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).

     http://visionsandtribulation.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-vision-of-sarah-menet.html. 

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"

        http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com

"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"

        http://woodyoubelieveit.blogspot.com

"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"

The Vision of Sarah Menet (1979)

Vision of the End of the World
Sarah Hoffman committed suicide in 1979 and was told she had to come back and finish her earth life, but first she was shown the end of the world. She was a Mormon and was given a warning of God to them, which she delivered in seminars after receiving her vision.  God will save a remnant from among all the false apostate religions. 

This panoramic view of the earth came into view and then came closer and closer like I had been out into space and was flying towards it.

I knew that this was to help me make my decision to go back to earth, to my terrible life, because part of me wanted to go back to the beautiful spirit world or paradise and part of me felt the need to go back into my body and change my life. It was kind of a tug of war and what I was going to see was to help me understand what I would go through if I went back into my clay body.

It played out again just like a video tape in fast forward motion and yet again I could assimilate and see everything clearly and perfectly. As the world zoomed up to me I saw the whole world and then the various countries.

I don't know the countries of the world very well, but as I looked at these lands I instinctively knew what countries they were. I was looking at the Middle East and watched as a missile flew from Libya and hit Israel with a big mushroom cloud. I knew that the missile was actually from Iran but people from Iran had been hiding it in Libya and fired it. I knew that it was a nuclear bomb. Almost immediately missiles started flying from one country to another, quickly spreading to all over the world. I also saw that many nuclear explosions did not come from missiles but from ground bombs of some kind. I knew that in the future there would be a nuclear war throughout the world and this is how it would start.
Then, my focus changed from the Middle East to America. I understood that I was about to see some of the things that would lead up to the nuclear holocaust I had just witnessed.

As I looked upon the continent of North America, I zeroed in on the East Coast and then to New York. I saw New York with all of its buildings and people. Then I saw some tall buildings crashing to the earth with tremendous smoke, debris and dust everywhere. I saw a woman holding a little girl’s hand, running from the crashing buildings. The lady had long dark hair past her shoulders, curled inward a little. She had on a beige business suit, heels of a slightly darker color, perhaps a tan color. No glasses. The little girl appeared to be about 6-7 years old with short brown hair, below the chin, in a sort of a pageboy haircut. They were holding hands and running together from the falling buildings in the heavy smoke and dust and they were forced to let go of hands and thereby they got separated. The little girl was terrified and I could hear the little girl screaming “mommy, mommy” over again and again. I don't know if they lived or died. I can still see the face of the lady clearly and could identify her if I saw a picture...or could describe her to an artist to draw her. I asked if an earthquake caused the buildings to fall down and the impression was ‘no,’ but I don't know what caused them to fall.

The next thing that I felt more than I saw was that shortly after this there was no commerce, no shopping, buying, and was impressed that there was no economy. The economy had almost failed completely and no one had any money.

The next thing I saw was people being sick and dying. I saw this particularly in four cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Salt Lake. The disease started by having white blisters, some the size of dimes appear on their hands, arms and face. This quickly developed into white puffy sores and blisters. People would stumble about and fall and then many died within a short time, maybe 24 hours. I also saw other people with blood coming from their nose, mouth, eyes and ears. It started like a flu virus and it spread very quickly, faster than the other white blister disease. The people who had this disease died even faster. This was more wide spread across the entire United States. There were hundreds of thousands of people stricken with these two diseases.

I knew that the diseases, and there were several different kinds, but at first primarily these two, came from small containers that had been brought into the United States. These containers were like quart jars and I was impressed that the people carrying them would just drop them on the ground in large crowds of people and the people would become infected without realizing it.

In these cities as the disease spread, the people tried to flee from the cities out to the countryside. There was complete chaos in these cities and a breakdown of normal society. There was no electricity in them either, but I don't know why or how that came to be. There were cars piled up everywhere, blocking roadways and most people then had to walk out with nothing. The disease started to spread beyond these initial cities.

As these people were fleeing the cities, there were gangs attacking them and killing them. In the cities that were struck with the disease, there was complete chaos, looting, rioting, murdering, a complete breakdown. Many people seemed to go absolutely crazy. I sensed that the electricity had failed everywhere now and that nothing was running, there was no communication or anything anywhere in the country. Nothing worked, no radios or TVs. I watched people throw rocks and break windows to steal TVs which I thought was really crazy because they wouldn't work.
Immediately, as I watched this happen in the United States, I jumped back to the Middle East and saw the same thing in Israel, the same sores, and I realized that it was the same types of disease or sickness happening there. I knew somehow that whatever diseases had been used in the United States were also being used in Israel.

This lasted for only an instant and I was back in the United States. There was a tremendously long winter that lasted into summer. It caught everyone by surprise and started the full famine. Actually, I realized that the long winter actually just increased the famine greatly to its full measure, because the famine had already been in progress because of the storms, droughts, floods and other plagues that had been happening over the few years leading up to the long winter.

It seemed then that the year following the long winter was when everything started to go down hill very quickly or things piled up one on top of the other without any breaks. The sense of time though was not very clear because I was seeing several things that seemed to happen all at the same time or very close together.
During and after the long winter, the disease spread everywhere and increased in severity. The economy was completely gone and the electricity was also gone. There was complete chaos and anarchy all over the United States. There was no government, just a total breakdown. There was no food at all. I saw people trying to get food and were completely panicked because there was no food. I saw people digging in the ground for worms and eating them because they were so hungry.

Also, during this time I became aware that there was very little water and that almost all of the water had become poisoned so that if a person drank the water they would get the disease and die. Many did even knowing that they would die, because they were so thirsty.

Some of the people seemed to go crazy and went around in gangs killing people just for the sake of killing. Others killed for food or for things but the people who killed just to kill were absolutely terrible. They seemed like beasts, animals completely out of control as they raped, looted, burned and butchered people. I saw them go into people's homes and drag families out who were hiding there and rape them and butcher them.

There was such a fear and hatred that came upon the people -- families, wives, husbands -- loving ties no longer mattered; it became survival only. Husbands would kill their wives and children for food or water. Mothers would kill their children. It was absolutely horrible beyond description.

The air seemed to be filled with smoke as many buildings and cities burned and no one put them out. As I looked upon the scene of chaos, destruction and smoke, I noticed that there were these little pockets of light scattered all over the United States. There were, I would guess, about twenty or thirty of them. I noticed that most of these places of light were in the western part of the United States, with only three or four in the East.
These places of light seemed to shine through the darkness and caught my attention and so I concentrated on them, asking, "What are these things?"

I could then see that they were people who had gathered together and they were on their knees and they were praying. The light was coming from them and I understood that it represented their goodness and love. I understood that they had gathered together for safety and that they cared more for each other than for themselves. Some of the groups were small, with only a hundred people or so, but in other groups there were what seemed several thousand.
I realized that somehow many, if not most of these cities of light had been established just before the disease attack and that they were very organized. It was like they had known what was coming and had prepared for it. I didn't see who or what had organized them, but I saw many people struggling to get to them with nothing but what they could carry.

These cities of light had food and were sharing their food with those who joined them in their groups. There was peace and safety in the groups. They were living in tents, all kinds of tents, many of which were just blankets covering poles. I noticed that the gangs left these groups alone, choosing to pick on easier targets and unprotected people. They also preyed on the people who were trying to get to the cities of light. Many people in these cities of light had guns  to defend themselves with and so the gangs left them alone but it seemed that the gangs just didn't want to come against them.

As I was looking at the cities of light, I then saw missiles coming and hitting some cities and mushroom clouds started happening all over the United States. Some were from missiles that I knew came from Russia and others were not from missiles, but were from bombs that were already in the United States. They were hidden in trucks and in cars and were exploded.

I specifically saw Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York hit with bombs. New York was hit with a missile, but I think that Los Angeles was hit by a truck bomb or actually several, because I didn't see any missile. I also saw north of Salt Lake City have a mushroom cloud, a small one, but no missile.

In the darkness I also saw little fireballs. I don't know if this happened just before or during the mushroom clouds, but there were millions falling everywhere. They were very hot, of different sizes with most about the size of golf balls. As they fell from the sky they left a streak of flame and smoke behind them. Whatever they touched they started on fire: people, buildings, trees, grass, it didn't matter. I didn't ask what they were or where they came from, because by this time I was getting sick of the whole scene and so I just observed and didn't ask many questions.

Almost right on top of these mushroom clouds I saw Russian troops invading the United States. I saw them parachuting into a lot of places, primarily from the East Coast. I saw them parachute into Salt Lake City. I also saw Chinese troops invade from the West Coast, near Los Angeles. The people who were still alive started fighting them with their own guns. I didn't see any military.

Now the smoke turned to a very thick, heavy dark smoke. Just as things appeared to be as bad as it could get, then the earthquakes happened. This happened during a winter. It seemed that this was the winter following the very long one and so the chaos had been almost for a full year. The earthquakes seemed to start in the West, around Idaho and Wyoming, and then quickly spread everywhere.
I saw a huge earthquake strike Utah and then California. There were earthquakes all over California, but were especially devastating in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.

These earthquakes triggered volcanoes all over the West. They started spewing a tremendous amount of ash and smoke into the air and the air became very dark and dirty. The sun was darkened even more because of the smoke and the ash that started raining down everywhere.



I also saw huge waves of water sweep over the West Coast and then I realized that it was happening all over the coastal cities of the entire world. Los Angeles was almost swept completely away. The waves were huge.
I saw a big wall of water, taller than many of the buildings, perhaps as high as 20 feet, sweep over Salt Lake City. I thought this was strange because it was so far from the ocean and I wondered how a wave from the ocean could travel all the way to Salt Lake City. I was impressed that it was not from the ocean but from the ground. I quickly saw great cracks in the earth around Salt Lake City open up and water just shoot out of the ground. I felt that under the ground, very deep, there was a tremendous amount of water in the ground and the earthquakes forced it up to the surface. When the water swept over the city, there weren't very many buildings left, in fact there was a tremendous destruction with hardly anything left at all, just a few buildings. The water went from Idaho down to near Cedar City and was very bad.

In the cities there was great destruction, and most of the buildings had been destroyed and there was a lot of rubble. Though the earthquakes, disease, floods, volcanoes and tidal waves killed a lot of people, most people died because of the gangs and everyone killing each other, not from the terrible devastations.
As I thought a moment about it, it seemed that the earth itself had become sickened at the terrible things that were happening upon it and was finally reacting. I was impressed that the earth wanted to cleanse itself of the terrible chaos and evil that had engulfed the people.

Because of the volcanoes erupting everywhere, there was now ash mixed with the heavy smoke. Ash was falling and it was almost complete darkness everywhere.

The diseases had become very bad. I saw people literally die on their feet. There was another disease I saw. People had these red blotches on them and then they quickly started bleeding everywhere, from every opening. Then, they literally disintegrated or melted into unrecognizable masses of flesh and bone. I cannot even begin to describe what I saw. The dead were everywhere.

I then saw four more things.
I saw a huge earthquake in the middle of the United States. It was tremendous and seemed to split the United States in half about where the Mississippi River is. The crack in the earth that resulted was huge and that area totally sank. It was miles wide and it opened up and the earth fell down. It seemed to swallow everything. Then water flowed in from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to the Great Lakes, only they weren't lakes anymore, they became all part of a big inland sea.

I then saw a series of tremendous earthquakes all over the world. But it wasn't lots of separate earthquakes, it was all part of one huge, gigantic earthquake that shook the entire earth. Because of this earthquake, water came upon the land all over the world. Huge walls of water along all of the coasts. This earthquake and the walls of water made the earlier ones seem small by comparison. I don't know if the earthquake that split the United States into two parts was part of this worldwide quake or not.

I then saw a tremendous wind come upon the earth. As the wind hit I saw people go into caves and into the cracks of rocks to escape it. It was tremendous and it blew trees and everything away. It appeared to be stronger than any hurricane or tornado. It seemed like everything was blown away.

I understood, without asking, that the great worldwide earthquake and the wind were somehow caused by a huge object, like a planet or something, that had come very close by the earth and disrupted everything and that it was near the end that this happened.

I then was back into space viewing the entire earth from a distance. I saw this huge fireball, two or three times bigger than the earth, approach the earth. It was extremely bright red and gold in color and then engulfed the entire earth. When I saw this, because it was so different than everything else, I asked what it was. I was impressed that it was the burning of the earth that is described in the scriptures. I understood that just before it came Jesus had appeared to the earth and the good people that I had seen earlier had left the earth with Him and were no longer on the earth. The only people left were the few wicked who had survived the devastations earlier, but there were not many.

Menet, S. L (2002) There Is No Death: The Extraordinary True Expericne of Sarah Lenelle Menet