I am me! You are you. We are all unique, but we are all entitled to the same communication of The Holy Ghost as we live with our hearts close to the teachings of our friend, teacher and leader .. Jesus Christ. He made it clear how to live, and by living by his example we cannot fail to be blessed and guided spiritually.
What about the rest of humankind? Same! Every one is born with a gift from God, we each have a light within us teaching us right from wrong, we feel it as our Conscience! So, we kind of have an idea already within us ... we can feel that greed is wrong, we can feel that hurting others is wrong, etc etc.
I have been studying religion, and it gets so muddled. The muddle is not from God, it is caused by WICKED people trying to palm us off with false doctrine, trying to twist the Word of God in such as way as to permit evil and create conflict with that inner scales of judgement, we know what weighs in the balance. Each deed we do, each thought and action can be internally judged by our conscience and put on the left or the right! Wrong or Right!
The reason we have so much confusion and find it hard to know what is right, is that we are seeking for others to tell us! We have the gift within us, we don't need to ask others. The Bible is wonderful if you read it with this internal gift ... our inbuilt conscience of right and wrong.
The Bible would be a great book, every single book of scripture written under the influence of the 'light of Christ' and by the influence of the Holy Ghost, would be pure heavenly uplift and edification IF is wasn't later tampered with by evil indulgent greedy controlling dominating people! This is what happens! Men are given power and may begin good, but they somehow become covetous, greedy, lustful and wanton .... then they mis-use their position to alter things. The pure word of God becomes polluted, things that were not there, were added, alterations made, things added to the Word of God, embellished, twisted, added to, detracted from ... and then we come along in search of truth, having a read and a study, to find that Holy Scripture not quite what we thought.
Have you ever wondered about the things in the Bible? Why is it all attributed to God? Just because it is in the Bible? I think a perusal of the Scriptures with a prayerful heart and the set of scales within you will reveal what were the words and traditions and culture of MEN that had NOTHING to do with God!
Yes, these are my own words, I am not forcing them upon you, it is my judgement after studying scripture and religion for a fair bit, and knowing how my spirit within me is grieved or edified according to what I read.
What amazes me also, is how easily willing we are to be fooled! Why would we want to believe written lies and spoken lies? We don't need to believe what we hear and read and take it at face value. We are children of Heavenly Father, we have prayer, we have ability to communicate with God, we have angelic friends to assist us, we have that light of Christ within us, that scale of truth and error. We don't need to be fooled! Why do we let our hearts be troubled! Why do we sink low in sorrow because of lies we read or hear, told to us as truth! If you were handed a piece of rotten fruit to eat, would you believe is was healthy and fresh just because the person handing it to you told you it was healthy and fresh? If you were given that piece of fruit with a booklet of that fruit with instructions telling you it was fresh and healthy, would you believe words you read and words spoken to you over your own vision, over your own internal conscience?
Lets be sensible! We don't actually need scripture to know how to live good, but it is good for the words of God to be written down and referred to for times that we are weak, and tempted. We know we are weak and tempted, and we can feel that what we want is wrong, and to read and remind us of God's will is good for us to keep ourselves strong and upright.
So, I want to help you, I want you to trust in your inner conscience, to judge right from wrong. I want you to be alerted that there are many selfish, unrighteous people that ACT and PRETEND to be good, whilst using you, either to build themselves up, or to take your money, or to get you to help build up their evil cause.... it seems that society trust numbers, so if one evil person (disguised as a good person) is able to get a lot of people to believe a WRONG PRINCIPLE to be right, or a LIE to be TRUTH, then they are building themselves up a fort that they will refer to as EVIDENCE ie ... such and such MUST BE TRUTH because SO MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE IT. Well, let me remind you that just because many people may be deceived because they are letting other people dictate to them instead of use their internal judgement, does not mean that it is true.
POLYGAMY for instance.
Now where did that pop up in history?
There are religious groups that will say it is a commandment of God, that it is a principle of Heaven, that if you have more wives than others, you are greater, more exalted.
What does that feel like inside to you? How does your internal scales weigh this information? What feels right? What did Jesus Christ teach us?
Do you turn to other people's opinions for your answer? How do you know they are not deceiving you? Where is their evidence it is of God? Where is your evidence? The cunning words of the snake that told you? The wolf in sheeps clothing? The anti-christ dressed as a priest of God? A false prophet acting as the Word of God?
These are my thoughts. Life is not complicated. The complication lies within how much effort we take to make something that is wrong, be accepted as right. That is the hard part. The truth is easy. The Gospel is simple! It is soooo simple!
.... Treat OTHERS how YOU want to be TREATED simple.
Internally, this should mean fairness, sharing, helping, assisting, caring, compassion, empathy, loving, charity, honesty, truth
I would not expect it to mean revenge, unkindness, selfishness, greed, abuse, violation, lies, deceit.
The commandments are simple! They are rules of ettiquette! Why should we need to be told not to kill, not to lie, not to commit adultery, not to dig a pit for your neighbour, not to covert your neighbours possessions? These things should be internally in us, and only temptation of evil makes it possible to be blinded to commit these crimes.
Having more than one wife = greed, lust, adultery, abuse,
You don't think so? Have a read of your scriptures and locate where GOD COMMANDS man to take more wife that one .....
Then gather how many references there are to man having ONE wife!
You say Abram had several wives .. and so did Jacob ....
Yes they did, and at the time they were NOT PERFECT men, AND HAD NOT BEEN TOLD BY GOD TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE WIFE.
Abram repented, and he was told by God to be perfect, at which time his name was changed to Abraham, and he had just Sarah as his wife then. Hagar was not accepted as Abraham's wife, and her son was not accepted as the firstborn of Abraham .... God did not recognise them. He made Isaac the firstborn.
Jacob? Jacob was not perfect either, he only loved Rachel, but he was tricked into marrying Leah, but he could have backed out of it. But hey, wouldn't you like to have extra marital relations if you were given permission? Imagine all men and women being able to have sex with as many people as they wanted, and just cloaking it under multiple marriages and say it is of God! No, I don't think so!
Missionaries were told to stay single so they could concentrate of serving ... that women were a distraction. Well, how is a person meant to be committed to God when they are busy procreating with half dozen partners ... its enough distraction with one! Imagine several!
No, God gave Adam ONE WIFE. If plurality were his way, it would have been from the beginning, but the first plural marriage we hear of in the Bible occurs through the lines of Cain, not the lines of Abel. It was NOT INSTIGATED by God or God's representatives.
Back to Jacob .... Jacob was not commanded of God to take several wives. It was a personal thing going on between Rachel and Leah! God was not involved. We cannot attribute to God that which God did not teach us. Jacob was not perfect either, he was commanded to be perfect after which time his name was changed to Israel, then he was favoured of God.
Solomon and David displeased God with their many wives, addition of wives were not ordained of God.
Somewhere along the line, probably in the beginning when Cain's descendant took his first plural wife, others got jealous and greedy too and before we know it, it becomes tradition. Well, that is what man is like! They want what they want, and if it isn't a commandment, then they add and detract to make their will appear as the will of God.
Hence again, don't believe what you read or hear, without first getting yourself in close harmony with your Heavenly Father. You have the light within you, you don't need to worry, or be deceived. Do what feels right, against whoever is teaching you wrong, even if it is the head of the church, even if its someone who is meant to represent Christ, don't listen or heed, if it feels wrong! Your internal judgement will NIGGLE you if it is wrong. Goodness feels right, and effort feels obviously like effort, to bring a child into the world takes effort, there is going to be some pain and exertion, but there is the reward and it feels good.
Where there is no evidence of goodness in the outcome, be dubious! To sacrifice is good, it means you are sharing, but to share possessions if different from sharing a husband! Marriage vows are personal. Two people becoming one in the sight of God, the woman giving her body to the man, and the man giving his body to the woman, and between them they love each other with their whole heart and take care of each others needs and raise a family.
More wives than one, creates an orgy. There is no morality in sleeping with someone else other than your wife. It is lust, it is sin, it is greed, it is ungodly. It is also abuse to the wife, as she becomes neglected and so do her children. The bond is not tight, it is weak. God has not ordained plurality of wives.
Take the history of Joseph Smith, his name is slandered. There are those that say he had more than one wife, even his wife and children said he didn't, but busybodies aren't happen with that boring outcome, it is not interesting enough to gossip about. People love gossip, so much gossip. Even in this day and age, gossip no matter how untrue the gossip is, does damage, and spreads then a lie becomes told as the truth, and the previous good character of a person is stained, even though they were innocent.
How to deal with it? Internal scales, conscience, prayer, sense of right and wrong, Holy Ghost ..... test out for yourself.
I did .. and that is why I am typing this.
I was afraid to ask God. So I avoided the question. I believed the lies I had been told, I believed the lies palmed off as scripture, I believed the evidence.
I should have had a testimony with all this evidence, but no testimony came. No witness from the Holy Ghost, no witness inside of me, nothing agreed with what the evidence apparently was.
Because the evidence was in scripture, spoken by prophets, in history, in journals, in newspapers, believed by many, I just HAD to believe it and ACCEPT it. So I accepted that one day, God would expect me to be a polygamous wife either in this life when the laws of the land would allow it back again, or in the eternities. There was no escaping it. Why it was true, I don't know, but believing the Gospel and having a testimony of so much else, there was no other option for me.
Then God gave me what I needed. He gave me trials. He gave me hardships, he gave me a time in my life that at one point I wrote in my journal that I had come to know how Jesus Christ felt, the broken heart of betrayal, the sorrow of not being believed, the pain of being deserted, he had been through it, yes, he too had suffered under the people that should have been his spiritual guides, his friends and his family.
Yet those that hurt him and betrayed him were the TEMPLE people, those leaders that are meant to be closest to God and represent him, he was betrayed to death by one who should have been a friend, and by those that had a witness of his holy calling. I suffered, and I thought my heart was literally going to be split in two from the pain and anguish I suffered. My church friends tried to comfort me, and I was reminded of Joseph that was put down a pit by his brothers and sold .... how he was separated from his father for 20 years, how he suffered .....
Yet, he fulfilled a purpose! His suffering fulfilled a purpose, because he saved his family from famine! If he had not been sold into Egypt, he would not have been in that position and the tribes of Israel were saved.
Why did I need trials? Well, I was a very good latter-day saint and I began priding myself as such a one, and I fed on all that Church gave me, and I was adamant that it was true. I believed every reason they gave me, every excuse, every explanation ... I swallowed it and I regurgitated it to everyone. I was a good missionary for the church, I spread the gospel message every day. No matter what niggled me, my niggles were calmed by the church. I rejected all anti literature as lies, I rejected every story, everything. I knew my church was true. I was high on my horse, nothing could bring me down.
The God gave me trials that were so astounding to me, and so unexpected, and from a source that I never would have thought they would come from ... and I had no place to go, I could not go to the Bishop or Stake President, or Temple President or the leaders ... because I had already gone to them, they were my problem! I got on my knees in front of the London Temple with my arms up to God crying for help from the lies being told about me, and by the treatment I was receiving from those that I had trusted to be the mouths of God!
I had noone to turn to for my guidance, no church people, I HAD to resort to the Holy Ghost, I had NOONE else. So my heart was poured out to God for answers for three years, trying to understand. And it was my blessing. My trials had revealed to me the lies. The lies at the top! The 'man' in the leaders!! I had uncovered them! And I knew then that I had been fed lies. The only place to find truth is internally. It is a gift to the true seeker. If you truly love God, and truly believe in Jesus Christ, then you will do as Jesus did, and not judge, but use that gift given. I fasted and I prayed, I lived worthily, keeping the word of wisdom and law of chastity, long suffering in my trials..... until I cracked and broke down.
But God reached out to me, and in my new humble state, built me up. I was fed truth. Love is what matters. Charity is what matters. Your personal standing before God is what matters. Even if there is no true church upon the entire face of the earth, you are not alone, because God is there, prayer is there, the Holy Ghost is there. You do not need to be accepted by any church leaders. Acceptance means nothing. You do not need recognition from people, it is God that you need to be impressing! And God knows you, he loves you, he knows your efforts, he knows your weaknesses, he knows how much you try and he knows how much you love him. That is what is important.
And, you don't NEED priesthood. If there are no good men, it is not the end of the world, because God is no respector of persons. Every prayer is heard and it doesn't matter in which language it is said, and which faith that person holds.... a sincere prayer from a sincere heart will be heard and God will send help, his angels will help. There are miracles. You are not helpless. If you have noone to give you a blessing to be well, you can ask God to bless you to be well, you can ask angels to bless you. If you wished to take the sacrament and there was noone there to bless it or pass it to you, then you are still not alone! Do you think you will be cursed if you asked God in your heart to bless some water for you and bless some bread for you, so that you can eat and drink of it in remembrance of Jesus' sacrifice for you? God is not your enemy. Your heart is what matters.
If there is noone to give you the Holy Ghost, do you think God will say, sorry, but can't give it to you! No! If you desire for the Holy Ghost, and are living in such a way that would please God, then you will be given the Holy Ghost. It is between you and God, noone else matters if noone else is there to represent God! You are not alone, so if you are sick or ill, you can ask for God to bless you, you can ask and whatsoever you ask in faith, believing, will be given to you.
So, my friends, turn to God, and listen to that still small voice, the one that brings peace to your heart and warmth to your bosom. The Holy Ghost witnesses to you via a burning in your bosom, it is clear and plain and obvious. It you have nothing but confusion, then wait until the answer comes. If you feel at peace, let that be your answer. sometimes we need to grow first and sometimes we have to be taught to trust in ourselves (the conscience within us) and be released from our shackles, because some doctrine placed upon us is shackles and lies .... we can be imprisoned by our belief in lies, and once we are taught to 'see' we are free to find the truth and gather it to us, or gather ourselves to it.
I truly hope that out there somewhere is the truth undefiled. The church I attend is as a whited tomb ... looks pretty on the outside, but has some skeleton bones inside not looking oh so pretty, and those bones need tending to. The doctrines need tending to, lies need admitting, and until that happens, this church although has the face of good, cannot move forward until it reconciles itself entirely with truth and discards all the lies and all the covered up embarrassments.
God cannot back a church that lies. I am sorry, but the people who are pure in it, are what makes it shine! not the lies, so people power need to get together and shine light upon the leadership to put these things right so we are accepted of God. God loves us of course, but for a church to be accepted as his, it has to be pure in all its teachings and beliefs. There can be no lies, no deceit ..... only churches of the devil are corrupt, the church of God or the teachings and doctrines of that church should be faultless.
Thanks for reading.
God bless you. Pray.
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