Unofficial and unauthoritative opinion on doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints concerning the Nature of God, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the Plan of Salvation, the Apostasy and Restoration, and Priesthood Authority.
Recently, I was pondering about the lesson of Adam and Eve and I realized a few the important lessons for our day in the story. Scripture teaches us that "the glory of God is intelligence or in other words light and truth." We know from scripture that Omnipotence is one of the supreme characteristics of God and we are also taught in scripture that perfect knowledge is both a promise and requirement of Eternal Life. Joseph Smith taught that "man cannot be saved in ignorance" and that "A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge". Jesus Christ promised that "the truth would make us free." Therefore, the quest for true knowledge must be a major focus of any true disciple of Jesus Christ.
When Adam and Eve are tempted to Eat the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve did not yet know good from evil. Knowing this, the serpent mocks their ignorance and then promises them greater knowledge if they would follow him and partake of the forbidden fruit. I am sure Adam and Eve felt very insecure and self-conscious about their ignorance. But instead of seeking knowledge as Nephi did by inquiring of the Lord, Adam and Eve made the mistake of going to the wrong source for greater knowledge. In the Book of Mormon, after Lehi told his family about the Vision of the Tree of Life, Laman and Lemuel sought to understand the vision by contending and debating the issues. In contrast, Nephi who was also shown the same vision, simply asked his brethren "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"
After Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, Satan encouraged them to attempt to hide what they have done from God. I would define a secret combination as the vain attempt to commit sin in secret. Therefore, in a way, this first transgression could also be seen as the first secret combination. In fact, God tells us in the Book of Mormon that God has forbidden us from entering into secret combinations from the beginning of man. Isaiah prophecies that in the Last Days there would be many secret combinations. Isaiah says that men involved in secret sin would ask, "Who seeth us and who knoweth us?" Instead of trying to hide our sins from God, God commands us that we bring them to light and confess them and forsake them.
Ether 8:19 For the Lord worketh not in secretcombinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, fromthebeginning of man.
Now, there is much more we can learn from the first sin. Another lesson focuses on Eve. Like Eve, most of us don't go around seeking to sin and hide it from God who we know knows and sees all things. However, the serpent is very crafty in fooling or beguiling Eve. Satan explains to Eve that God knows all things and to be like God, she too needs to know sin in order to be like God. While the dilemma is a real one, the solution was a suttle trap to get Adam Eve to partake of the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and then go ahead and partake of the tree of life and "live forever in their sins." Eve wasn't "awake" to the possibility that Satan could have ulterior and evil intentions. To her, I'm sure she was very trusting and naive and while her decision to partake of the fruit was based on good intentions, Eve failed to recognize and understand that Satan was evil and had only evil intentions.
Today, we need to be "awake" to the reality of evil and conspiring men in the Last Days. One of Satan's biggest tools is to identify real social problems and instead of providing real solutions, many secret societies solutions end up making things much worse. I suppose this continual attempt to address real or created social problems could be likened to Satan telling Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. Today, many secret organizations who may not have the best intentions often seek to shroud their sins behind the facade of philanthropy.
Again, In addition to being "awake" to the reality of conspiring men in the Last Days, I think another of many important lessons of the forbidden fruit is that we must take care who we follow. Not everyone claiming to offer truth is deserving of our allegiance. One way to differentiate good vs. evil is to determine, despite the many good things a group claims to do for society, whether they use those activities to justify and cover up other sins.
The Bible tells an interesting story of the people after the Flood in Babylon. After God had reestablished his covenant with Noah, it didn't take the people long to back-slide into apostasy and sin. Most people think that the story of the Tower of Babel is all about the people building the tower to get to heaven. The tower itself was not really the problem.
The real problem with the situation surrounding the tower of Babel is that God said that people were one, and had one language and their religion, politics, and economy was dominated by evil. Therefore, the answer to this problem was for God to confound the languages and divide up the people to prevent Satan and his evil government from having total control of the people.
From the Book of Mormon we learn that if Christ could be our King, it would be good to have a King, but since we cannot guarantee that a righteous man could always be our king, the Bible and the Book of Mormon warn us that all political, and economic power needs to be divided and delegated locally and at the individual level. This is the great principal upon which the Constitution of the United States is based. The Constitution only permits the Federal Government those rights expressly enumerated. All other rights remain with the States and with the individuals and can be taken back at any time.
Therefore, when it come to solving our political and social problems, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer. And the Gospel of Christ in the Bible reminds us that that in our current fallen state, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Therefore the answer to corrupt Big Business and Big Banks is not Bigger Government. The answer to the corruption is to do what God did to the people at the Tower of Babel and do what the US Constitution provides which is to break the consolidation of power up.
Gen 1:1, 6-8 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. . . And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
The Bible presents an interesting pattern of prophets and apostasy. First we see God establishing His covenant with Adam who is the first man and the first prophet. Things go good for a while but before too long the people of the Earth fall away from the truth and turn to evil. The flood wipes out humanity and only Noah and his family are spared. God then re-established his covenant with Noah who becomes a new dispensation leader and prophet. Things go good again for a while but before long, the people again backslide at the time of the Tower of Babel. Then we read about Abraham who is born in Ur and recognizes that he is born into an apostate and idolatrous culture. God calls Abraham as a prophet and a dispensation leader. Again, things go well for a while for Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim until the House of Israel falls away yet again and falls into slavery. Then God called Moses who led Israel out of Egypt. The House of Israel is faithful for a while until they eventually fall away from the truth and are conquered by Assyria, then Babylon, and then finally Rome. Then God sends His Son Jesus Christ. The Jews had turned from the truth to such an extent most didn't recognize their own God that they were to be worshiping for the past 1000 years.
Jesus Christ established his church with 12 Apostles, Seventies, Bishops, Elders, and Deacons. But just as the Bible pattern describes, Paul told us in 2 Thessalonians, that Christ would not come again until there would be yet another falling away and apostasy. And Peter in Acts 2 tells us that the heavens would receive until the time of refreshing and "restitution of all things which has been spoken of by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began."
Just as all the holy prophets have prophesied and as the Bible has foretold and foreshadowed, the physical Church of Jesus Christ fell into apostasy and the priesthood authority and keys were lost from the Earth for a time leading into the Dark Ages. Then just as all the prophets have prophesied, the Lord God again, for the last time, in this the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times has called a prophet, restored his church, restored the keys of His Holy Priesthood, restored the temple, restored the exact doctrines of His gospel and re-established his covenant with man.
The prophet of this last and final dispensation before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and His Millennial Reign on the Earth is Joseph Smith. God called Joseph Smith in the same way that all prophets have been called. Joseph Smith didn't attend any divinity school, he didn't earn any degree in New Testament and Early Christian Studies. Joseph Smith wasn't a Pharisee or Sadducee. But God revealed himself to Joseph Smith and authorized him to bring to light additional scripture including the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, and empowered Joseph Smith to restore the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which is organized just as Christ's original Church with 12 Apostles, Seventies, Bishops (Eklectikos), Elders (Presbyters), and Deacons (Diaconos).
Dispensations and Apostasy Adam ----------------> Flood Noah ----------------> Drought, Tower of Babel Abraham -------------> Slavery in Egypt Moses ---------------> Military Conquest (Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome) Jesus Christ --------> Dark Ages, Plague Joseph Smith --------> Tribulation, Dispensation of the Fullness of Times
I work as an Emergency Physician in the South and witness on a daily basis the consequences of poverty, ignorance, and complacency. I used to be your average LDS Reagan Sean Hannity Conservative. I was a conservative like most LDS because I am Pro-Life and I believe in Limited Government and reject Socialism and "Big Government". I believed in the Left-Wing Conspiracy to make the US a more socialist country. But not until recently did I come to understand and believe that the Left was also correct in warning us against the Right Wing Conspiracy by the so-called Neo-Cons or what is called "Big Business." Only recently did I come to understand that both this Left Wing Conspiracy and Right Wing Conspiracy is the same conspiracy. Our government leaders and both major political parties are controlled by special interests which are instituting policies that consolidate economic power into the hands of large cooperations and bankers on one side and other social policies which usurp individual liberties on the other side.
The current economic situation and fraud charges brought by the SEC against Goldman Sachs has really served to open my eyes. I have been arguing for some time that it was not only the subprime loans that caused the most recent economic and banking meltdown but the selling of these toxic assets/mortgaged backed securities/collateralized debt obligations. But this is not all. It the selling of these volatile derivative toxic assets which were deceitfully given AAA rating by the rating agencies, but also the inherent instability of fractional-reserve banking.
Because of fractional-reserve banking (which you have never heard of), when a FED member bank borrows a dollar from the FED (our tax money), they can lend 10$ or even 50$. That means the Bank and not the US Treasury nor even the FED is creating money out of thin air. This is known as the money multiplier = M3/M0. But while the consequences of fractional-reserve banking mean huge profits for the big banks, it means great instability for the smaller banks. Banks have to hold on to their small fractional reserves to lend. But Banks don't hold onto cash, but stocks and bonds. If the stock market crashes, then the banks lose their fractional reserves, cannot lend, and fail. They fail unless they are bailed out by the FED and if they are a FED member. Throughout US History, our economy has gone through one orchestrated economic depression after another which necessitates the Federal Government in picking winners and losers (those that get bailed out and those who don't).
Goldman Sach's and Paulson and Co's fraudulent selling of these risky CDO's while at the same time betting against them, is only part of the story. Do not forget who are the big winners here. The Big Banks got not just 700 billion in bailout money, but they got nearly 10 trillion in all. And due to fractional reserves, these banks turned that 10 trillion into 100 trillion. That is why cooperations like GMAC and Goldman which are not and never were traditional banks before filed for banking status. And with this free bailout money the banks turned around and bought US T-Bills which earn 3% interest. When the banks are asked what they did with the bailout money, they evade the question, but the FED recently bought 300 billion in long-term T-Bills which it never does saying it was do drop the rate of T-Bills so that Banks would quite buying T-Bills and lend money like they normally should. But these bailed out banks and cooperations received their 3% interest payment and then could easily pay the FED back for the initial free bailout with our own money we gave them as interest on the original money we gave them. Instead of Banks paying us prime to use our money we have paid them to take our money.
This whole thing was orchestrated. I believe that the Banks purposefully had John Paulson go to Goldman Sachs to create the CDO's for them to buy. We know from internal emails that Paulson and Goldman knew these CDO's were designed to fail and that knowing this Paulson and Goldman shorted or bet against these derivatives. However, Paulson isn't that smart of a guy, and I don't think he was smart enough to think of this scheme on his own. He was a nobody before, and I am not buying another lone gunman scenerio. I think Paulson was just selfish enough to take a bribe promising millions at the expense of the rest of us. I believe the Banks knew these derivatives would fail, that they would get hurt, and that they would get bailed out by the FED while the little banks would fail. The evidence for this is the fact that the FED stopped releasing M3 data in 2006 which tracts the money supply due to derivatives claiming the value held no significant additional information. Failing to release M3 data hid the degree of leverage in the system, it hid the money multiplier, it hid the artificial bubble being created. Thereupon, M3 ballooned to record levels and then was sharply contracted in 2008 triggering the failure.
Also, just ask yourself why the SEC is always so late in cleaning up these economic scandals. Why did the SEC do nothing pre-emptive with ENRON, WorldCom, Bernie Madoff, and now Goldman Sachs. A whistle blower outed thousands of ultra-elite tax evaders with offshore Swiss Bank Accounts. The result is that the US doesn't request a full list of US citizens with Swiss Bank accounts but only a select list, grants amnesty to the names that are given, and then sends the whistleblower to jail for withholding one of his clients. So, noone goes to jail but the whistleblower.
Now to top it all off, I was encouraged when Barak Obama was saying that he was going to institute financial reform to regulate the bankers who earned obscene profits and paid their executives obscene bonuses. However, when you read the financial reform bill, what the bill calls for is for a tax to be levied upon all banking institutions and upon all transactions based on some determination of risk. The international monetary fund and other countries have just released similar proposals. Then all that money will go to the FED or the IMF so that these institutions can decide who deserves to be bailed out the next time. And this is all under the guise that they are doing this so that the tax payer will not be liable to bail out banks in the future because there will be this pool of money.
But, duh people, wake up!!! Whether they tax all transactions as we go along or we get stuck with a big bill at the end, either way its our money. But this way, we give the FED and possibly an international banking organization like the IMF supreme power to arbitrarily determine who will get taxed and how much they will get taxed. To sum up, this bill is nothing short of a total usurpation of individual liberty by the Federal Government and possibly international government.
This kind of thing matches the MO of the conspiracy for a long time. These people prey upon real social and economic problems, some of them they create. But instead of fixing them, they institute policies which only serve to consolidate power into their hands. Examples of this was instituting the FED, instituting the Income Tax, Patriot Act, our current Health Care reform which allows the government to assign an arbitrary quality factor to every doctor and hospital which will determine reimbursement. Carbon Cap and Trade works the same way allowing the Federal Government total control over which business activities would be taxed and how much. Please do not tell me that our Federal Government would never dishonestly exercise such far-reaching power as total control over determining quality factors, determining carbon tax and trade, and determining banking transaction risk. If I learned anything from George Orwell's "Animal Farm," it is that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Wake up people! When there is a social problem, scandal, or threat, the answer is not bigger government. We need to resist the temptation to trade our individual liberties for security. When there is a scandal or threat, the problem usually the fault of too much consolidation of power as opposed to not enough consolidation. the whole point of Constitutional government is that rights and liberties reside with the people and that the Federal Government can only exercise those powers enumerated in the Constitution.
So what to do: 1. End the FED 2. Shift to Full-Reserve Banking 3. Earn fee on full money supply and not just a fraction of it 4. End income tax 5. Institute Protectionist trade policies by using the power of the tariff to protect and rebuild domestic industry and production (Lincoln and McKinley Republicans were historically Protectionist and never Free Trade until FDR lied about the cause of the Great Depression which was really the FED contracting the money supply). 6. Offer no-interest, fee-only home and business loans administered by non-profit local and state banks 7. Allow local and state banks to purchase money from US Treasury 8. Return money to gold standard 9. Reverse 17th Amendment restoring state control of election of senators 10. Return all government lands to States 11. End Derivatives and speculative markets 12. Campaign finance reform 13. Use anti-trust laws to break down global businesses too big to fail 14. Never bailout business but use bankruptcy to allow business to divide and reorganize 15. Shift burden of charity programs from Federal Government to local and state agencies and governments. 16. End or phaseout all non-enumerated activities of the Federal Government 17. Develop domestic natural resources and end dependence on foreign oil. Drill in ANWR, off-shore, and the Bakken formation in Montana and North Dakota. 18. Develop natural gas economy by converting automobiles to natural gas and incentivize Bloom Energy natural gas fuel cell for residential use.
