During this presidential campaign, we watched misfit candidates--unworthy, and uncivilized--vie for this nation's highest office. Although each candidate had, in parasitic detail, outlined the shameful behavior of the other, it was my observation that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton equally played the whore and “opened [their] feet to everyone that passed by" (Ezekiel 16:25). Regrettably, so long as there are those who "pass by", there will be prostitutes holding themselves out for hire.
What we witnessed during this presidential campaign was symptomatic of a democracy that is willing to dismiss who their candidate really is in deference to "holding to the Party Line”. Incredibly, however, no one knew what the Party Line really was! Have we become so entrenched with political platforms that we fail to notice when our candidate is a demon? Isaiah appropriately described our country as a "sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters [who] have forsaken the Lord” (Isaiah 1:4)? Continuing with his description of our ugly state of affairs, Isaiah lamented:
. . . the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:5-9)
Despite how mystifying it is that two demons have risen to such political heights, I can only conclude that we deserve it! History has repeated itself, and we have traveled the same road as IIsrael before us; we have elected into power the king we have desired--KING SOLOMON (compare 1 Samuel 8). In my estimation, SOLOMON is the prototype of the anti-Christ with whom the number Six Hundred Three Score and Six is associated. Review the following blogs to learn what little respect I have for him and why he is to be considered to be the BEAST that John, the apostle, saw:
- THE SEALED BOOK UNFOLDED TO VIEW
- HIS NUMBER IS 666
- THE FOOLISH BEAST
- THE INCARNATION OF MOLOCH
- THE MIDAS TOUCH
- THE WISE OLD BIRD
Alma, the younger, declared:
I know that [God] granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction (Alma 29:4).Good men of our once great nation formed a Constitution that established individual rights to life, liberty, and property. But John Adams explained that it “was made only for a moral and religious people” and that “it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Thus, while some may think that our Constitution stands inviolate, other must wonder how it can be when so many have been deprived of life, liberty, and property? (e.g., consider D&C 101:76-92 and D&C 135:1, 7). We are a Divided Nation that shamelessly kills millions of unborn children every year. Our's is the only nation that has killed prophets in the last days (see D&C 136:34-36). How much innocent blood cries from the ground against us! (see D&C 135:7, compare D&C 136:39).
The people of this nation have voted to legalize the recreational use of drugs; our nation has voted to redefine marriage, recognize homosexual partnerships, and has normalized premarital relations between consenting adults. Although contrary to the natural order of man, this nation has stricken the name of God and his commandments from every pylon, school, and community. We were founded on Judeo-Christian principles, but have chosen iniquity contrary to that which is good and right (see Mosiah 29:26-27). We have digged a pit, and into it we must now fall (see Psalms 57:6).
Describing how the Gentile Nations (i.e., the United States) of America fall into the pit and become a DESOLATION and CURSE in the latter days, the prophet Isaiah declared:
Describing how the Gentile Nations (i.e., the United States) of America fall into the pit and become a DESOLATION and CURSE in the latter days, the prophet Isaiah declared:
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left (Isaiah 24:5-6).
The curse of which Isaiah spake, and the fire that will burn and leave desolate our cities, is an unquenchable fire (see D&C 63:34) that cannot be doused with water. Hence, it must, of necessity, pertain to spiritual things that requires spiritual eyes to see. Thus, Isaiah prophesied that even though Israel would be set on fire round about and get burned, they would neither know it, nor lay it to heart (see Isaiah 43:23-25). In D&C 133:14, the "midst of wickedness" is called "spiritual Babylon." According to Isaiah, this spiritual "wickedness burneth as the fire" and "the people shall be fuel for the fire" (see Isaiah 9:18-19). It is by this firestorm of wickedness that the wicked will be destroyed (see D&C 63:33); and "even the saints shall hardly escape" (see D&C 63:34).
Though it may seem antithetical to His character, it is the LORD God who brings this unquenchable fire upon the people, just as it was He who brought "the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation" upon His ancient people. Addressing a time when God would bring this similar judgment upon His people in the latter days, the prophet Isaiah rhetorically asked: "Who among you will give ear to this? who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers?" In reply to the question asked, Isaiah replied: "DID NOT THE LORD, he against whom we have sinned? (Isaiah 42:23-24).
Habakkuk posed a similar rhetorical question to the LORD while, at the same time, protesting that the wicked are allowed to prevail:
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. (Habakkuk 1:5-7)
I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.
And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field (i.e., Gentile nations) have I given him also to serve him.
And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come . . . (Jeremiah 27:5-7).
In June, 1844, when Joseph Smith went to Carthage and delivered himself up to Gov. Ford, I accompanied him, and while on the way thither, he related to me and his brother Hyrum the following dream:
He said: "While I was at Jordan’s in Iowa the other night, I dreamed that myself and my brother Hyrum went on board of a large steamboat, lying in a small bay, near the great ocean. Shortly after we went on board there was an “alarm of fire,” and I discovered that the boat had been anchored some distance from the shore, out in the bay, and that an escape from the fire, in the confusion, appeared hazardous; but, as delay was folly, I and Hyrum jumped overboard, and tried our faith at walking upon the water. At first we sank in the water nearly to our knees, but as we proceeded we increased in faith, and were soon able to walk upon the water. On looking towards the burning boat in the east, we saw that it was drifting towards the wharf and the town, with a great flame and clouds of smoke; and, as if by whirlwind, the town was taking fire, too, so that the scene of destruction and horror of the frightened inhabitants was terrible.
We proceeded on the bosom of the mighty deep and were soon out of sight of land. The ocean was still; the rays of the sun were bright, and we forgot all the troubles of our Mother Earth. Just at that moment I heard the sound of a human voice, and, turning round, saw my brother Samuel H. approaching towards us from the east. We stopped and he came up. After a moment’s conversation he informed me that he had been lonesome back, and had made up his mind to go with me across the mighty deep.
We all started again, and in a short time were blest with the first sight of a city, whose gold and silver steeples and towers were more beautiful than any I had ever seen or heard of on earth. It stood, as it were, upon the western shore of the mighty deep we were walking on, and its order and glory seemed far beyond the wisdom of man. While we were gazing upon the perfection of the city, a small boat launched off from the port, and, almost as quick as thought, came to us. In an instant they took us on board and saluted us with a welcome, and with music such as is not on earth. The next scene, on landing, was more than I can describe: the greeting of old friends, the music from a thousand towers, and the light of God himself at the return of three of his sons, soothed my soul into a quiet and a joy that I felt as if I was truly in heaven. I gazed upon the splendor; I greeted my friends, I awoke, and lo, it was a dream!
While I meditated upon such a marvelous scene, I fell asleep again, and behold I stood near the shore of the burning boat, and there was a great consternation among the officers, crew and passengers of the flaming craft, as there seemed to be much ammunition or powder on board. The alarm was given that the fire was near the magazine, and in a moment, suddenly, it blew up with a great noise, and sank in deep water with all on board. I then turned to the country east, among the bushy openings, and saw William and Wilson Law endeavoring to escape from the wild beasts of the forest, but two lions rushed out of a thicket and devoured them. I awoke again."
Following the martyrdom of his brothers, Joseph and Hyrum, Samuel retrieved their bullet-ridden bodies to save them from further mutilation by the mob. Five weeks later, Samuel joined his brothers in death.
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| Salt Lake City, Utah Temple |
COATS = sar-bal' = (Aramaic) of uncertain derivation; a cloak: coat.
HOSEN = pat-teesh' = (Aramaic) a gown (as if hammered out wide).
HATS = kar-bel-aw' = (Aramaic) a mantle. From the root word kar-bale' meaning "to gird or clothe."
GARMENTS = leb-oosh' = (Aramaic) a garment (literally or figuratively); by implication a wife: apparel, clothed with, clothing, garment, raiment, vestment, vesture.
Based on the foregoing, these three Jews appear to be symbols of the latter-day CHURCH OF GOD (the woman) who adorns herself as a bride for the BRIDEGROOM. D&C 133 seems to support this fact, wherein the cry is made for the BRIDE to come out of the FIRE to meet the BRIDEGROOM:
Hearken, O ye people of my CHURCH, saith the Lord your God, and hear the word of the Lord concerning you-
The Lord who shall suddenly come to his temple; the Lord who shall come down upon the world with a curse to judgment; yea, upon all the nations that forget God, and upon all the ungodly among you.
Wherefore, prepare ye, prepare ye, O my people; sanctify yourselves; gather ye together, O ye people of my CHURCH, upon the land of Zion, all you that have not been commanded to tarry.
Go ye out from BABYLON (the FIRE). Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.
Yea, verily I say unto you again, the time has come when the voice of the Lord is unto YOU: Go ye out of BABYLON (the FIRE); gather ye out from among the nations, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Send forth the elders of my CHURCH unto the nations which are afar off; unto the islands of the sea; send forth unto foreign lands; call upon all nations, first upon the Gentiles, and then upon the Jews.
Yea, let the cry go forth among all people: Awake and arise and go forth to meet the Bridegroom; behold and lo, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out (OF BABYLON, the FIRE) to meet him. Prepare yourselves for the great day of the Lord.
Let them, therefore, who are among the Gentiles flee unto Zion.
And let them who be of Judah flee unto Jerusalem, unto the mountains of the Lord’s house.
Rexburg, Idaho Temple
Go ye out from among the nations, even from BABYLON, from the MIDST of WICKEDNESS, which is SPIRITUAL BABYLON (i.e., SPIRITUAL FIRE). (D&C 133:1-14)
In a letter written on January 4, 1834 to the editor of the Kirtland paper, Joseph Smith declared that "the pride, high-mindedness, and unbelief of the Gentiles, [had] provoked the Holy One of Israel to withdraw His Holy Spirit from them, and send forth His judgments to scourge them for their wickedness". . .. Thereafter, Joseph concluded his letter with this stern warning:
And now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquake will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of the land, to open and prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the north country. The people of the Lord, those who have complied with the requirements of the new covenant, have already commenced gathering together to Zion, which is in the state of Missouri, therefore I declare unto you the warning which the Lord has commanded to declare unto this generation, remembering that the eyes of my Maker are upon me and that to him I am accountable for every word I say wishing nothing worse to my fellow men than their eternal salvation; therefore, "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come." Repent ye, repent ye, and embrace the everlasting covenant, and flee to Zion, before the overflowing scourge overtake you, for there are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they see all these things, which I have spoken, fulfilled. Remember these things; call upon the Lord while He is near, and seek Him while He may be found, is the exhortation of your unworthy servant. [Signed] JOSEPH SMITH, JUN.
The things which Joseph declared have, indeed, been fulfilled--even though, at times, their fulfillment came as a thief in the night.
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As the prophet, Joseph Smith, began his mortal ministry, he was commanded to "seal both on earth and in heaven, the unbelieving and rebellious; . . . up unto the day when the wrath of God shall be poured out upon the wicked without measure" (see D&C 1:8-9). This he did on June 27, 1844; on this day the prophets "sealed up the testimony and bound up the law" (see D&C 133:72; compare D&C 135:1) and "delivered over unto darkness" the "unbelieving and rebellious" who would "not hearken unto the voice of the LORD" (D&C 133:63). Thereby, "the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindled the fire" (see Isaiah 30:27-33), and we have been living in the midst of it ever since.
