My confession

I felt prompted yesterday to make a public "confession" of my current understanding and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His workings among men. I marveled at how difficult it has been for me to "divest" myself of the "programming" that is all things "Mormon." (It's a very nice, supportive religion to belong to and follow...so long as you're not gay, black, female, the second (or 27th!) "plural wife" of some Mormon honcho, unmarried, divorced, childless, addicted to anything but ice cream or BYU football, unattractive, socially inept or disconnected, not descended from pioneer stock, or particularly fond of "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." (Check back regularly; this list is constantly changing!) There are more skeletons in Mormon closets (and archives) than at Disney's Haunted Mansion! And much heartbreak. No one can "measure up" to the phantasmagoria of "righteousness" that is modern Mormonism. NO ONE. ALL of Mormonism's false gods and goddesses inevitably falter and fail, trusting, as they do, in the arm of flesh.

But then an old friend (whom I've mentioned here before) reached out to me this morning, inviting me back to the fold, with this text message:

3 Nephi 17:5-22; I think of you often brother I pray and hope that you will carry your cross and work your way back and join God's true church- else how will the gathering of Israel be without the stakes of Zion! I miss and think of your family brother!

I miss and think of his family, too, and wonder what will become of all of us. I am still working out my salvation with fear and trembling. So who am I to "lecture" another? What more can I do for myself, my wife and our children? I trust God hears...and will answer me when I am prepared to receive Him.

I replied:

Carry my cross? Work my way "back"? Join God's true church? How will God gather Israel without stakes of Zion?

...I strive to carry my cross daily. I'm striving to return to the Father. (Have you?) I already belong to the Lord's true church. (D&C 10:67-68.) God is gathering Israel, with or without the Mormons. The Zion you speak of will burn up all those (at the Lord's return) who are unprepared, who join with the wicked in their pollutions, perversions and abominations.

I'm grateful that you think of me often with sincere desire to help me and my family -- even if you "de-friend" me on FB and support the organization which (in Christ's name!) casts me out, banishes me from among you and seeks to separate me from my family each and every day! That is, indeed, a heavy cross to bear.... Too bad you're adding to it.

You will not read the books or heed the testimonies which explain in detail how -- as in almost all other previous dispensations (including our Savior's, initiated in the meridian of time in both the Old and New Worlds) -- the devil "hijacked" the latest iteration of "restoration," perverting the gospel and destroying Joseph and Hyrum, its first (and last) prophets.

Consequently you are as the Jews of Christ's day, thinking yourself "saved," "chosen," and "seeing," while you are lost, rejected and blind. (That being said, the Lord is merciful and patient with ALL of us. He is pruning His vineyard as He sees fit and He dispenses light and knowledge to ANYONE who knocks, asks and seeks, with real intent, having faith in CHRIST -- not faith in some organization, "priesthood power," temple ordinances, or the arm of flesh. All these may become idolatry and false worship.)

Those who "succeeded" Joseph and Hyrum (as "leaders" of the nascent LDS faith, but not as true prophets, having not first obtained their errand from the Lord) were punished for their unfaithfulness and were driven into the wilderness, scattered and slain, having neglected to fulfill the Lord's commandments after having disregarded the New Covenant of the Book of Mormon. (That holy book FORBADE the practice of polygamy after the manner of David and Solomon...which is PRECISELY what Brigham Young and others did after Joseph's demise. Joseph VEHEMENTLY, PUBLICLY and UNIVERSALLY CONDEMNED POLYGAMY (in the carnal sense) ALL HIS DAYS!) Those same leaders who embraced and practiced polygamy then extensively LIED about it -- both to the world and to each other -- making a "virtue" of "lying for the Lord." This you call "the gospel of Jesus Christ" and this organization you call "the Lord's true church." You are deceived by lies....

Joseph Smith never denied ordination of the priesthood to ANYONE on the basis of race or skin color. That was Brigham Young's doing. You claim LDS prophets can't lead us astray. The Mormon Church has since REPUDIATED racial discrimination in ALL its forms and has admitted that Brigham Young and others were not authorized or inspired by revelation from God in denying the priesthood to blacks. What do you call THIS if not "leading the church astray"? Holy moly...!

The original temple ordinances were designed to turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers -- to connect the saints with the powers of heaven (the "saved" sons and daughters of God: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.). Thus Joseph sealed men and women to himself -- he being among the truly "saved" -- for he was sealed to Christ (and to others in heaven)! Brigham Young changed this ordinance (not understanding it), sealing the living to kindred dead (even though those dead knew not God nor were "saved" in any sense).

What good does it do to "seal" oneself to the damned, if neither you nor they have the power or knowledge to save ANYONE? Have you been saved? Have you come back into the presence of the Father? Or made your calling and election sure? Do you have the promise, from God Himself, of eternal life? And can YOU promise to ANYONE that, come hell or high water, YOU will save THEM? No? Then what good are your "sealings" if they are not sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise (and thus rendered immutable, sure and everlasting)? 

Your temple rites...like ALL your ordinances, are "play acting," substituting for the real thing, UNTIL the real thing is received. You are PRACTICING, petitioning, pleading, and praying...doing ALL YOU CAN until the Lord does HIS part. But in the absence of that part (the LORD'S part), your works will avail you NOTHING. 

Frankly, there is nothing in the Mormon Church to "work my way back" to. You have a nice social club...that persecutes me. Some incentive to return!