First we must determine if what is happening actual is or are the
judgements of God. Let us look at scripture, thousands of years old, speaking
of their own day – and see if there is a pattern.
14 And
now behold, I say unto you, I fear exceedingly that the judgments of God will
come upon this people, because of their exceeding slothfulness, yea, even the slothfulness
of our government, and their exceedingly great neglect towards their brethren,
yea, towards those who have been slain.
15 For were it not for the wickedness which first commenced at our head, we could have withstood our enemies that they could have gained no power over us.
16 Yea, had it not been for the war which broke out among ourselves; yea, were it not for these king-men, who caused so much bloodshed among ourselves; yea, at the time we were contending among ourselves, if we had united our strength as we hitherto have done; yea, had it not been for the desire of power and authority which those king-men had over us; had they been true to the cause of our freedom, and united with us, and gone forth against our enemies, instead of taking up their swords against us, which was the cause of so much bloodshed among ourselves; yea, if we had gone forth against them in the strength of the Lord, we should have dispersed our enemies, for it would have been done, according to the fulfilling of his word.
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5 And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment-seat were called king-men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land.
5 And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment-seat were called king-men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land.
More recently, from a modern prophet:
“There is no conspiracy theory in the Book of Mormon —it is a conspiracy fact.” – Ezra Taft Benson, 1972 (Much more could be used from this talk, from 1972, when Iran was still known more commonly by the name of Persia, even by the Persian students at my college.)
Note that these judgements of God didn’t appear to be supernal or supernatural. They were obviously the works of humans, humans who wanted power over their brothers and sisters. Further reading shows they were power-hungry people who wanted to reinstate a nobility class structure, and that they were willing to claim this was for the common good, even as they forged the chains.
Even when God gives warnings by great upheavals in nature, there is no indication that He is trying to wantonly kill people. Indeed, all He has to do is withhold His protection.
Humans, especially when comfortable, assume that the Earth is by nature, safe and kind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nature is ruthless, and every natural law says that continued life – especially intelligent life – is difficult to maintain, and that there should be more natural disasters, not fewer. That the ranges in which humans can survive, much less form complex societies, are very thin – and should not last as long as they have.
Asteroids have missed this planet for millenia, which by all rights and odds should have connected or disrupted our ecosystem at many points in time. Water escapes the planet on a regular basis – always has – and yet is not only re-created here, but replenished from micro-meteorites of ice that, per satellite photos and higher math, replenish Earth on a 1-for-1 basis. The insides of this planet tell us there should be many more earthquakes and volcanos – volcanos that release more radiation than our most impressive nuclear explosions.
Our Heavenly Father does not have to cause natural disasters. All He needs to do, is withhold His protection.
Our Heavenly Father does not cause men and women to conspire for power. He has created refuge, more than once, from such evil – only to see the evil lurking in the hearts of men to surface time and again. What we enjoy as freedom is not the natural way of humankind – what we have had in our republic is a historical abberation. And from before Day One, people were seeking to find the loopholes in the Constitution.
The conspiracy is there. Looking with the hindsight of
history, it seems as if the conspiracy for power has been co-ordinated and
clever. It has not been clever; if it seems co-ordinated, it is because the
Tempter knows us and plays the same tune which a part of us wishes to dance
with.
He is not clever; he cannot create, he cannot even corrupt. He has to depend on tempting us to corrupt ourselves. All he has to do is get us to let our defenses down. He actually thinks he can cause Heavenly Father to give up on us.
1 Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
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1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called
him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and
he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be
found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
The Lord hasn’t given up on us. Like a parent dealing with an alcoholic child, He counsels, He loves, and He has to allow that child to realize the consequences of their choices. And He stands ready to pick us up when we have fallen. Like the Prodigal Son, we always have a home.
While the king-men rage on, using every tool in the box to divide us: race, sex, even (and this is the most sneaky and effective trick) tricking us into judging our brothers and sisters. It is allowed us to judge right from wrong, and to choose right. It is allowed us to recognize sin and to abhor it. It is never allowed us to feel superior to and judge those who need a hand up and need to be told that they are a son or daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves them and have a great destiny – if they will but take His hand.
Because those who need a hand up – who need
mercy – are us.
