in the history of this world, when freedom has been freely bestowed upon any people. Even Christ suffered for our freedom, in the Garden of Gethsemane, "sweating as it were great drops of blood". Let us not sell our freedom which was bought with blood for temporary comfort or convenience.

2009-12-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

The first two are videos from a BYUI talk by Elder Dallin H Oaks, Then the worlds response, then His own response.

Joseph Smith on Freedom and the Future of this Country

2009-08-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

I am the greatest advocate of the Constitution of the United States there is on the earth. In my feelings I am always ready to die for the protection of the weak and oppressed in their just rights. The only fault I find with the Constitution is, it is not broad enough to cover the whole ground.

Although it provides that all men shall enjoy religious freedom, yet it does not provide the manner by which that freedom can be preserved, nor for the punishment of Government officers who refuse to protect the people in their religious rights, or punish those mobs, states, or communities who interfere with the rights of the people on account of their religion. Its sentiments are good, but it provides no means of enforcing them. It has but this one fault. Under its provision, a man or a people who are able to protect themselves can get along well enough; but those who have the misfortune to be weak or unpopular are left to the merciless rage of popular fury.

The Constitution should contain a provision that every officer of the Government who should neglect or refuse to extend the protection guaranteed in the Constitution should be subject to capital punishment; and then the president of the United States would not say, “Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you.” (HC 6:56-57; also in TPJS 326-27)

I am tired of the misrepresentation, calumny and detraction, heaped upon me by wicked men; and desire and claim, only those principles guaranteed to all men by the Constitution and laws of the United States and of Illinois. (HC 5:15)

My sisters, My remarks in conclusion will be brief. I heard the prophet Joseph Smith say if the people rose up and mobbed us and the authorities countenanced it, they would have mobs to their hearts’ content. I heard him say that the time would come when this nation would so far depart from its original purity, its glory, and its love for freedom and its protection of civil rights and religious rights, that the Constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread. He said, also, that this people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save the Constitution and bear it off triumphantly. (Snow, Eliza R. 556)

Shall we be such fools as to be governed by its laws, which are unconstitutional? No! . . . The Constitution acknowledges that the people have all power not reserved to itself. I am a lawyer; I am a big lawyer and comprehend heaven, earth and hell, to bring forth knowledge that shall cover up all lawyers, doctors and other big bodies. This is the doctrine of the Constitution, so help me God. The Constitution is not law to us, but it makes provision for us whereby we can make laws. Where it provides that no one shall be hindered from worshipping God according to his own conscience, is a law. No legislature can enact a law to prohibit it. The Constitution provides to regulate bodies of men and not individuals.(HC 5:289-90; also in TPJS 278)

Even this Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to peices [sic] and tumbling to the ground and when the constitution is upon the brink of ruin this people will be the Staff up [on] which the Nation shall lean and they shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of destruction. (WJS 416)

This people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.—Then shall the Lord say: Go tell my servants who are the strength of mine house, my young men and middleaged, etc., Come to the land of my vineyard and fight the battle of the Lord. Then the Kings and Queens shall come, yea the foreign saints shall come to fight for the land of my vineyard, for in this thing shall be their safety and they will have no power to choose but will come as a man fleeth from a sudden destruction. I know these things by the visions of the Almighty. (Joseph Smith Collection; from an address given 19 Jul 1840)

I want you to hear and learn, O Israel, this day, what is for the happiness and peace of this city and people. If our enemies are determined to oppress us and deprive us of our constitutional rights and privileges as they have done, and if the authorities that are on the earth will not sustain us in our rights, nor give us that protection which the laws and constitution of the United States and of this state guarantee unto us, then we will claim them from a higher power—from heaven—yea, from God Almighty(Discourses Delivered by Presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young 1; also in HC 5:466; WJS 217)

If we have to give up our chartered rights, privileges, and freedom, which our fathers fought, bled, and died for, and which the constitution of the United States and of this state guarantee unto us, we will do it only at the point of the sword and bayonet. (Discourses Delivered by Presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young 4; also in HC 5:468; WJS 218-19)

If I lose my life in a good cause I am willing to be sacrificed on the altar of virtue, righteousness and truth, in maintaining the laws and Constitution of the United States, if need be, for the general good of mankind. (HC 6:211; also in TPJS 332; WJS 320)

The Constitution of our country [was] formed by the Fathers of liberty. . . . Exalt the standard of Democracy! Down with that of priestcraft, and let all the people say Amen! that the blood of our fathers may not cry from the ground against us. Sacred is the memory of that blood which bought for us our liberty. (HC 3:9)

Special thanks to latterdayconservative.com for gathering most of the quotes presented. For more quotes vist.

SOME GOOD VIDS ON ECONOMY

2009-07-25T13:14:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZk8ronces&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue8RzGoVHsg

Ben Stein

2009-07-22T20:18:00.001-07:00

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show andJane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Experiment: Does Socialism Work?

2009-07-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an 'A'. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a 'B'. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second test average was a 'D'! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an 'F'.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

2009-07-12T11:42:00.001-07:00

Meeting the Challenges of Today

CLICK HER FOR VIDEO OF TALK VIDEO LINK

NEAL A. MAXWELL
________________________________________
Neal A. Maxwell was a President of the First Quorum of the Seventy
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional
address was given at Brigham Young University on 10 October 1978.
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Complete volumes of Speeches are available wherever LDS books are sold.
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Thank you very much, President Oaks; and thank you, sisters, for that lovely music. This is always a great experience for any of us to have.
Often, when speaking to student leaders in higher education, I have used the analogy that--in a university--the faculty, staff, and administration are like the natives, and the students are like the tourists. In many ways, a recurring devotional speaker is more like one of the natives. Even so, I thank President Oaks for once again extending this precious privilege to me. You may conclude today, however, that I am becoming more like a tourist, since I shall try to cover two topics in order to make the most of these fleeting moments.
Discipleship includes good citizenship; and in this connection, if you are careful students of the statements of the modern prophets, you will have noticed that with rare exceptions--especially when the First Presidency has spoken out--the concerns expressed have been over moral issues, not issues between political parties. The declarations are about principles, not people, and causes, not candidates. On occasions, at other levels in the Church, a few have not been so discreet, so wise, or so inspired.
But make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters; in the months and years ahead, events will require of each member that he or she decide whether or not he or she will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions (see 1 Kings 18:21).
President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had "never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional, or political life" (CR, April 1941, p. 123). This is a hard doctrine, but it is a particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ.
We are now entering a period of incredible ironies. Let us cite but one of these ironies which is yet in its subtle stages: we shall see in our time a maximum if indirect effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is actually a new form of paganism that uses the carefully preserved and cultivated freedoms of Western civilization to shrink freedom even as it rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.
M. J. Sobran wrote recently:
The Framers of the Constitution . . . forbade the Congress to make any law "respecting" the establishment of religion, thus leaving the states free to do so (as several of them did); and they explicitly forbade the Congress to abridge "the free exercise" of religion, thus giving actual religious observance a rhetorical emphasis that fully accords with the special concern we know they had for religion. It takes a special ingenuity to wring out of this a governmental indifference to religion, let alone an aggressive secularism. Yet there are those who insist that the First Amendment actually proscribes governmental partiality not only to any single religion, but to religion as such; so that tax exemption for churches is now thought to be unconstitutional. It is startling [she continues] to consider that a clause clearly protecting religion can be construed as requiring that it be denied a status routinely granted to educational and charitable enterprises, which have no overt constitutional protection. Far from equalizing unbelief, secularism has succeeded in virtually establishing it.
[She continues:] What the secularists are increasingly demanding, in their disingenuous way, is that religious people, when they act politically, act only on secularist grounds. They are trying to equate acting on religion with establishing religion. And--I repeat--the consequence of such logic is really to establish secularism. It is in fact, to force the religious to internalize the major premise of secularism: that religion has no proper bearing on public affairs. [Human Life Review, Summer 1978, pp. 51–52, 60–61]
Brothers and sisters, irreligion as the state religion would be the worst of all combinations. Its orthodoxy would be insistent and its inquisitors inevitable. Its paid ministry would be numerous beyond belief. Its Caesars would be insufferably condescending. Its majorities--when faced with clear alternatives--would make the Barabbas choice, as did a mob centuries ago when Pilate confronted them with the need to decide.
Your discipleship may see the time come when religious convictions are heavily discounted. M. J. Sobran also observed, "A religious conviction is now a second-class conviction, expected to step deferentially to the back of the secular bus, and not to get uppity about it" (Human Life Review, Summer 1978, p. 58). This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain of people's opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will soon be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.
In its mildest form, irreligion will merely be condescending toward those who hold to traditional Judeo-Christian values. In its more harsh forms, as is always the case with those whose dogmatism is blinding, the secular church will do what it can to reduce the influence of those who still worry over standards such as those in the Ten Commandments. It is always such an easy step from dogmatism to unfair play--especially so when the dogmatists believe themselves to be dealing with primitive people who do not know what is best for them. It is the secular bureaucrat's burden, you see.
Am I saying that the voting rights of the people of religion are in danger? Of course not! Am I saying, "It's back to the catacombs?" No! But there is occurring a discounting of religiously-based opinions. There may even be a covert and subtle disqualification of some for certain offices in some situations, in an ironic "irreligious test" for office.
However, if people are not permitted to advocate, to assert, and to bring to bear, in every legitimate way, the opinions and views they hold that grow out of their religious convictions, what manner of men and women would they be, anyway? Our founding fathers did not wish to have a state church established nor to have a particular religion favored by government. They wanted religion to be free to make its own way. But neither did they intend to have irreligion made into a favored state church. Notice the terrible irony if this trend were to continue. When the secular church goes after its heretics, where are the sanctuaries? To what landfalls and Plymouth Rocks can future pilgrims go?
If we let come into being a secular church shorn of traditional and divine values, where shall we go for inspiration in the crises of tomorrow? Can we appeal to the rightness of a specific regulation to sustain us in our hours of need? Will we be able to seek shelter under a First Amendment which by then may have been twisted to favor irreligion? Will we be able to rely for counterforce on value education in school systems that are increasingly secularized? And if our governments and schools were to fail us, would we be able to fall back upon the institution of the family, when so many secular movements seek to shred it?
It may well be, as our time comes to "suffer shame for his name" (Acts 5:41), that some of this special stress will grow out of that portion of discipleship which involves citizenship. Remember that, as Nephi and Jacob said, we must learn to endure "the crosses of the world" (2 Nephi 9:18) and yet to despise "the shame of [it]" (Jacob 1:8). To go on clinging to the iron rod in spite of the mockery and scorn that flow at us from the multitudes in that great and spacious building seen by Father Lehi, which is the "pride of the world," is to disregard the shame of the world (1 Nephi 8:26–27, 33; 11:35–36). Parenthetically, why--really why--do the disbelievers who line that spacious building watch so intently what the believers are doing? Surely there must be other things for the scorners to do--unless, deep within their seeming disinterest, there is interest.
If the challenge of the secular church becomes very real, let us, as in all other human relationships, be principled but pleasant. Let us be perceptive without being pompous. Let us have integrity and not write checks with our tongues which our conduct cannot cash.
Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even these, however, must leave a record so that the choices before the people are clear and let others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, that others will step forward, having been rallied to righteousness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds--a majority which was, till then, unconscious of itself.
Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves "summer is nigh" (Matthew 24:32). Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat.
Have I come today only to add one more to the already long list of special challenges faced by you and me? Not really. I have also come to say to you that God, who foresaw all challenges, has given to us a precious doctrine which can encourage us in meeting this and all other challenges.
The combined doctrine of God's foreknowledge and of foreordination is one of the doctrinal roads least traveled by, yet these clearly underline how very long and how perfectly God has loved us and known us with our individual needs and capacities. Isolated from other doctrines or mishandled, though, these truths can stoke the fires of fatalism, impact adversely upon our agency, cause us to focus on status rather than service, and carry us over into predestination. President Joseph Fielding Smith once warned:
It is very evident from a thorough study of the gospel and the plan of salvation that a conclusion that those who accepted the Savior were predestined to be saved no matter what the nature of their lives must be an error. . . . Surely Paul never intended to convey such a thought. [The Improvement Era, May 1963, pp. 350–51]
Paul, you will recall, brothers and sisters, stressed running the life's race the full distance; he did not intend a casual Christianity in which some had won the race even before the race had started.
Yet, though foreordination is a difficult doctrine, it has been given to us by the living God, through living prophets, for a purpose. It can actually increase our understanding of how crucial this mortal estate is and it can encourage us in further good works. This precious doctrine can also help us to go the second mile because we are doubly called.
In some ways, our second estate, in relationship to our first estate, is like agreeing in advance to surgery. Then the anesthetic of forgetfulness settles in upon us. Just as doctors do not de-anesthetize a patient in the midst of authorized surgery to ask him again if the surgery should be continued, so, after divine tutoring, we agreed once to come here and to submit ourselves to certain experiences and have no occasion to revoke that decision.
Of course, when we mortals try to comprehend, rather than merely accept, foreordination, the result is one in which finite minds futilely try to comprehend omniscience. A full understanding is impossible; we simply have to trust in what the Lord has told us, knowing enough, however, to realize that we are not dealing with guarantees from God but extra opportunities--and heavier responsibilities. If those responsibilities are in some ways linked to past performance or to past capabilities, it should not surprise us.
The Lord has said,
There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--
And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. [D&C 130: 20–21]
This is an eternal law, brothers and sisters--it prevailed in the first estate as well as in the second. It should not disconcert us, therefore, that the Lord has indicated that he chose some individuals before they came here to carry out certain assignments and, hence, these individuals have been foreordained to those assignments. "Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the Grand Council of Heaven before the world was. I suppose that I was ordained to this very office in that Grand Council" (Joseph Fielding Smith, comp., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 365).
Foreordination is like any other blessing--it is a conditional bestowal subject to our faithfulness. Prophesies foreshadow events without determining the outcomes, because of a divine foreseeing of outcomes. So foreordination is a conditional bestowal of a role, a responsibility, or a blessing which, likewise, foresees but does not fix the outcome.
There have been those who have failed or who have been treasonous to their trust such as David, Solomon, Judas. God foresaw the fall of David, but was not the cause of it. It was David who saw Bathsheba from the balcony and sent for her. But neither was God surprised by such a sad development. God foresaw, but did not cause, Martin Harris's loss of certain pages of the translated Book of Mormon; God made plans to cope with that failure over fifteen hundred years before it was to occur (see D&C 10 and Words of Mormon).
Thus foreordination is clearly no excuse for fatalism or arrogance or the abuse of agency. It is not, however, a doctrine that can simply be ignored because it is difficult. Indeed, deep inside the hardest doctrines are some of the pearls of greatest price. The doctrine pertains not only to the foreordination of the prophets, but to each of us. God--in his precise assessment, beforehand, as to those who will respond to the words of the Savior and the prophets--is a part of the plan. From the Savior's own lips came these words: "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine" (John 10:14). Similarly the Savior said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27). And further in this dispensation, he declared, "And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts" (D&C 29:7).
This responsiveness could not have been gauged without divine foreknowledge concerning all of us mortals and our response, one way or another, to the gospel. God's foreknowledge is so perfect it leaves the realm of prediction and enters the realm of prophecy.
The foreseeing of those who would accept the gospel in mortality, gladly and with alacrity, is based upon their parallel responsiveness in the premortal world. No wonder the Lord could say as he did to Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; . . . and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations" (Jeremiah 1:5). Paul, when writing to the saints in Rome, said, "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Romans 11:2). Paul also said of God that "he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4).
The Lord, who was able to say to his disciples, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship," knew beforehand there was a multitude of fishes there (John 21:6). If he knew beforehand the movements and whereabout of fishes in the little Sea of Tiberias, should it offend us that he knows beforehand which mortals will come into the gospel net?
It does no violence even to our frail human logic to observe that there cannot be a grand plan of salvation for all mankind, unless there is also a plan for each individual. The salvational sum will reflect all its parts. Once the believer acknowledges that the past, present, and future are before God simultaneously--even though we do not understand how--then the doctrine of foreordination may be seen somewhat more clearly. For instance, it was necessary for God to know how the economic difficulties and crop failures of the Joseph Smith, Senior, family in New England would move this special family to Cumorah country where the Book of Mormon plates were buried. God's plans could scarcely have so unfolded if--willy-nilly--the Smiths had been born Manchurians and if, meanwhile, the plates had been buried in Belgium!
The Lord would need to have perfect comprehension of all the military and political developments, including those now underway in the Middle East--which, when they unfold, will combine to bring to pass a latter-day condition in which "all nations" will be gathered against Jerusalem to battle (Zechariah 14:2–4). It should not surprise us that the Lord who notices the fall of each sparrow and the hair from every head would know centuries before how much money Judas would receive--thirty pieces of silver--at the time he betrayed the Savior (Matthew 26:15; 27:3; Zechariah 11:12).
Quite understandably, the manner in which things unfold seems to us mortals to be so natural. Our not knowing what is to come (in the perfect way that God knows) thus preserves our free agency completely. When, through a process we call inspiration and revelation, we are permitted at times to tap that divine databank, we are accessing, for the narrow purposes at hand, the knowledge of God. No wonder that experience is so unforgettable!
There are clearly special cases of individuals in mortality who have special limitations in life, which conditions we mortals cannot now fully fathom. For all we now know, the seeming limitations may have been an agreed-upon spur to achievement--a "thorn in the flesh." Like him who was blind from birth, some come to bring glory to God (John 9:1–3). We must be exceedingly careful about imputing either wrong causes or wrong rewards to all in such circumstances. They are in the Lord's hands, and he loves them perfectly. Indeed, some of those who have required much waiting upon in this life may be waited upon again by the rest of us in the next world--but for the highest of reasons.
Thus, when we are elected to certain mortal chores, we are elected "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1 Peter 1:2). When Abraham was advised that he "was chosen before he was born," and that he was among the "noble and great ones" (Abraham 3:22–23), we received a marvelous insight. Through the revelation given to us by the prophet Joseph F. Smith we read that "The Prophet Joseph Smith, . . . Hyrum Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and other choice spirits" were also reserved by God "to come forth in the fullness of times to take part in laying the foundations of the great latter-day work" (JFS Vision 53). These individuals are among the rulers whom Abraham had described to him centuries earlier by God. They were to be "rulers in the Church of God" (JFS Vision 55), not necessarily rulers in secular kingdoms. Thus those seen by Abraham were the Pauls, not the Caesars; the Spencer W. Kimballs, not the Churchills. Wise secular leaders do much lasting and commendable good; but as Paul observed to the saints in Corinth, as the world measured greatness and wisdom "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called" (1 Corinthians 1:26).
President Joseph Fielding Smith wrote: "In regard to the holding of the priesthood in preexistence, I will say that there was an organization there just as well as an organization here, and men there held authority. Men chosen to positions of trust in the spirit world held priesthood" (Doctrines of Salvation 3:81). Alma speaks about foreordination with great effectiveness and links it to the foreknowledge of God and, perhaps, even to our previous performance (Alma 13:3–5). The omniscience of God made it possible, therefore, for him to determine the boundaries and times of nations (Acts 17:26; Deuteronomy 32:8).
Elder Orson Hyde said of our life in the premortal world, "We understood things better there than we do in this lower world." Elder Hyde also surmised as to the agreements we made there as follows: "It is not impossible that we signed the articles thereof with our own hands,--which articles may be retained in the archives above, to be presented to us when we rise from the dead, and be judged out of our own mouths, according to that which is written in the books." Just because we have forgotten, said Elder Hyde, "our forgetfulness cannot alter the facts" (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:314–15). Brothers and sisters, the degree of detail involved in the covenants and promises we participated in at that time may be a much more highly customized thing than many of us surmise. Yet, on occasion even with our forgetting, there may be inklings. President Joseph F. Smith wrote:
But in coming here, we forget all, that our agency might be free indeed, to choose good or evil, that we might merit the reward of our own choice and conduct. But by the power of the Spirit, in the redemption of Christ through obedience, we often catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul, which lights up our whole being as with the glory of our former home. [Gospel Doctrines, pp. 13–14; emphasis added]
As indicated earlier, this powerful teaching of foreordination is bound to be a puzzlement in some respects, especially if we do not have faith and trust in the Lord. Yet if we think about it, even within our finite framework of experience, it should not startle us. Mortal parents are reasonably good at predicting the behavior of their children in certain circumstances. Of this Elder James E. Talmage wrote:
Our Heavenly Father has a full knowledge of the nature and disposition of each of His children, a knowledge gained by long observation and experience in the past eternity of our primeval childhood; a knowledge compared with which that gained by earthly parents through mortal experience with their children is infinitesimally small. By reason of that surpassing knowledge, God reads the future of child and children, of men individually and of men collectively as communities and nations; He knows what each will do under given conditions, and sees the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason. He foresees the future as a state which naturally and surely will be; not as one which must be because He has arbitrarily willed that it shall be.--From the author's Great Apostasy, pp. 19, 20. [Jesus the Christ, p. 29]
Another helpful analogy for students is the reality that universities, including this one, can and do predict with a high degree of accuracy the grades entering students will receive in their college careers based upon certain tests, past performances, and so forth. If mortals can do this with reasonable accuracy (and even with a short span of familiarity and finite data), God, the Father, who knows us perfectly, surely can foresee how we will respond to various challenges. While we often do not rise to our opportunities, God is neither pleased nor surprised. But we cannot say to him later on that we could have achieved if we had just been given the chance! This is all part of the justice of God.
One of the most helpful--indeed very necessary--parallel truths to be pondered when studying this powerful doctrine of foreordination is given in the revelation of the Lord to Moses in which the Lord says, "And all things are present with me, for I know them all" (Moses1:6). God does not live in the dimension of time as do we. Moreover, since "all things are present with" God, his is not simply a predicting based solely upon the past. In ways which are not clear to us, he actually sees, rather than foresees, the future--because all things are, at once, present before him.
In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord described himself as "The same which knoweth all things, for all things are present before mine eyes" (D&C 38:2). From the prophet Nephi we receive the same basic insight in which we, likewise, must trust: "But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men" (1 Nephi 9:6). It was by divine design that Mary became the mother of Jesus. Further, Lucy Mack Smith, who played such a crucial role in the rearing of Joseph Smith, did not come to that assignment by chance.
One of the dimensions of worshipping a living God is to know that he is alive and living in the sense of seeing and acting. He is not a retired God whose best years are past, to whom we should pay a retroactive obeisance, worshipping him for what he has already done. He is the living God who is, at once, in all the dimensions of time--the past and present and future--while we labor constrained by the limitations of time itself.
It is imperative, brothers and sisters, that we always keep in mind the caveats noted earlier, so that we do not indulge ourselves or our whims, simply because of the presence of this powerful doctrine of foreordination, for with special opportunities come special responsibilities and much greater risks. But the doctrine of foreordination properly understood and humbly pursued can help us immensely in coping with the vicissitudes of life. Otherwise, time can tug at us and play so many tricks upon us. We should always understand that while God is never surprised, we often are.
Life episodes can take on a new meaning. For instance, Simon, the Cyrenian, wandered into Jerusalem that very day and was pressed into service by Roman soldiers to help carry the cross of Christ (see Mark 15:21). Simon's son, Rufus, joined the Church, and was so well thought of by the apostle Paul that the latter mentioned Rufus in his epistle to the Romans, describing him as "chosen in the Lord" (Romans 16:13). Was it, therefore, a mere accident that Simon "who passed by, coming out of the country" (Mark 15:21), was asked to bear the cross of Jesus?
Properly humbled and instructed concerning the great privileges that are ours, we can cope with what seem to be very dark days and difficult developments, because we will have a true perspective about "things as they really are," and we can see in them a great chance to contribute. Churchill, in trying to rally his countrymen in an address at Harrow School in October of 1941, said to them:
Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days: these are great days--the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race. [Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, p. 923]
Brothers and sisters, so we should regard the dispensation of the fullness of times--even when we face stern challenges and circumstances, "these are great days"! Our hearts need not fail us. We can be equal to our challenges, including the aforementioned challenge of the secular church.
The truth about foreordination also helps us to taste the deep wisdom of Alma, when he said we ought to be content with things that God hath allotted to each of us (Alma 29:3, 4). If, indeed, the things allotted to each of us have been divinely customized according to our ability and capacity, then for us to seek to wrench ourselves free of our schooling circumstances could be to tear ourselves away from carefully matched opportunities. To rant and to rail could be to go against divine wisdom, wisdom in which we may have once concurred before we came here. God knew beforehand each of our coefficients for coping and contributing and has so ordered our lives.
The late President Henry D. Moyle said,
I believe that we, as fellow workers in the priesthood, might well take to heart the admonition of Alma and be content with that which God hath allotted us. We might well be assured that we had something to do with our "allotment" in our preexistent state. This would be an additional reason for us to accept our present condition and make the best of it. It is what we agreed to do. [CR, October 1952, p. 71]
By the way, brothers and sisters, I hasten to add that among the things "allotted" are not included things like a bad temper. The deficiencies of a developmental variety are those we are expected to overcome.
Now, as I prepare to conclude, may I point out what a vastly different view of life the doctrine of foreordination gives to us. Shorn of this perspective, others are puzzled or bitter about life. Without gospel perspective life would be a punishment, not a joy--like trying to play a game of billiards on a table with a rumpled cloth, with a crooked cue and an elliptical billiard ball (from Sir William S. Gilbert's libretto of The Mikado). (Perhaps the moral of that analogy is that we should stay out of pool halls.) In any event, pessimism does not really reckon with life and the universe as these things "really are." The disciple will be puzzled at times, too. But he persists. Later he rejoices over how wonderfully things fit together, realizing only then that, with God, things never were apart.
Jacob said that the Spirit teaches us the truth "of things as they really are, and of things as they really will be" (Jacob 4:13). Centuries later Paul said that the "Spirit searcheth . . . the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10). Of some of these deep things we have spoken today, and of how things really are. Brothers and sisters, in some of those precious and personal moments of deep discovery, there will be a sudden surge of recognition of an immortal insight, a doctrinal déjà vu. We will sometimes experience a flash from the mirror of memory that beckons us forward toward a far horizon.
When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. When we have been weighed and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and we were found equal to our tasks; and, therefore, let us continue, but with a more determined discipleship. When we feel overwhelmed, let us recall the assurance that God will not overprogram us; he will not press upon us more than we can bear (D&C 50:40).
The doctrine of foreordination, therefore, is not a doctrine of repose; it is a doctrine for the second-milers; it can draw out of us the last full measure of devotion. It is a doctrine of perspiration, not aspiration. Moreover, it discourages aspiring, lest we covet, like two early disciples, that which has already been given to another (Matthew 20:20–23). Foreordination is a doctrine for the deep believer and will only bring scorn from the skeptic.
When, as Joseph F. Smith said, we "catch a spark from the awakened memories of the immortal soul," let us be quietly grateful. And when of great truths we can come to say "I know," that powerful spiritual witness may also carry with it the sense of our having known before. With rediscovery, what we are really saying is, "I know--again!" No wonder that, so often, real teaching is mere reminding.
God bless you and keep you, my special friends, to the end that you will each carry out all of the assignments given to you so very long ago. You have been measured and found adequate for the challenges that will face you as citizens of the kingdom of God; of that you should have a deep inner assurance. Be true to that trust, as all of us must, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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MASONS & MORMONS

2009-07-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, more commonly known as Freemasons, are a part of almost every country and its members are found in many religions and organizations. There is a lot of confusion as to just who these “Masons” are and what they do exactly. The mission of Freemasonry, “Is to promote a way of life that binds like minded men in a worldwide brotherhood that transcends all religious, ethnic, cultural, social and educational difference; by teaching the great principles of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth and by the outward expression of these through its fellowship, its compassion and its concern, to find ways in which to serve God, family, neighbors and self.” ( Introduction to Freemasonry, Approaching the Portals 3). This gives us an introductory peek into what a Mason is, and what their goals are. So what is an Ancient Free and Accepted Latter-Day Saint? Can someone be a member of The Church and a member of the fraternity of Freemasons? Both are common questions as members of the Church do their family history or read church history and find the phrase “he was a Freemason” coming up time and time again. In order to answer, we will remove the cloaks of fiction and rumor, which often loom over things that are not fully understood.
The first cloak that we will have to remove is the cloak of the lack of information. Information in its true and pure nature will always fill the cracks of misunderstanding. As many of you readers are members of The Church, and therefore have at least a basic understanding of it, we will start by letting the sun shine in the light of information regarding Masonry.
Masons are not a secret society, and often feel misunderstood. “A secret society is generally one wrapping itself in a cloak of absolute secrecy. Meaning no one knows who the members are, where they meet, what they do or what they stand for”( Introduction to Freemasonry, Approaching the Portals 4). Masons however proudly display their membership in the Fraternity by wearing rings and cuff links. They are also included on the welcome signs to almost every city in which they are found. I am a Freemason, and hope to explain what they stand for. First they are not a religion, they are a fraternity. Much like you would have a college fraternity or sorority. Masonry is the oldest fraternity in the world and has over 3 million members worldwide. Its is said to have begun in 1390 A.D but the exact date is unknown. Many Masons believe that It has been around since the temple of Solomon, and some since the beginning of the world. The most widely accepted and taught beginning, is as the Knights templar were driven out of the Holy Land, they started the Fraternity in order to preserve their knowledge and teachings. This is supported by Masons because there are many members of the Knights Templar that still attend lodge meetings. After the masons began to grow and spread, they attracted many wise and important people in the history of the world. Though Masons are taught not to boast, I will include a couple of these people solely for the use of name recognition: First, President George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Thomas Jefferson (www.masonicinfo.com/famous.htm). Many of those who founded and started this country were high ranking members of the Fraternity, along with Christopher Columbus and Winston Churchill. As masonry spread, it grew very fast here in America. This is in part because many people that came to America sought religious and personal freedom. And since “Sectarian religion and partisan politics are not discussed in Lodge meeting, Masons are all on the level, and are not subject to the classes and distinctions of the outside world (Introduction to Freemasonry, Approaching the Portals 1). Also it is quite easy to join. All you really have to do is ask. To become a Mason one only needs three things: First, he must be a man, there is a separate and equal part for women. Second, to be person deemed honest and true, and having a belief in a supreme being. Third, he must be elected by unanimous ballot. And as masonry grew it attracted one very famous family in the church.
I want to be very careful as I attempt to show the connection between The Church and The Fraternity. I do not want to arouse any feelings of uncertainty or unrest. In order to refrain from this I will use only facts that are widely known and upheld. Most of my sources are right out of the volumes of Church history and Masonic record books. The Church was founded by The Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. in April 6, 1830. But before that his Father and Grandfather were Master Masons and members of the Lodge No. 23, and his brother Hyrum upon becoming of age joined the fraternity and eventually became Grand Master of the state of Illinois (Mormonism and Freemasonry). Joseph Jr. is one of the few male members of the Smith family that refrained in his youth from joining the fraternity. Joseph did not officially join the fraternity until he moved to Nauvoo. Those who travel to Nauvoo now can see the restored Masonic Lodge that the Saints built there. “We have organized a Lodge here of Masons since we obtained a Charter. That was in March. Since then there has been near two hundred made masons. Bro. Joseph and Sidney were the first that were Received into the Lodge. All of the twelve have become members Except Orson P [ratt]. He hangs back. He will wake up soon.” (Heber C Kimball and Family, The Nauvoo Years). “About fifteen hundred Latter-day Saint men entered the Masonic order during the Nauvoo period;”( Why Joseph Smith). There is much speculation as to why so many members of The Church became members of The Fraternity. To avoid adding speculation to speculation, I can only say I don’t know. Some of the widely held ideas are; To gain a sense of brotherhood and fellowship with the community in which they lived. To prepare their minds to be able to memorize and cultivate things of the Gospel, and there are many other speculations. But it to my knowledge the reason if there was one has never been recorded. I will discuss this a little more later on when I will talk about the teaching of both. But the close relationship between The Church and The Fraternity would be tried when the Prophet died.
To understand why The Church was run out of Nauvoo you almost have to have an understanding of The Fraternity’s involvement. When Hyrum Smith was made Worshipful Master of the State if Illinois, Nauvoo was the biggest city in the state at the time, and also had the largest amount of Fraternity Brothers (Joseph Smith Chronology). About fifteen hundred of Nauvoo’s residents were Masons, a lot of the government being pulled from the ranks for the fraternity, and Joseph Smith running for president, the people began to fear for the fact that Joseph Smith could be the president. Therefore some of the residents including some of which were masons sought to put an end to the life of the prophet, hoping to end The Church. When Joseph died he went to the window not to jump as some historians would mistakenly write but to give the sign of distress knowing that there were Masons in the crowd that upon seeing it should save his life. In recounting the events of the marytrdom, Elder John Taylor related that the Prophet Joseph's dying words were, "O Lord my God!" (D&C 135:1; see also Ps. 38:21.). Elder B. H. Roberts has discussed the meaning of this phrase in the following words: "Were Joseph Smith's last words-'O Lord My God'-an interrupted Masonic cry of distress? The question has been somewhat widely debated. Of it the author of this History can form no adequate or positive opinion. In an editorial of the Times and Seasons, published soon after the murder (July 15th, 1844). The following passage occurs; referring to Joseph and Hyrum Smith: 'They were both Masons in good standing. Ye brethren of "the mystic tie," what think ye! Where is our good Master Joseph and Hyrum? Is there a pagan, heathen, or savage nation on the globe that would not be moved on this great occasion, as the trees of the forest are moved by a mighty wind? Joseph's last exclamation was, "O Lord My God!" (O Lord My God).
But just because Joseph and some of the early members of the church were members of the Fraternity does it mean that it is ok now? Most would have me give the names of members of The Church that are members of the Fraternity as well. But that is not my place, I will only say that there are many. But I would like to include some reasons as to why people think that is not ok for a Mormon to be a Mason. The first concern that I always get is, “aren’t we not supposed to be involved with secret combinations.” The answer is a yes do not get involved with a secret combination. Masonry is not a secret combination. It is an open fraternity.

Elder Ballard writes “What is masonry? Why, a fragment of the old truth coming down perhaps from Solomon's temple of ancient days, and but a fragment, as Christianity is but a fragment of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was only to be had and enjoyed by those who hold the holy priesthood. The prophet Elijah revealed these truths; he possessed them anciently and he gave them in their perfectness, and simplicity and purity to the Prophet Joseph Smith” (Conference Report).

“Joseph Smith and many of the leading brethren of that day were Masons. The question implies that there is something secret or sinister in their Masonic affiliation. This was hardly the case. The Saints who built Nauvoo built a Masonic lodge there. It is among the buildings that have been restored in Nauvoo, and visitors are encouraged to visit it.”(Why Joseph Smith).

The Next question is doesn’t masonry have the same things that the temple does. The answer again is no. While masonry does have links to the temple it does not teach anything. It simply gives the ways for men to become better. They do not say that there is anything of Divinity in it. They link it to operative masons. They say in the same way that operative masons build buildings we can also build our lives. But they do not teach anything. They simply give the information and you take what you can from it to better your life. Also did Joseph get the temple ceremonies from the Masons? No he did not. It would be impossible to get the temple that we have now from the Masons, they differ from each other in every aspect.

In the Saint George Temple the following was said by Willford Woodruff. "Before I left St. George, the spirits of the [Founding Fathers] gathered around me,(Almost all of whom were Masons) wanting to know why we did not redeem them. Said they, 'You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us. We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we never apostatized from it, but we remained true to it and were faithful to God.” (Journal of Discourses 19:229.) He was then baptized for nearly one hundred of the founding fathers of this country, most of whom where freemasons. "Those men who laid the foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits, not wicked men. General Washington and all the men that labored for the purpose were inspired of the Lord. . .Everyone of those men that signed the Declaration of Independence, with General Washington, called upon me, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George, two consecutive nights, and demanded at my hands that I should go forth and attend to the ordinances of the House of God for them." (Conference Report)

When the church left Nauvoo it headed out west to Utah. At that time Brigham young and the entire quorum of the 12 were masons. So why not get involved with Masonry again in Utah? The answer is really quite simple, we don’t want a repeat of what happened in Nauvoo. So even though they were members till death they did not charter a Lodge in Utah, or continue to encourage members to be in the Fraternity. They chose to be involved with a different but similar Fraternity called the Boy Scouts. But thought the Boy scouts and Masonry are similar they have no affiliation. The best example of a modern mason that was open with his involvement is John Taylor. John Taylor was a Master mason that was proud of his involvement in the fraternity. Though many members of the church now are masons, they are not all active in masonry. There is simply too many demands on their time.
With the history that the church has had with masonry, has it now chosen to abstain from it? The answer is no, the church says nothing for, or against masonry. When leaders are asked about it the answer is usually, “as long as it does not consume all their time”. So if you want to learn the hearts and minds of some of the greatest people in the world then come take a peak into the world of freemasonry. Next time you see a person with a ring bearing the builders square and compass, don’t be so quick to judge, take the time to talk and get a glimpse into the world of Freemasonry.

Works Citied

Ballard, Elder Melvin J. “Conference Report” 1913

Grand Lodge, Idaho. Introduction to Freemasonry, Approaching the Portals. Idaho:
A.F & A.M of Idaho, 1998.

Grand Lodge, Idaho. The Fellowcraft, Second Degree Proficiency. Idaho: Grand Lodge A.F & A.M of Idaho, 1998.

King, Edward L. “Mormons” 1999-2008

McConkie, Joseph Feilding. “Why Joseph Smith”1996-2008

McGavin, E. Cecil Morminism and Masonry. Kessinger Pub co. 2004

Stanley B. Kimball, “Heber C Kimball and Family, The Nauvoo Years” BYU Studies Vol 15.1974-1975
< http://gospelink.com.adam2.byui.edu/next/doc?doc_id=282249&highlight_p=1>

Ward, Paul. “Mormonism and Freemasonry” 2008
< http://www.masonicmoroni.com/>
Conference Report, April 1898, pp. 89-90.

President Benson

2009-03-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Erza Taft Benson was Secretary of Agriculture for the USA from 1953-1958

Also a member of the Eisenhower Ten.

President of the LDS church from 1985-1994

“We have moved a long way and are now moving further and more rapidly down the soul destroying road of socialism. The evidence is clear, shockingly clear, for all to see.”

President Ezra Taft Benson(Stand up for freedom speech) 1965.

“It is imperative that American citizens become alerted and informed, regarding the threat to our welfare happiness and freedom. No American is worthy of citizenship in this great land who refuses to take an active interest in these important manners. “

President Ezra Taft Benson(Stand up for freedom speech) 1965.

“Stand up for freedom no matter what the cost, it can help to save your soul. “

President Ezra Taft Benson(Stand up for freedom speech) 1965.

The time has come to get our houses in order. There is a portent of stormy weather again to which we had better give heed.

President Gordon B Hinckley Nov 1998

PORTENT-

1. An indication of something important or calamitous about to occur; an omen.

2. Prophetic or threatening significance

4. an indication or omen of something about to happen, esp. something momentous.

3.	threatening or disquieting significance

DC 101 77,80

“I do not believe that the greatest threat to our is from bombs or guided missiles. I do not think that our civilization will die that way. I think it will die when we no longer care.”

(Benson, pg. 6)

“If America is destroyed, it may be by Americans who salute the flag, sing the national anthem, march in patriotic parades, cheer Fourth of July speakers-normally good Americans, but Americans who fail to comprehend what is required to keep our country strong and free, Americans who have been lulled away into a false security.”

(Benson, pg. 6)

“All over the world the light of freedom is being diminished. Across whole continents of the earth freedom is being totally obliterated. Never in recorded history has any movement spread itself so far and so fast as has socialistic-communism in the past few years. In less than half a century this evil system has gained control over one-third of mankind, and it is steadily pursuing its vicious goal of control over the rest of the world.”

(Benson pg. 16)

“The socialistic-communist conspiracy to weaken the United States involves attacks on many fronts. To weaken the American free-enterprise economy…is a high priority target of the communist leaders. Their press and other propaganda media are therefore constantly selling the principles of centralized or federal control… always in the name of public welfare.”

(Benson pg. 19-20)

“We should all be opposed to socialistic-communism, for it is our mortal and spiritual enemy-the greatest evil in the world today. “

(Benson pg. 43)

“For a quarter of a century I have seen, at close range, on both sides of the iron curtain the insidious forward march of creeping socialism and its ruthless companion, godless communism.”

(Benson pg. 88)

“It is frightening to note the extent to which the goals announced by the communist masters have been achieved and with American aid. Again I repeat their bold strategy for socialism-communism: First, we will take Eastern Europe, then, the masses of Asia. Then we will encircle the United States, which will be the last bastion of capitalism. We will not have to attack. It will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands. “

(Benson pg. 95)

Governments

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"The history of liberty is a history of the limitaions of governmental
power not the increase of it." Woodrow Wilson (May 9 1912)

Making

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This blog is being made so that people can stay up with what the church is saying, or has said in reference to current events. As well as what past leaders and prominent figures have said. All things must be kept factual and within context. Your comments are very welcome. Just be sure that if you quote or reference anything, you also provide a reference. That way we can minimize errors and give only the purest freedom facts.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” Edmund Burke quotes (British Statesman and Philosopher, 1729-1797)