ACTS 2:17
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams
Showing posts with label US Gov. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Gov. Show all posts

Sunday, August 10, 2014

The Need to Prioritize


Although some people don’t want to admit it, the world is in a great state of commotion.  It saddens me to see how far our country has devolved from the righteous tenets that it used to stand on. 

I feel much like Nephi (the son of Helaman) crying on his garden tower and mourning over the corruption of his people and his fallen country; bemoaning the corruption that filled his government and the judgment seat. 

Perhaps I should put it into a more modern perspective. I feel like Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2”, trying to warn people of a coming apocalypse; all the while being mocked for being a crazy “prepper”.    

I see the trouble that is coming and I only seek to warn people to get ready.  But because of things like "normalcy bias" and "cognitive dissonance", most people just cannot grasp the idea of something terrible happening in their world.  They say, “Nothing that bad has EVER happened to us here in the United States.”  People can’t bring themselves to imagine a time so hard, that they would have to survive for a year on their own resources. 

The scriptures can give us an interesting guideline for temporal preparedness.  Here is a list of 5 people that were warned to have temporal storage, to last them for an extended period of time.


Who                                                                                          Food to last how long
Joseph - warned the Pharaoh of the coming famine                   7 years (Gen 41)
Gidgiddoni - prepared against Gadianton robbers                     7 years (3 Nephi 4:4)

Noah - was on the Ark                                                                 360-370 days (Gen 8)
The brother of Jared - was on his boat                                       344 days (Ether 6:11)
Lehi’s family - was on the boat                                                 Many days (1 Nephi 18:9) 
                                                                                       -About 1- 2 years (591-589 B.C.)                                                                                                                                                           
I think it is significant that these events in scripture all mark a time where individuals were warned to have enough food and supplies to last them through a period of trouble.  It’s also interesting to note that all of these periods mentioned are about 1 year or more in duration. Similarly we have been told to prepare food and water to last us also…about 1 year or more. 

What if Noah, the brother of Jared or Lehi decided to only bring a 72 hour kit? What if they only brought a 3 month supply of food? Maybe they imagined that a 6 months supply should be enough. This kind of thinking would have made their journey very difficult indeed. The scriptures don’t mention it but I believe that the Lord told them how much food and supplies they would need, to last them through their difficult journey. 

None of them had ever crossed an ocean.  They had no way of reckoning how long a journey like that would take.  Nothing that difficult had EVER happened in their world. 

So now we come to the troubled times we live in now.  We are a society that is unfamiliar with hard times.  Grocery stores are stocked with food and many are open 24 hours to satisfy our wants and needs. Yet we have been warned that this will not always be.  We have been counseled to prepare an emergency supply of long term food and water to last us for 1 year.  

To prepare for...

A time when famine and drought will make food and water very scarce…

             (Ezra Taft Benson)
“The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."
                                ["Prepare Ye", Ensign, Jan 1974]

(Spencer W Kimball)
But if you fail to serve me (Christ)…trees will be without fruit and the fields without verdure.  There will be rationing and a scarcity of food and hunger sore…Famine will stalk rudely through your doors and the ogre cannibalism will rob you of your children and your remaining virtues”
                               [Conference Report, October 1961, pp. 29-34]

A time when economies will fail; when money and gold will lose all its value…

(Ezra Taft Benson)
“Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them.”
                              [Conference Report, October 1980]

(Brigham Young)
“The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat. Gold is not to be compared with it in value. Why would it be precious to you now? Simply because you could get gold for it? Gold is good for nothing, only as men value it.”
[Journal of Discourses, 1:250]

A time when the only thing of REAL value, will be food…

(Heber C Kimball)
“Lay up your stores, and take your silks and fine things, and exchange them for grain and such things as you need, and the time will come when we will be obliged to depend upon our own resources; for the time is not far distant when the curtain will be dropped between us and the United States.”
[Journal of Discourses, 5:10]

(J Reuben Clark Jr)
“...when we really get into hard times, where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep you warm, and you cannot wear it."
[Church News, November 21, 1953, p.4]
               
A time when farming, production and all industry and commerce will cease…

(Brigham Young)
“By and by there will be a gulf between the righteous and the wicked so that they cannot trade with each other and national intercourse will cease.”
[Journal of Discourses, 12:284]

(Orson Pratt)
“…manufacturing will, in a great measure, cease, for a time, among the American nation. Why? Because in these terrible wars, they will not be privileged to manufacture, there will be too much bloodshed too much mobocracy too much going forth in bands and destroying and pillaging the land to suffer people to pursue any local vocation with any degree of safety. What will become of millions of the farmers upon that land? They will leave their farms and they will remain uncultivated.”
[Journal of Discourses, 20:151]
   
A time when our government will fall and war will come to America

(Duane S. Crowther)
“…a series of internal wars which will bring about the collapse of the government and dominion of the United States. [These] wars will cause the complete collapse of national and state governments in the United States!
[Duane S. Crowther, Prophecy: Key to the Future, 1967, pp. 65-66]

(Orson Pratt)
"…What then will be the condition of that people, when this great and terrible war shall come? It will be very different from the war between the North and the South. Do you wish me to describe it? I will do so. It will be a war of neighborhood against neighborhood, city against city, town against town, county against county, state against state, and they will go forth destroying and being destroyed and manufacturing will, in a great measure, cease, for a time, among the American nation”
                                [Journal of Discourses, 20:151-154]

“Party will be arrayed in deadly strife against party; State against State; and the whole nation will be broken up; the sanguinary weapons of the dreadful revolution will devour the land. Then shall there be a fleeing from one city to another, from one State to another, from one part of the continent to another, seeking refuge, from the devastations of bandits and armies”
                                [Millennial Star, 28:633-634]

This is just a small number of quotes from modern day Apostles and Prophets, warning us of what is coming.  This is to say nothing of the multitude of witnesses from the visions already posted here. 

These humble people saw in dream or vision, all these things coming to pass:
1.                    A period of drought, famine and starvation
2.                   The collapse our government and economy in America
3.                   The loss of electricity, gasoline and transportation.
4.                   The beginning of a World War that would break down into civil war everywhere
5.                   Many Great Tribulations: Earthquakes, Plagues, Flooding and Great Storms


So I sit back and see the beginning of this tribulation starting. We are experiencing record droughts across the country.  The drought in California is devastating crops and food prices are skyrocketing.  California is responsible for more than ½ of America’s fruits and vegetables.  They will be completely out of water in just 2 years.  There are 7 other states in the U.S. in similar circumstances.

 We see a staggering amount of corruption in government. Politicians seek their own self interests while the Constitution is being violated and ignored so regularly, that some don’t think it even applies anymore.  Our country’s economy lays in a coma, while Federal Reserve doctors keep pumping massive amounts of “Quantative Easing” into the failing veins, hoping that no one will realize, that it is too late.  
The dollar is destined to fail; it’s just a matter of time.   

Racial and political tension is at all time highs across the land. Never has America been more frustrated or more divided.  This tension is felt worldwide with a new Cold War with Russia and as tensions with China also increase... How long will it be before the Cold War becomes Hot?

We see new diseases spreading and old diseases coming back.  We suddenly have the spreading of new strains of incurable diseases like MRSA.  We see the near pandemic spread of Ebola coming to America from Africa; not to mention new virulent strains of Influenza and Tuberculosis crossing our unguarded borders to the south. 


As all of the multiple events fall into place, I see that time is getting short.  What is coming is inevitable.  How prepared you are when it gets here is up to you.  We see that eventually money, gold and other material possessions will not matter.  The only thing that will matter is can you feed your family. 

So put off buying that new    *  insert materialistic item here   *…
...And go buy your food storage. 

Sell off some of that “stuff” that you think that you can’t live without….
...And go buy your food storage. 

Pull some money out of your savings or your retirement.  It may not be there for much longer….
...And go buy your food storage. 

No amount of physical assets will matter if you cannot feed your family in a crisis; and that crisis is near, even at the door.

I encourage you to use the LDS cannery in your area. It is by far the cheapest…
     Here is a location map…

If you don’t have the time to go pick it up, they even deliver it to you…

                A month supply for one person is only about $30 – A year supply for one person is around $300.
                They even have starter kit boxes, that have a variety of things all in one box.
    One box feeds / one person/ for one month.

Remember to get water storage also. 55 gallon drums are only about $50 at Wal-Mart. Remember to only use food grade barrels.  The human body can survive for weeks without food; but can only survive about 3 days without any water!

I will repeat again what Ezra Taft Benson had to say:

 “The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."

A final warning from Ezra Taft Benson

 “Should the Lord decide at this time to cleanse the Church–and the need for that cleansing seems to be increasing—a famine in this land of one year’s duration could wipe out a large percentage of slothful members, including some ward and stake officers…

…Yet we cannot say we have not been warned.”
                                 [“Not Commanded in All Things”, Conference Report, April 1965]


~Scott~

Friday, December 20, 2013

The Vision of 'Spencer'

The Vision of  Spencer is an account of one mans's near-death experiences and subsequent visions of the days leading up the the millennium.  The book was co-authored and written by John Pontius, a well known published LDS author. If you have not had a chance to read the book I highly recommend it.  

  Spencer's Vision closely parallels the end times calamities also seen by Sarah Menet 
                            (see Vision oF Sarah Menet posted on this Blog).


A quick summary of the Great Tribulation: 

-Devastating earthquakes along the west coast
-Earthquakes spawn worldwide tidal waves.
-Another earthquake widens the Mississippi River from the Gulf to the Great Lakes by several miles, effectively dividing the more wicked part of the nation from the relatively more righteous
-Multiple waves of biological attacks that wipe out much of the nation
-Water shooting out of the ground in SLC with great force (Spencer talks about the causes of this in some detail) and flooding the city (including the temple)
-Roving gangs killing people
-Plagues that spread throughout much of the US and then to the world
-Foreign troops on our soil.  Spencer says they are U.N. "peacekeepers" from various foreign countries who initially come under the guise of relief workers, but usurp local and national govt. as time goes on and establish martial law.  That was their plan from the beginning.
-Nuclear bombs go off in Utah.  Spencer says they appear to have been placed here rather than from the tip of a missile.  
                       _____________________________________________________________

        This is only a short synopsis of the calamities that are mentioned in the book.  It would be difficult to mention everything in detail and I highly recommend reading the complete book. 

        There is some contention around the book Visions of Glory: One Man's Astonishing Account of the Last Days.  I imagine there will always be those that will contend with another persons spiritual experience.  I personally felt the spirit very strongly as I read it.  The two scriptures at the head of my blog summarize my personal feelings on the matter.  ...In the last days God will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh... the sons... the daughters... the young men... and the old men... and they shall see visions ...and they shall dream dreams.  

        It is obvious from this scripture that visions and dreams, are not limited to the Prophets and Apostles. It is up to us to "...seek diligently and teach one another, words of wisdom...".  I have sought learning and knowledge but I also rely heavily on the Spirit of Truth to guide me in my understanding.  

                        _____________________________________________________________



Here is an example of a comment from someone who disagrees with Spencer's Vision.
        -borrowed from a fellow blogger I greatly admire: 
                       "The Wood Zone"


"I agree with the above comment. Far too much focus on America, Utah, and the west coast. The Church is BIG. I agree with being prepared, not a question for me. There must be 2-3 million LDS's on the west coast. I don't think the Lord is going to waste all those mostly good people. While this blog has a lot of good information, and much that is factually based, I find it disturbing that so much weight is placed on "Spencer", as if he is the Prophet. He is not. Much of the stuff "Spencer" says is wrong, but people continually defend what he says as the truth. These folks do not understand priesthood authority and how doctrine is established apparently. Over all, I find a rather unhealthy reliance on "Spencer" in this blog, rather than what the LIVING PROPHET's have to say on matters concerning the last days. Remember, the Living Prophet trumps ancient prophets. Yet, bad things will happen, I just think they will be much different than what "Spencer" says. I still say the best thing to do is to follow your local leaders direction (stake president) and the direction of the Brethren, and basically look at "Spencer" as a fictional character with an interesting story to tell. Keep things in proper perspective...The Living Prophets are First."


Here is an example of a comment from someone in defense of Spencer's Vision.
                -also borrowed from:
                   "The Wood Zone"

"Dear Wood Zone,

I feel compelled to address some of the issues regarding "Visions of Glory" (VoG) brought up in your blog by a few of its readers.  Normally, I wouldn't say anything.  However, some of the statements made are either unjustifiably judgmental or dangerously deceptive, and hence deserve some comment.

First, there's a lot of judging going on regarding Spencer.  I seriously doubt those who have judged him have spent any time with him; I have.  A lot.  Thus, their judgment is based on opinion and flies in the face of the Master's admonition to "Judge not, let ye be judged."

One of the requirements to righteously judge is to have all the facts, which (naturally) God has, and we do not.  To think otherwise is presumptuous at best and more than likely spiritually dangerous.  And with respect to VoG and Spencer, three facts are inescapable and indisputable:

1.  Seagull Book sells VoG (http://www.seagullbook.com/lds-products-766173.html).  Seagull Book is owned and operated by Deseret Management Corporation, a company owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (http://www.seagullbook.com/page-FAQ.html).  If the VoG is so bad, then why is the Church selling it?  Either the church has made a grievous mistake, or not -- it's as simple as that.

2.  To ascertain whether or not it was a mistake, we need to examine what effect VoG has had on people, or in other words, it's "fruits".  Fact: hundreds of people who've posted on the Unblog (unblogmysoul.wordpress.com) and read VoG have been more -- not less -- motivated to repent, change their lives for the better, attend the temple more frequently, pray harder, love deeper, search the scriptures more diligently -- in other words, love Christ and his gospel more.  Can a bad tree produce such good fruit?  It's either a good tree, or Satan's doing an awfully good job of shooting himself in the foot.  

3.  The commenter states that it's best to consider Spencer "a fictional character".  Ummm, wrong.  He's not.  He's real!  He's alive and well in Utah.  I have known him for quite a while.  I have his cell, home and work phone numbers and e-mail address.  He works, has a family, goes to church, pays his tithing and goes to the temple twice a week.  Again, the facts make contrary statements look foolish.

Second, a commenter recently said, "There must be 2-3 million LDS's on the west coast. I don't think the Lord is going to waste all those mostly good people."  With all due respect, again, we are seeing judgment without a command of the facts.  First, simply being LDS does not make a person "good".  Second, Isaiah and several Book of Mormon prophets are deeply, deeply critical of the Lord's people in the last days.  We LDS are still (collectively) under several condemnations, and in the ebb and flow of society, we are trending away -- and not towards -- the rescinding of those condemnations, especially so in the West Coast (and in America).  Go read Isaiah to see what happens next.

Third, the same commenter stated, "the Living Prophet trumps ancient prophets" and "I still say the best thing to do is to follow your local leaders direction (stake president) and the direction of the Brethren...Keep things in proper perspective...The Living Prophets are First."

This is dangerous ground to be standing on.  If I had a nickel for everytime the Lord said (or a passage of scripture taught) "Trust not in the arm of flesh", I'd be e-mailing you from my mansion.  Now, don't get me wrong -- I sustain our Prophet and the other 14 apostles.  Still, we are on sandy, not fertile, ground if we trust in the arm of flesh.  Case in point: There have been several instances in church history where prophets contradicted each other in points of doctrine.  In fact, disciplinary courts were held and members were censured for not believing in a doctrine which was passionately espoused by one prophet, only to be condemned as false doctrine by another prophet 100 years later.  In this case, which prophet do you believe?

The bottom line is, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.”  Here's what the head of our dispensation would say in response to this commenter's thoughts:

“We have heard men who hold the priesthood remark that they would do anything they were told to do by those who preside over them [even] if they knew it was wrong; but such obedience as this is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme; and the man who would thus willingly degrade himself, should not claim a rank among intelligent beings, until he turns from his folly. A man of God would despise the idea. Others, in the extreme exercise of their almighty authority have taught that such obedience was necessary, and that no matter what the saints were told do by their presidents they should do it without any questions. When Elders of Israel will so far indulge in these extreme notions of obedience as to teach them to the people, it is generally because they have it in their hearts to do wrong themselves" [Joseph Smith, Millennial Star, vol. 14, #38, p 593-595]

Joseph's successor also said:

"What a pity it would be, if we were led by one man to utter destruction! Are you afraid of this? I am more afraid that this people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken the influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not. This has been my exhortation continually." [Brigham Young, JD 9:150]

Fourth and finally, the commenter states, "Much of the stuff 'Spencer' says is wrong, but people continually defend what he says as the truth. These folks do not understand priesthood authority and how doctrine is established apparently."  Spencer never sought to establish doctrine.  Not at all.  In fact, he never asks for acclaim, attribution, followers or even to be believed.  VoG is strictly Spencer's account of what he was shown. He makes nothing from this book, and he asks for nothing from readers other than to look up and follow Christ.  

The bottom line is this: Before you start publicly judging someone and making statements that fly in the face of facts, do a little homework.  Then take whatever judgmental statements you are considering posting, and delete them.  

This world is already under terrible, terrible judgment.  

We latter-day saints can and ought to do better.

And we can start by not adding to those judgments, lest we -- collectively and individually -- reap even more judgments.

Thanks,

-- A Concerned Reader"