D&C 112:25
In these last days at the close of this last dispensation, with the prophesied calamities being witnessed in all their chaos by all of humanity, we see that our Father is fulfilling His word. Most of His children are witnessing these things in ignorance, very few are witnessing with the knowledge that our Heavenly Father has set His hand in motion to bring about the salvation and exaltation of His children and the destruction of those who reject His message.
In the book of Doctrine and Covenants Section 131:6, it states, “It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance”. If we are to be spared from the prophesied destructive events of these, the very last days, we must be in a position of knowledge– knowledge of salvation, knowledge of exaltation, and knowledge of where and when this destruction will come.
If a man knows that a tornado is about to destroy his home, does he not leave the home to its fate? At the point the destructive force of the whirlwind hits, the man is helpless to prevent his home’s annihilation. He does not stay in the home to endure the destructive force of the tornado. The man laments the loss. He leaves and takes shelter from the storm in a place he has prepared for just such a possibility. He had knowledge of previous tornadoes, so he made preparations for his family to escape the devastation.
In all of Israel’s history the Lord has watched over and warned His children of impending destructions. In these last days, He has warned us of the destructions to come. He has not left us in ignorance. We have the words and prophesies of the prophets of this and other dispensations – warning us, the children of Israel, of the destructions that await the wicked among us if we will not repent.
Throughout the history of our Father’s dealings with His children, who did the prophets warn? Time and time again God’s covenant people lapsed into apostasy by rejecting true principles and following after the strange Gods of their day. That was the exact status of the people of Jerusalem in Lehi’s day. When Lehi was commanded to call the people to repentance, did they recognize him as a true messenger and prophet of the Lord? Did Lehi come from the hierarchy of the church at the time?
“..the Jews did mock him because of the things which he testified of them; for he truly testified of their wickedness and their abominations;…” (1 Nephi 1:19)
Lehi was seen as a traitor to the structure of the “church” in Jerusalem and a blasphemer because he spoke words that were in opposition to the current direction of “church” leadership. The people were blind to their standing before God, yet they assumed that “All is well in Zion, yea Zion prospereth”. Laman and Lemuel were a prime reflection of the Jerusalem mind set when they said,
“And we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people;…” (1 Nephi 17: 22)
Apparently, the people were doing the outward performances such as attending meetings, etc., but their hearts were far from the Lord. This wickedness is confirmed by the fact that the city of Jerusalem was destroyed as Lehi prophesied.
Did the prophets generally warn anyone other than Israel? Who was it that Abinadi warned? Who was it that Nephi warned? Who was it that Samuel the Lamanite warned? Who did Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah warn? WE also have been warned. The Lord has always forewarned his chosen people, always stretched forth his hand, and always given the opportunity for salvation from the destructions if they would repent.
He has told us of the destructions that will come forth in these last days, and He has told us where they will begin.
In Section 112 verses 23 through 26 the Lord through His servant Joseph Smith states:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face. Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord. (D&C 112:23-26)
In these verses the Lord describes the destructions. He warns how, where, and why the destructions will commence. This is His warning to His children. He has always warned His children first and given them the opportunity to repent. He says, “upon my house shall it begin”. Who is the identified House of Israel in these Last Days? His house today consists of those who have had the Gospel and at the first even the Fulness of the Priesthood restored unto them through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Why would the Lord say, “upon my house shall it begin”? Could it be possible that His children have gone astray again? Consider the following…
[Jesus] set the ordinances to be the same forever and ever. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 168 )
Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundations of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed.(Ibid., pg. 308 )
Brigham Young:
“. . . from the day that Adam was created and placed in the Garden of Eden, to this day, the plan of salvation and the revelations of the will of God to man are unchanged. . .” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 1941 Edition, pg. 103 )
John Taylor:
“God is unchangeable, so are also his laws, in all their forms, and in all their applications.” (The Gospel Kingdom, pg. 103 )
Again, Joseph Smith:
Taking it for granted that the scriptures say what they mean, and mean what they say, we have sufficient grounds to go on and prove from the Bible that the gospel has always been the same; THE ORDINANCES TO FULFILL ITS REQUIREMENTS, THE SAME; and the officers to officiate, the same; and the signs and fruits resulting from the promises, the same.(TPJS, pg. 264)
And again, God purposed in Himself that there should not be an eternal fulness until every dispensation should be fulfilled and gathered together in one, and that all things whatsoever, that should be gathered together in one in those dispensations unto the same fulness and eternal glory, should be in Christ Jesus; therefore HE SET THE ORDINANCES TO BE THE SAME FOREVER AND EVER, and set Adam to watch over them, to reveal them from heaven to man, or to send angels to reveal them. (TPJS, pg. 168)
And speaking particularly about the endowment, Joseph said,
The order of the house of God has been, and EVER WILL BE, THE SAME, even after Christ comes; and after the termination of the thousand years it will be the same;… (TPJS, pg. 91)
God does not change! (See Mormon 9:9) It is uninspired men who take it upon themselves to compromise and alter God’s laws. WE FIRMLY BELIEVE IN FOLLOWING GOD’S UNCHANGEABLE LAWS, THE REJECTION OF WHICH CONSTITUTE APOSTASY
– We believe in the doctrine of Gathering that brings the elect together to build the Kingdom of God.
– We believe in the Law of Celestial Plural Marriage to provide bodies for the spirits of the elect and in raising up a righteous posterity fit for the building of God’s Kingdom.
– We believe in the Law of Consecration to succor the poor and infirm, to prove our willingness to sacrifice all to the building of the Kingdom of God.
– We believe in the Adam-God doctrine as taught by the founding prophets of this last dispensation.
– We believe that the bearing of Priesthood belongs solely to the House of Israel, and that the seed of Cain will have to wait until all of Adam’s posterity have come forward to receive their blessings through the end of the Millennium.
– We believe that the Temple Endowment is only correct and true as revealed from heaven through Joseph Smith and the covenants and keys of the Priesthood must remain the same through time and eternity. Ordinances must be kept in the very way God has appointed and cannot be changed, else the Priesthood will prove a curse instead of a blessing.
– We believe in following the Lord and not relying on the arm of flesh. Counsel from ecclesiastical leaders must be verified by personal revelation to each individual as to whether it comes from God.
– We affirm the need to focus on spiritual and temporal preparation for the prophesied events of these last days.
– We cannot, in good conscience, support wicked government and inter-connected secret combinations.
– Abortion is murder and is forever condemned as such.
The abandonment or redefinition of these principles and doctrines constitutes the apostasy of the Latter-day Saints from the restored Gospel and from the establishment of Zion.
We bear solemn testimony that the LDS Church, leaders and people, and all those who have abandoned these principles of the Restored Gospel are in a state of rebellion against the Lord and, are therefore, under condemnation for violating His laws, changing the ordinances, and seeking the praise of the world and the honors of men instead of seeking the welfare of Zion. (2nd Nephi 26:29 Priestcrafts) In fact, most of modern day Israel is ignorant of their own doctrinal roots. What Joseph Smith received as the Fulness of the Gospel and the Fulness of the Priesthood is poorly understood and rejected by most of modern Israel.
The Jews in Christ’s day were strikingly similar in their justifications and self-righteousness. The Jews were the Lord’s chosen people but rejected the author of truth when He came to them, because they had strayed so far from the fountain of revelation that simple truths seemed foreign to them. So it is with their modern day counterparts, modern Israel, the Latter-day Saints.
The Lord identifies specifically the people within “His house:”
“First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me…”(D & C 112:26)
He makes an interesting statement about those who use His name but know not the will and gospel of God the Father (the pure, unaltered, unchangeable gospel of exaltation).
Verily I say unto you, It is not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, that shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. For the day soon cometh, that men shall come before me to judgment, to be judged according to their works. And many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name; and in thy name cast out devils; and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I say, Ye never knew me; depart from me ye that work iniquity. (JST Matthew 7:30-33)
In effect He is saying that if you do not know the will of the Father and the gospel of the Father you will be rejected by the Son.
The Lord through his Apostle Peter declared the impending judgments upon Israel. The words of Peter parallel what the Lord has revealed to us in these Last Days through the Prophet Joseph Smith in Section 112.
For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1st Peter 4:17-18)
Heber C. Kimball said,
“There will not many calamities come upon the nations of the earth, until this people first feel their effects, and when hard times commence they will begin at the house of God, and if there is any house of God on the earth where is it? It is here, is it not?” (Deseret News, March 2, 1856)
The Lord had contingency plans in the event that the whole church would go astray and reject the truth. (If you don’t think it can happen, read the Book of Mormon). Throughout the scriptures we find that the Lord saves a small righteous remnant who serves Him at all costs and in the face of all opposition. The following quotes illustrate what the Lord will do when the general body of His Church goes astray:
Many of this people are perhaps preparing themselves, by following after the world in its mad race for wealth and pleasure, to go down with Babylon when she crumbles and falls; but I know there is a people, in the heart’s core of this people, that will arise in their majesty in a day that is near at hand, and push spiritual things to the front; a people who will stand up for God, fearing not man nor what man can do, but believing as the prophet Joseph says, that all things we suffer are for our best good, and that God will stand by us forever and ever. (Orson F. Whitney, Deseret News, Aug. 11, 1889)
…for if Zion will not purify herself, so as to be approved of in all things, in His sight, He will seek another people; for His work will go on until Israel is gathered, and they who will not hear His voice, must expect to feel His wrath. (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 18)
I do not know but that it would be an utter impossibility to commence and carry out some principles pertaining to Zion right in the midst of this people. They have strayed so far that to get a people who would conform to heavenly laws it may be needful to lead some from the midst of this people and commence anew somewhere in the region round about in these mountains.(Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 15:361-362)
Before the great day of the Lord shall come, and the day of righteousness and peace dawn upon this fair creation, two potent cleansing processes shall be in active operation. The first of these is a preparation of a choice people, purified by an application to their lives, as individuals and a community, of the principles of the gospel of peace. Such a body will evolve from those called Latter-day Saints, who as a Church possess the fulness and power of the pure plan of salvation. Out of this community at present in the merely incipient stages of development and from the remnant of the whole house of Israel, will emanate the nucleus or foundation from which will spring the righteous millennial population of our globe. (George Q. Cannon, Millennial Star, 42:585)
And if we as a people do not hold ourselves on the altar ready to be used with our means and all that God has bestowed upon us, according to the Master’s bidding, for the upbuilding of His kingdom upon the earth, He will pass on and get somebody else; because He will get a people that will do it. I do not mean to say that He will pass on and leave this people; no, there will come up from the midst of this people that people that has been talked so much about.(Daniel H. Wells, Deseret News, Dec. 9, 1882)
Many will doubtless make shipwreck of their faith and will be led away by the allurements of sin into by and forbidding paths; yet the kingdom will not be taken from this people and given to another, but a people will come forth from among us, who will be zealous of good works, willing to do the bidding of the Lord, who will be taught in His ways, and who will walk in His paths.(Daniel H. Wells,DeseretNews,Nov. 6, 1875)
God will preserve a portion of this people, of the meek and the humble, to bear off the kingdom to the inhabitants of the earth, and will defend His Priesthood; for it is the last time, the last gathering time.(Brigham Young, Contributor, 10:362)
Many of this people have broken their covenants… But you cannot do that, for God will cut you off and raise up another people that will carry out His purposes in righteousness, unless you walk up to the line of your duty. (H.C. Kimball, Journals of Discourses, 4:108)
But the day will come when the Lord will choose a people out of this people upon whom he will bestow his choicest blessings.(Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, 11:145)
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. (2 Peter 2: 21)
The following is a portion of a revelation given to Wilford Woodruff, January 25, 1880 in Sunset, Arizona :
Let my saints search the word of the Lord and treasure up wisdom and be prepared for that which is to come. As I have decreed, so shall my judgments begin at the house of God. There are those in my church who have a name among you, who are adulterers and adulteresses and those who blaspheme my name and those who love and make a lie, and those who revel and drink with the drunken. If they do not speedily repent of their wickedness and abomination, they shall be severed from the ordinances of my house, saith the Lord. There are many who have need to repent, whose hearts are set upon the things of this world, who aspire to the honors of men, and do not honor the priesthood, nor seek to build up the Kingdom of God as they should. Neither do they learn or comprehend that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness. Such should repent and turn unto the Lord, and seek for the Holy Spirit to guide them. JUDGMENTS WILL BEGIN AT MY HOUSE, AND FROM THENCE WILL THEY GO FORTH UNTO THE WORLD AND THE WICKED CANNOT ESCAPE. (Wilford Woodruff Journal, December 28, 1880 and April 17, 1897, Church Historians Office)
Historically, when the Lord has fulfilled his word and brought down destructions upon His errant sons and daughters, it has been in several forms:
-Earthquakes and cataclysms
-War, invasion, and bondage
-Famine, pestilence, and drought
-Sickness and disease
-Economic distress
-Floods, fires, and tidal waves
-Disturbances in the heavens
-Genocide
Today’s latter-day counterpart people are not excluded from the impending fulfillment of these same destructions; and given the current general state of apostasy of the Lord’s chosen people, they can reasonably expect the wrath of the Lord in like manner.
Brigham Young aptly described the perilous status of the current day saints as well when he gave his last public address:
And with regard to the conduct of this people– if an angel should come here and speak his feelings as plainly as I do, I think he would say, “O, Latter-day Saints! why don’t you see, why don’t you open your eyes and behold the great work resting upon you and that you have entered into? You are blind, you are stupid, you are in the dark, in the mist and fog, wandering to and fro like the boat upon the water without sail, rudder or oar; and you know not whither you are going. (Aug. 19, 1877, Journal of Discourses, 19:93-94)
We bear testimony that the Lord’s judgment and destructive events of these last days will begin on His own House among those who have had charge of building up Zion and preparing for the Millennial reign of Christ. The LDS Church in its present form and direction can never build up Zion.
“And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.” (D & C 105:5)
This apostasy truly serves as a catalyst for the great and dreadful day of the Lord. This message serves as a warning to the Latter-day Saints and all those who assume they are God’s chosen people, but whose ignorance and actions betray them.
We say, REPENT or the fierce judgments of the Lord will soon be upon you! Return to the true God, and seek His inspiration to guide you out of this day of darkness before it is everlastingly too late. The time to act is now for the days are short, and to procrastinate further is to only add more condemnation on your own heads. These are the Last Days spoken of in all the scriptures, and the sword of justice hangs over this land of America. The blood of the prophets will be avenged on the Nation that shed their blood, even the United States, and upon the House that has rejected their teachings, doctrines, and principles. We bear solemn testimony that Joseph Smith still holds the keys of this last dispensation (D&C 90:3), and that He directs this work from the other side of the veil and will soon be on this side of the veil to redeem his vineyard (D&C 101:55-62; 103:21) and finalize the preparations of this earth to be presented to Jesus Christ, its rightful heir.
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it….He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient time, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated! (D & C 135:3)
Joseph sealed his testimony of the gospel of the Son of God and the Father with his blood. What mortal, church or organization upon this earth can assume that they have the authority or right under Heaven to open the seal which was set by Joseph, the dispensation head, and change what he sealed? We testify that no mortal, church or organization has the authority to break that seal and change that which was sealed on the 27th of June 1844. Joseph’s testimony of the everlasting, unchangeable gospel is sealed and is in force to this very day. (D&C 135:5) For those who have changed it, the result:
Behold, and lo, there are none to deliver you; for ye obeyed not my voice when I called to you out of the heavens; ye believed not my servants, and when they were sent unto you ye received them not. Wherefore, they sealed up the testimony and bound up the law, and ye were delivered over unto darkness. These shall go away into outer darkness, where there is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Behold the Lord your God hath spoken it. Amen. (D & C 133:71-74)
All glory and honor be to our Father and God, even Adam, and to His Son, even Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world!
These words shall come to pass as surely as we live, and according to the due time of the Lord. To the truth of these things we so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, our Master, Amen.