Fight, Flee or Take the Blows
In the Last Days we are promised much redemptive turbulence associated with the Tribulation and Wrath. However, knowing what to expect and anticipating the events doesn't necessarily help us know what to do in response. The Book of Mormon is a type of the Last Days and we are promised that Secret Combinations exist now all around us. Scripture warns that men sometimes collude together to murder, rob, and plunder and get off if tried in court (see 3 Nephi 5-7, Mormon 8 and Ether 8). The result of conspiracy in the Book of Mormon was that the entire government collapsed and Jesus Christ warned us in 3 Nephi 20,21 that the same thing would happen to us if we didn't repent. Considering this warning, I think I can understand why the "Constitution will hang by a thread" story we so often hear is considered a myth.
However, knowing that adversity may come doesn't help us know how to respond to these tribulations. In the Book of Mormon the prophets led the people in a variety of responses. In some cased the people were commanded to lift up their swords in defense of their liberties. In 2 other instances a great military general Teancum stealthed over to the enemy side and assassinated the opposing forces leader. In other cases the people prostrated themselves before their enemies and submitted to genocide. In still other cases, the people tried the virtue of the word of God which we are told "had a more powerful effect on the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else that happened unto them." In the case of Moronihah the son of Captain Moroni, after losing all of their land to the Lamanites they fought and regained 1/2 of it back then sent in missionaries, converted the Lamanites who gave back the rest of the Nephite lands voluntarily.
Val Johnson in the July Ensign wrote about the issue of knowing how the Lord would want us to respond when facing persecution or tribulation. Bro Johnson cited the instruction in the Doctrine and Covenants 98. Bro Johnson wrote, "1833 the Church was facing intense persecution, especially in Missouri. In defense of their lives, Church members took up arms. At that point, the Lord revealed section 98. In it, He taught them to forbear—within limits. They had a right to defend themselves, but if they refrained, He would reward them. If the offenders sought forgiveness, the Saints were to forgive “seventy times seven” (verse 40). As for going to battle, they were to first sue for peace and engage only if the Lord commanded it."
In the coming times of trouble, I expect the people of the LDS church to face great persecutions and tribulations. Joseph Smith warned us that the LDS people would not necessarily be temporally immune from everything that would happen. Therefore, if the time were ever to come when the LDS people face great adversity, I expect to meet adversity with patience and longsuffering, looking to the Leadership of the LDS Church to know when and how to respond otherwise.
Interestingly, reactively fighting back is usually the worst thing to do. Mormon who was a great military strategist has told us that Lachoneus did not reflexively attack the dug-in Gadiaton Robbers. Instead, Lachoneus gathered all his people in the center of the land, consolidated resources and made the enemy come to them. In this way they met their enemies on their terms.
15 comments:
David,
You are vastly overplaying this. There is no world-wide conspiracy that runs the things "behind the scenes".
Much of this in Mormonism comes from the old Ezra T. Benson talks. What people forget is he was strongly opposed by other general authorities when he made these statements.
For instance, in 1961, Benson claimed the Communists were leaders of the worldwide conspiracy and had deeply infiltrated the U.S. Government.
Here is the rebuttal of President Hugh B. Brown, 1st Counselor in the First Presidency:
"We [the First Presidency] do not think dividing our people, casting reflections on our government officials, or calling everybody a Communist who do[es] not agree with the political views of certain individuals is the proper way to fight Communism."
Benson did these speeches for years. Finally, he was send to Europe to stop him from making such political speeches.
President Joseph Fielding Smith, at that time the president of the Quorum of the Twelve, wrote to Congressman Ralph R. Harding of Idaho the following:
"I think it is time that Brother Benson forgot all about politics and settled down to his duties as a member of the Council of the Twelve. He is going to take a mission to Europe in the near future and by the time he returns I hope he will get all of the political notions out of his system. I am glad to report that it will be some time before we hear anything from Brother Benson, who is now on his way to Great Britain where I suppose he will be, at least for the next two years. When he returns I hope his blood will be purified."
The bottom line is that this conspiracy crap is a selective reading of church direction, not backed by any real facts in the real world. It is pretty silly -- and destructive.
Now, of note, I think the Obama Administration is on the wrong track. Government is too big. Spending is out of control. Their foreign policy competency is virtually nil.
But, it is not a conspiracy. They are pretty public liberals. And, they will pay the price under our American system in November.
The title to this post made me think of Dogs in the Vineyard, an interesting game.
So, there was no cap-and-trade/man-made climate change conspiracy when emails were released just prior to the Climate Summit in Denmark referring to "Michael Mann's nature trick to hide the decline"?
And there was no banking conspiracy with Goldman Sachs, Paulson and Co, and Moodys got together and convinced banks and cities to invest in toxic MBS/CDO derivatives while at the same time shorting them? Again, internal emails prove they knew the market was going to crash.
Look, this post is not about being an alarmist or about being devisive. Pres. Benson was correct in his warning and could only tell us to "read the Book of Mormon" thereafter. Well, if you will read 3 Nephi 5-7, Mormon 8, and Ether 8 then it is pretty clear a major theme of the Book of Mormon warns of a significant secret combination that has overrun our government. A major message by Mormon and Moroni is that they have seen our day and they are writing about their complete destruction so that we can be more wise then they had been.
Interestingly, fighting is the worst thing to do. Mormon who was a great military strategist has told us what to do in telling us about what Lachoneas did by not reflexively attacking the dug-in Gadiaton Robbers, but instead gathering in the center of the land, consolidating power, digging in and making the enemy come to them.
David,
Let's take your too conspiracies in order:
Climate change -- The implication of your statement is that all is made up in this area and the whole push is for nefarious purposes by a secret cabal. The science shows that world temperatures have risen during the 20th century and seemed to edge off again late in the century. The current data is kind of mushy. Some scientists think we are on the verge of an ever-increasing upswing in temperatures that will leave our world parched and/or swallowed by rising seas. Other scientists think that the rise is more driven by natural fluctuations, thus the rise or fall is only moderately impacted by humans. Some policy makers want to reduce carbon. Others think it is silly. The British scientists were a group of boobs. But it is hard to argue that they were getting orders from anyone (The British investigation of them was a hoot). A topic with substantial disagreement does not a conspiracy make.
Goldman Sachs, Secretary Poulson, Moodys -- You are seriously overreaching here. Mortgage securities have a long history, going back to after WWII. They've been pretty solid investments. What was new was the combination of subprime loans, derivatives and insurance products to offset risk, and a nationwide fall in home prices (which hadn't happen since the 1930s). A lot of very smart folks misread that one --- including the folks you mentioned. But, it is not reasonable to say that they were trying to do this deliberately. Each party you mentioned was hammered massively by the collapse (Goldmans has done better in the aftermath but lost tens of billions in the crash). Bad or mistaken judgment does not a conspiracy make.
Scripture in D&C 89 warns of conspiracy, Paul in the New Testament warns of spiritual wickedness in high places, the Book of Mormon warns of secret combinations that will seek to overthrow the freedom of all nations. Pres. Benson warned that all was not well in America. Elder Bednar in LDS conference warned of conspiracy and instructed to watch vigilantly and listen for the sound of trumpets. Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex. JFK warned of secret societies that used subversion and infiltration to spread across the globe. We have CEOs, defense contractors, bankers, presidents, cabinet members, and college presidents secretly meeting at places like Bohemian Grove and Bildeberg. And we have David Rockafeller saying in his autobiography that he and his family are part of a cabal that puts the New World Order before the interests of the United States and he is proud of it. And there is the fact that I have met people who are insiders or family of insiders.
So, I'm not sure how you think your "let's be reasonable" argument is supposed to hold up to facts, confession and scripture.
According to the BBC documentary "the Great Global Warming Swindle" the many climatologists in the documentary explain that there are 3 modern temperature data sets: ground measurement, weather balloon, and satellite. Ground measurements are up because of the urban heat island affect. But weather balloon data and satellite data have never shown significant warming. In fact Litzen at MIT has the best and newest satellite data that contradicts every climate model used by the global warming crowd. Also, there is the important detail that looking at the Ice Core data CO2 lags 800 years behind temperature which means higher temps due to natural Milancovitch cycles causes oceans to warm and CO2 to diffuse out or cool and diffuse back in.
As far as Derivatives go, I have read and written extensively on this issue on my other blog. The Protocols of Zion say the globalists will cause depressions by contraction of the money supply, Bernanke told Milton Freidman at his 90th birthday the FED caused the Great depression by contracting tbd money supply and promised never to make that sane mistake again. Then the FED stopped releasing M3 data in 2006, and implemented Basil 2 Accords in 2007 which contracted the money supply by lowering the money multiplier and hurt the US in the sane exact way Basil 1 hurt Japan.
Scripture in D&C 89 warns of conspiracy, Paul in the New Testament warns of spiritual wickedness in high places, the Book of Mormon warns of secret combinations that will seek to overthrow the freedom of all nations. Pres. Benson warned that all was not well in America. Elder Bednar in LDS conference warned of conspiracy and instructed to watch vigilantly and listen for the sound of trumpets. Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex. JFK warned of secret societies that used subversion and infiltration to spread across the globe. We have CEOs, defense contractors, bankers, presidents, cabinet members, and college presidents secretly meeting at places like Bohemian Grove and Bildeberg. And we have David Rockafeller saying in his autobiography that he and his family are part of a cabal that puts the New World Order before the interests of the United States and he is proud of it. And there is the fact that I have met people who are insiders or family of insiders.
So, I'm not sure how you think your "let's be reasonable" argument is supposed to hold up to facts, confession and scripture.
According to the BBC documentary "the Great Global Warming Swindle" the many climatologists in the documentary explain that there are 3 modern temperature data sets: ground measurement, weather balloon, and satellite. Ground measurements are up because of the urban heat island affect. But weather balloon data and satellite data have never shown significant warming. In fact Litzen at MIT has the best and newest satellite data that contradicts every climate model used by the global warming crowd. Also, there is the important detail that looking at the Ice Core data CO2 lags 800 years behind temperature which means higher temps due to natural Milancovitch cycles causes oceans to warm and CO2 to diffuse out or cool and diffuse back in.
As far as Derivatives go, I have read and written extensively on this issue on my other blog. The Protocols of Zion say the globalists will cause depressions by contraction of the money supply, Bernanke told Milton Freidman at his 90th birthday the FED caused the Great depression by contracting tbd money supply and promised never to make that sane mistake again. Then the FED stopped releasing M3 data in 2006, and implemented Basil 2 Accords in 2007 which contracted the money supply by lowering the money multiplier and hurt the US in the sane exact way Basil 1 hurt Japan.
List of conspiracies:
Central Banks operate on a volitial fractional reserve system using baseless fiat currencies while collecting oppressive usury on money the created out of thin air. The HUD/FHA amortized mortgage is a major driver of inflation in our economy making it so banks must hold fractional reserves in stocks and bonds. So when the stock market crashes, banks lose reserves, can't lend and fail unless they are FED members and are too big to fail and get bailed out.
All fiat currencies are held up by the US dollar which is the world reserve currency (pending SDR), only because of the petrol-dollar system and the agreement of Saudi Arabia to only sell oil in US Dollars (thank you Lawrence) . When Sadam Hussain sold China, Russia, and France oil in Euros we had to stop that or go bankrupt. Now Iran is trading in Euros to China who no longer needs a strong US dollar to buy oil therefore they no longer buying our tbills/debt. So the banks and FED are buying tbills with stimulus money.
David,
You want to see conspiracies so you do.
Apparently it doesn't matter what the evidence is.
JFK talked about communism as an open conspiracy to conquer the world -- he fought it openly and it later collapsed.
The scientists in Britian were silly and unprofessional. But, bad behavior on the part of a few folks does not a worldwide conspiracy make.
You claim David Rockfeller admitted he was part of a conspiracy. What a joke. He was making fun of people like you.
You talk about Milton Friedman and Bernake stating that the Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression. That is a thesis had in the 1970s. I think he was right. But, he never claimed they deliberately caused it. He said they were dumb and stumbled into it. His point is that they should have done what Bernake has been doing.
David, you see dark shadows everywhere. These kind of thinking is just crazy. The world is far too disorganized for any true conspiracy to succeed.
As to the scriptural references, I think you are seriously misreading what has been said. Elder Bednar's comments were addressed to forces in society that support moral deterioration. He never claimed that anyone controls the world secretly.
And, you completely ignored Hugh B. Brown and Joseph Fielding Smith's direct refutation of Ezra T. Benson's claim of conspiracy. I could have added similar quotes by such wackos as Harold B. Lee, N. Eldon Tanner and others.
Conspiracies are a lazy way to explain a complex world full of people who make stupid mistakes. They don't explain a darn thing. The claims discourage folks from being involved in the political process. And, they lead to paranoid behavior.
P.S. A note to anyone who is reading this who is non-LDS. This kind of conspiracy theory is not reflective of modern LDS thought. Quite the contrary. Recent LDS leaders have been infused with optimism and hope for the future (see President Hinckley and President Monson). What you are seeing above is the view of a small minority in the LDS community.
I agree with much of what you are saying so I changed some of the pointed language as it doesn't really add to the point of my post anyways.
That said, Bernake is quoted in Wikipedia and other places as saying "Milton you were right, we did it, and we are sorry, and thanks to you we will never do it again."
Now knowing this, please tell me why Bernanke would stop releasing M3 data in 2006, oversee the implementation of the Basil 2 Accords which contracted the money supply in 2007, and tanked our economy after knowing what Basil 1 did to Japan a decade ago?
He is either 1. a liar 2. incompetent. can there be a number 3?
When he speaks before House sub-committees everything he says is in econo-babel but to sum it up he is continually saying he needs overarching control of all markets so that he can jump in and manipulate everything and anything at any time.
The answer to problems caused by big banks and big government and big military, and big pharma and big business is not a bigger FED. The answer is not the consolidation of power but to pull it down and break it up.
Whether the Federal Reserve is competent is a separate issue.
But, Bernake's comments that the Fed made mistakes in the 1930s (before he was born) is evidence that he pays attention to history. I don't get the point. He is a monetarist who follows the Friedman principles.
As to M3, it is a highly technical measurement of total financial resources. The Federal Reserve decided it wasn't worth generating (the key measures are M-1 and M-2). BUT, all of the M-3 components are still reported.
Whether that is good or bad is a judgement call, not a conspiracy.
As to the Basel accords, all that is is a set of agreements on how central banks should categorize banking reserves and optional guidelines on what those should be. By the way, the U.S. has essentially ignored them in terms of setting required reserves.
Bottom line, every time some one makes a decision that turns out dumb is not evidence of a conspiracy.
Well I give people the benifit of the doubt and try to assume people are smart and not dumb.
M3 accounts for the contribution of derivatives to the money supply. Interesting how immediately after M3 was discontinued, that it inflated greatly more than at any other time. (usually it just followed m2). But interesting also is how at the same time m3 was inflated m1 was contracted. Then exactly when Basel 2 was implemented there was a crash of m3 and a spike in m1 representing the cash bailout.
Now China has downgraded our TBills because they no longer need a strong dollar to import oil. China is buying oil from Iran in Yuan. That means us goes bankrupt if no one buys our debt.
A couple relevant quotes by President Hugh B. Brown:
"First, I’d like you to be reassured that the leaders of both major political parties in this land are men of integrity, and unquestioned patriotism. Beware of those who feel obliged to prove their own patriotism by calling into question the loyalty of others. Be skeptical of those who attempt to demonstrate their love of country by demeaning its institutions. Know that men of both major political parties who guide the nation’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches are men of unquestioned loyalty and we should stand by and support them, and this refers not only to one party but to all."
--- President Hugh B. Brown, Commencement address, Brigham Young University, May 31, 1968
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: An excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all. . . . Blind belief in one's cause and a low view of the morality of other Americans -- these seem mild failings. But they are the soil in which ranker weeds take root . . . terrorism, and the deep, destructive cleavages that paralyze a society."
(quoting John Gardner, quoting President Lyndon B. Johnson's Secretary of Health & Welfare)
--- President Hugh B. Brown, BYU Speech, May 13, 1969
I appreciate this post. Thank you. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this exact thing for the last several years. I've studied the life of Christ to analize how he makes his decisions and how he reacts, so that I can do the same.
But he doesnt make it easy because he never seems to react the same way twice. How then to know if we should "fight, flee or take the blows" has plagued me to figure out.
It is by the spirit that we must learn to be guided. That spirit will take all the incalculable possibilites and give us the answer for what is correct in that particular situation. The answer for one way or the complete opposite way may be confusing, but he Holy Ghost can guide us.
Our focus then must be to understand the language of the spirit, so that we can be guided by it and not mistake the whisperings of the spirit with our own thoughts/feelings, or the wisperings of other sources.
Anyway, thanks for the post.
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