Last weekend was both Pascha (Easter) and General Conference, making it a weekend doubly full of spiritual blessings. One of the most powerful talks given was Elder Jeffrey R. Hollands discourse “Not as the World Giveth,” he addresses the problems of the world – its violence, hatred, and contention, all of which originate in Satan and wicked influences – and explains how we can find solutions to these problems can be found in the Covenant of Peace – the concepts, teachings, and ordinances that can only be fully found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the world we find wars and rumors of wars, rape, murder, greed, anger, social division, isolation, oppression, mockery, corruption, riots, mobs, and every excuse humans can think of to despise one another, kill one another, and hate our blood. Elder Holland then goes on to talk about the solutions to these problems and mentions three Christian principles that, if fully realized, would end all the problems of the world. These are Faith, Hope, and Charity. In this article I breakdown each of these principles and doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and show how they hold within themselves the power to truly transform the world into the place of peace, love, and liberty that we all wish it was already. Within these three principles is the key to world peace, to Zion.
Author: William H. Douglas
The Important But Forgotten Part of Easter
Holy Saturday is the day which most of traditional Christianity spends in a kind of solemn mourning in commemoration of the death of the Savior and in anticipation of His glorious Resurrection. Often overlooked is that while Christ’s body may have been laid low in the Arimathean’s tomb, His spirit was active and engaged in one of the most essential but overlooked aspect of the Atonement of Jesus Christ – the initiation of the redemption of the dead. This Holy Saturday I want to remember and celebrate Chist great postmortal ministry when He began the work of saving all people who have ever or would ever live, ensuring all would have the oppurtunity to have the eternal blessings of His Gospel and to be transformed by the power of its ordinances, so that all people could stand before God and be judged fairly and redeemed completely. This article explores His work in the Spirit World, what we know about the work that happens there, and how this can empower us to live live our faith in this life and in the next.
Remembering The Power of The Cross on Easter
It is well known within and without of Mormonism’s cultural bubble that Latter-day Saints don’t wear crosses, nor do we consider the Cross as the symbol of our faith. Why this is will have to wait for another time. This Holy Week I instead want to explore the symbol of the Cross not in our society but in our theology. Unlike our discourse, every book of LDS scripture is awash with the symbol of the Cross and the Suffering Savior, the Crucified Christ, as the symbol of discipleship and the focus of faith. What do the scriptures have to say about the symbol of the Christ and what does it mean for what we believe and how we should teach about the Atonement of Jesus Christ? What does it mean for our Christianity? How should Latter-day Saints look at the Cross, especially as we go into the Paschal/Easter season? This is what I explore in today’s article as I prepare my heart and mind for celebrating the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ the Lord.
On The Death of My Father
This is the story of two deaths. The death of my father and the death of my friend’s father.
They both died of similar illnesses – systemic cancer that ravaged their body beyond the ability of present-day science to repair. But it isn’t their cause of death that is meaningful.
What is meaningful is how people reacted to their deaths. What about the way they lived their lives elicited the reactions their deaths had and what this can teach us about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Fathership of God – this is what I find to be so instructive. In their lives and in their deaths, we can see the quiet but profound impact that living the Gospel can have not only in the life of the disciple but on all those around him or her.
This may be the tale of two deaths, but it is also the tale of two lives – one of tragedy, one of victory, and the hope to be found in Christ for us all.
When Elder Orson Hyde Predicted World War I in 1862
In this LDS Classic we have an article originally written by Elder Orson Hyde of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to a Missouri newspaper in 1862, during the height of the American Civil War. In this letter, Elder Hyde does a number of fascinating and insightful things.
First, he talks about how the events of the Civil War in Missouri were divine punishment on the people there for their persecution of the Saints.
Secondly, he explains how the Civil War itself is a fulfillment of a prophecy given by the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1832, which is D&C 87 today. He also explains how this connects to the imagery of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Revelation, specifically the Horseman of War and the opening of the Seven Seals.
Finally he teaches that the “demon of war” will move from America to Europe and issues a prediction of war there that fits perfectly what we now call World War I.
An excellent read for all the insights and prophecy contained herein.
Review- Robert Heinlein’s “Job: A Comedy of Justice”
In this first entry in my irregular book review series, I sit down to review Robert A. Heinlein’s “Job: A Comedy of Justice.” Heinlein is considered one of the greatest science-fiction writers in history whose influence can be felt all across the spectrum of Western culture, including in art, television, books, and literature. His writings explore ideas of individualism, society, community, faith, religion, sex, and human rights.
In “Job: A Comedy of Justice,” Heinlein adapts the classic biblical poem of Job into a modern tale set in the late 90s where a man and woman are being hurled through parallel universes at random as reality begins to collapse in the face of the oncoming End of Days and Final Judgment. In my review I cover the story of the book itself, examine the ideas of liberty and human rights that story espouses, study Heinlein’s prose, and evaluate how Heinlein’s need to proselytize for his own radical religious and sexual ideals affects the character and storytelling.
This book has Heinlein at his best and his worst and I explore it all.
Great Profiles in Courage: William Lloyd Garrison in Baltimore Jail
History is full of examples of great men and women defying society and state to stand for what is right, good, and true against the injustices, corruption, greed, and violence of the world. This is the first in what will be an irregular series designed to help highlight some of these important, powerful, but sometimes unknown stands, the heroes and heroines who took them, and the lessons we can learn to apply in for our lives today.
This first article highlights the experience of one of our heroes, William Lloyd Garrison. He was one of the loudest, clearest, and most powerful voices for the immediate ending of slavery and his newspaper, The Liberator, was the beating heart of the abolitionist movement. But in 1830, when he was imprisoned for libel because he dared to tell the truth about a local merchant’s participation in the slave trade, he wasn’t influential or well-known. So when faced with a court case against a much wealthier corrupt opponent he did what many other poor people did – he went to jail. Rather than back down, recant the truth, and abandon the cause of justice. Garrison chose to go to prison. This is the story of Garrison’s defiance of the law and social custom, his persecution for it, and the lessons we can learn to apply in our own lives as we seek authenticity, justice, and holiness.
What Christians Need To Know About Romans 13
The traditional argument says that in Romans 13 Romans 13 the Apostle Paul tells Christians that they should be obedient to their governments which have been appointed by God to be His servants on Earth. But is that what the Paul really taught? In a word? No. Not even close. In this article I delve into what exactly Romans 13 does teach.
First, after looking at the teachings of multiple theologians and the text of the scripture itself, I demonstrate that even assuming Paul is talking about governments he isn’t teaching that we should be obedient to every government or that every government is from God. Rather Paul teaches that Christians should only obey governments as the laws and actions of those governments accord with the commandments of God – which means that Christians are not bound to obey most modern governments.
Next, I attempt a re-interpretation of Paul. After delving into the actual Greek text and the meanings of the words that Paul used, I conclude that Paul isn’t even talking about worldly governments at all. Instead Paul is actually talking about the kind of relationship that Christians should have to the church and its leaders, as well as the role those Church leaders should play in the lives of Christians.
No matter how you look at it, the Apostle Paul did not teach Christians that they should be obedient to governments or that worldly governments are God’s servants. And those that think otherwise have misunderstood the scriptures.
The Insidious Ways That Governments Use Propaganda To Control You
Over the last year I have written repeatedly on the different ways that governments utilize propaganda to manipulate the public into obeying those in power even when such obedience violates the individual’s basic humanity, his or her basic human rights. Yet, I am still left me lacking an explanation for how propaganda is used to manufacture the consent of the masses to taking part in a system that is built to profit the very few rich and powerful political and corporate leaders at the top at the cost of all the rest of us.
I couldn’t understand why people have fetishized democracy as if merely having a system of elections would protect people from those in power while ignoring the ideals and values that make democracy anything other than the choosing of a new dictator every four to six years. I could not understand how something like the Deep State/Double Government could develop in the most fervently democratic age in human history.
That changed once I was exposed to the book Propaganda by Edward Bernays. An experienced propagandist himself, having produced propaganda for the US government during World War I, Bernays literally wrote a book about how the government uses propaganda in times of peace to “engineer the consent” of the masses and to secure their obedience to those in power.
In this article I delve into his book and pull out some choice excerpts that can helps us to understand the ways that the masses are indoctrinated with government propaganda without realizing it, how the government uses propaganda to manipulate and control the masses, and what we can do about it. This one is an eye-opener for everyone, no matter what your political or religious beliefs.
How To Understand The Deep State
The term “Deep State” is much maligned and is often dismissed as a conspiracy theory with the idea that the heads of the various bureaucracies that run the different functions of government exercising some controlling influence over the elected leaders of the nation being treated as preposterous. But, is it so crazy to think that the unelected and largely unaccountable heads of the various departments of state within the Executive Branch have influence and power beyond the limits that the people suppose they have and have greater power over the functions of government and elected leaders than the public understands?
To figure this out I want to share with you an interview with Dr. Michael J Glennon about his book “National Security and Double Government,” one of the most important books on the function of government in the last 50 years. He is a respected intellectual, with decades of experience in academia, law, and the American political system. In this interview he warns that the dominance of the national security departments in the US government has established a verifiable “Double Government” that places the nation “on the path to autocracy” that will render its elected branches as mere functionaries and museum pieces if we don’t do something now to prevent it.
Here he lays out the thesis of his book and his basic argument for why we should be worried about the power of the burgeoning Nation Security State, which he calls Double Government and which most others call the Deep State, why it has the influence and power it does, the media’s role in furthering it, and what we should be doing to challenge it before it is too late. If you want to understand the reality and dangers of what people call the Deep State, not just in the USA but in a model that applies equally to all democratic and republican governments, here is the place to start.