(The following, was written by my brother David Bridgstock and published here with his permission)
The opportunity to speak at General conference will never come to the likes of me, but if such a dire privilege came to me – say at the next General Conference – I would respond to the sermon of the under-mentioned apostle who spoke about ‘The Sealing Power.’ I think he is a nice enough person in his role as a general authority, though hopelessly conditioned with Mormon Theology, that he cannot see anything else. As ever, this is not really about Todd, but about the system he represents. So, in saying what I am about to say, it isn’t personal. I’m knocking dogma, not really the man.
I would begin by restating part of the sermon from Elder D Todd Christofferson in his remarks at October Gen Conference 2023. He speaks of the Sealing Power, where he alludes to those who are not sealed or do not believe it is necessary. He suggests that there is a great risk in not acting on what the prophets/church say, when they warn us that we must be sealed to find exaltation and re-connection with loved ones in the world to come. Says he:
It is this free-floating, disconnected state of individuals, on the one hand, or connections that defy the marriage and family relations God has appointed, frustrating the very purpose of the earth’s creation. Were that to become the norm, it would be tantamount to the earth being smitten with a curse or “utterly wasted” at the Lord’s coming
Note, that Elder Christofferson (Can I call him Elder C) highlights that if too many refuse to adhere to the call to be sealed-up in temples, that the result would be to incur – across our societies – Malachi’s threat: Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:6… Or in Joseph Smiths History: That the earth will be UTTERLY WASTED at His Coming.
At this point I would want to challenge Elder C with various remarks that would test the overall validity of where he is coming from and his worn-out assumptions about Smith, the Priesthood, the Sealing Power of Elijah and this curse.
Joseph seemed to rise on a kind of make-it-up-as-you-go-along trajectory, with all things priesthood. For instance:
1/ Joseph was ordained with the priesthood and his church colleagues were ordaining each other in the early 1830’s with authority to act for God in the church, with no doctrinal development as yet of Aaronic or Melchizedek priesthoods, or high priesthood and seemingly indifferent to the fact that 3 ancient apostles had already given him the priesthood a year earlier. So why does he want re-ordaining again?
2/ Then nearly 6 years later in 1835, He, (Smith) just happens to tell the church that in 1829 Angelic visitors appeared and ordain him and Cowdery with both Priesthoods. When asked why he had not told them before, he made excuses that because of undue persecution, they did not talk of it (Including the first vision) Yet Smith didn’t fail to teach his close associates the doctrine of plural wives and of an angel that had commanded him to practice it, at a time when persecution was increasing and his followers began disserting him over this whole business of polygamy. Strange – big inconsistency?
3/ Add the fact that these earlier visions/ visitations never made it into the first Book of Commandments around 1831. Apparently, it seems they were not important enough to be entered in this book, which had on its front cover: The Revelations and Visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Or words to this effect)
Why in hells name, let alone Gods holy name (Who sent his angels to Smith & Cowdery) did Joseph not think that celestial beings, sent from another world with priesthood powers to confer, were not vital and imperative to be at the outset, celebrated, then written in the first book of his revelations, then broadcast abroad, especially to those who believed and followed him?
And why did he have his fellows ordain him with the priesthood nearly a couple of years after he had already been ordained by heavenly messengers? It makes no sense. It also makes no sense to many historians in and out of the church. It begs the question: Did any of these visions/visitations actually happen? He wrote out the history of all these things in 1838 after the 3 witnesses of the BofM had left the church. It is generally thought, that at that time, he retrofitted these visions/revelations from heaven, back in time, in order to form a seamless story of the Restoration going forward; not assuming at that time that future scholars/historians would uncover inconsistences in his chronological narrative, as I have pointed out above.
4/ Smithy was hardly ever to relate back to these early visions, especially as he relates his next big vision at the dedication of Kirtland Temple.
After visions in the Kirtland Temple of Christ, Moses, Elias and Elijah, he moved on to his next hobby-horse: The priesthood Keys restored by Elijah, to do what we now call: ‘work for the dead.’ Slowly, from this, originated what he began to call ‘The Sealing power,’ especially the power to marry for eternity and bind families together. The restoration of the Melchizedek priesthood was now put on the back burner somewhat, while the big emphasis was on the Keys and Sealing capability, which no other church had!
But, talk it up as he did, back then, at the time of Elijah’s visitation in the temple, he made a huge blunder, which unfortunately puts a question mark over the whole event, causing us now to ask whether anybody at all appeared to Smith and Cowdery? It is now well known by scholars of biblical language, that Elijah and Elias was the same person. Joe Smith did not know that Elijah is the Hebrew name for the person, who, in the Greek language, is called Elias. They are one and the same. What does this imply about his assertion of them both appearing? It means he is caught-out in a lie. It means we cannot trust that anybody appeared at all, with so-called keys, or sealing power.
Moreover, why is it, that in all of Smith’s claims of revelation, visions and visitations, no one gets to witness what he says he saw, except occasionally Cowdery and Rigdon – and Cowdery was a known liar and hoped to take over the church should Joseph go down. Of all the women and teenage girls whom he assured that he had a revelation commanding him to marry them, none of them were given their own revelation from God to prepare them for it; neither were husbands given revelations to confirm that Joseph would be asking them to marry their wives or daughters. In fact, he married girls and married women multiple times without their parent’s/husband’s permission or knowledge!
No larger groups/congregations witnessed Smith having visions, such as at the Kirtland Temple dedication, etc. In all my studies of his life and listening to those who have spent decades forensically exploring all his writings and those who were literally with him, it would appear that he was given to impressing others with ‘on-the-spot’ revelations about almost anything that others cared to ask him about.
I have come to the conclusion that Smith has claimed more direct revelations from God than all Biblical, Book of Mormon and Modern prophets combined, yet the huge paradox or incongruity is, that he was a womaniser and extremely promiscuous; lacking serious virtue and sense of morality. By contrast, I myself, have been the exact opposite in respect to this trait my entire lifetime, yet I have never had a direct revelation from God. I have had impressions, intimations and moments of glorious enlightenment, but nothing in comparison to Smith’s claims. Maybe the key is to be more immoral, more dishonest!!!
How He could write that: “The powers of heaven cannot be controlled or handled, only upon the principles of righteousness” (D&C 121:36)when God (Despite Smith’s moral bankruptcy and his pious scriptural rhetoric just quoted) pours down revelations through him like confetti. Do you smell a rat Elder Christofferson?
This is not the only piece of venomous doctrine that you appear, unknowingly, to make connections with, in your remarks. To repeat, you said:
“Were that to become the norm, (Our rejection of or non-compliance to getting sealed) it would be tantamount to the earth being smitten with a curse or “utterly wasted” at the Lord’s coming”
Tell me Elder C, do you recall what the original dogma was, regarding marriage and what was the vital thing that needed to be done to receive exaltation?
Have you ever read the following quotes from Heber C Kimball and Brigham Young (They got this theology from Joseph):
“Some quietly listen to those who speak against the Lord’s servants, against his anointed, against the plurality of wives, and against almost every principle that God has revealed. Such persons have half-a-dozen devils with them all the time. You might as well deny “Mormonism,” and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they will oppose that doctrine, and the whole of them would be damned. What are you opposing it for? It is a principle that God has revealed for the salvation of the human family. He revealed it to Joseph the Prophet in this our dispensation; and that which he revealed he designs to have carried out by his people.”
Journal of Discourses, Vol.5, p.204 – p.205, Heber C. Kimball, October 12, 1856
“Now if any of you will DENY THE PLURALITY OF WIVES and continue to do so, I promise that you will be DAMNED; and I will go still further, and say that this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord had given, and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that YOU WILL BE DAMNED.”
Brigham Young, Deseret News Nov. 14, 1855
They were clearly talking of Plural Marriage, or The New and Everlasting Covenant. (See D&C 132)
It was supposed to be everlasting. The Lord told Joseph that no one is permitted to enter into His glory if they reject this covenant. This is born out in early Mormon sermons and as shown in the two quotations above.
The historical data shows that they thought it would endure and be accepted by the whole world some future day, as the only God ordained relationship under heaven – that Monogamy was preached to be evil and part of a wicked gentile culture, etc.
But now, it’s ‘All Change,’ They have had to knock it on the head and revert back to monogamy, saying that THIS IS NOW the path to exaltation, so, come to the temple, get on board and be sealed.
Excuse me for asking, but you said we should not form a disconnect and defy the marriage and family relations God has appointed. What exactly has God appointed? It’s rather confusing. D&C 132 says Plural Marriage is what God has appointed and he says it’s everlasting and cannot be rejected. Has God now changed his mind? Was it HIS MIND to begin with?
You also say that if the world doesn’t sign-up to LDS temple sealings, then a curse will engulf us and the earth will be ‘utterly wasted’ at the Lords coming.
On the subject of a curse or being utterly wasted, isn’t that what happened through the practice of polygamy itself Elder C?
Have you ever read: Mormon Polygamy by Van Wagoner, or Sacred Loneliness by Todd Compton, or Sister Stenhouse’s book Tell it All on polygamy, or the three volumes on polygamy by Brian Hales, or JS Rough Stone Rolling by Bushman or The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy by Carol Lynn Pearson. Also, Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall, Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer and Escape by Carolyn Jessop?
If you had, you would know that it was a veritable ‘curse’ for Women and even for men too. You would know it was like a cancer. Romantic love went out the window, replaced by only arduous Priesthood Duty.
What a sickening, misogynistic and coercive concoction, labelled ‘Revelation,’ is Doctrine and Covenants section 132, dictated by Smith solely to persuade Emma to be compliant to the theology of plural marriage.
I have studied these works of Mormon history in the volumes above and listened to scores of repulsive stories unearthed by historians. I have to tell you that the whole theology built around polygamy, was an effing CURSE in itself – a curse of major proportions; something God would never have initiated.
So, your threat, on behalf of who you represent, unsoundly extracted from scripture, about us being wasted/cursed, cannot be trusted or taken seriously, as your track record on plural marriage originally being appointed by God and its associated cursings, suffered a sort of ‘train-wreck’, don’t you think?
Oh, ok, so we now have monogamy with cursings – if not obeyed, is that right? As the God appointed Plural Marriages theory went pear-shaped previously, by cursings ‘back-firing’ in the actual practice of it and as God has changed his mind and reverted to monogamy, with identical cursings, if not obeyed – can we just… do you think… do away with the plague bit, in case you guys get embarrassed by yet another course correction. Plus, it doesn’t do much for the Lord’s credibility. What do you think Elder C?
Apostle Christofferson, have you ever really thought about Love? How totally ubiquitous it is? How it is universally accepted as The Greatest Thing in the World, so wrote Henry Drummond. He called LOVE “the Summun Bonum” – a Latin expression meaning “the highest good.” It is the main theme of all music, of all great movies, of poetry and novels/books; of all that humanity deems inspirational, magical, dreamlike and enchanting – LOVE occupies the top place. Elder C, have you ever considered that it is one of the leading, most often thought about instincts, that is in the heart and nature of every female on the planet? The answer is a principle that I should not have to ask the hierarchy of the church about, yet I do because your predecessors were the ones who set up polygamy against all the laws of this principle. The law is Love. Where does it enter into every woman’s soul?… It is in their dreams of the perfect Prince who will one day come to them and will adore them. They bask in the thought of a romantic union where their husband will honour and cherish them throughout their lives. Men too have romantic ideas of finding some future Princess, though men can be more tempted to be promiscuous, women, on the other hand, seem to be created to be generally the opposite.
For instance, consider the observation of one of Brigham’s wives, Zina D. Jacobs Smith Young – she said this:
“A successful polygamous wife must regard her husband with indifference, and with no other feeling than that of reverence, for LOVE we regard as a false sentiment; a feeling which should have no existence in polygamy”(My emphasis)
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why God would introduce a doctrine so calculated to injure and mitigate against the heart and beautiful nature that women possess. They all desire to have a life-long union with one beloved husband, but according to Smithy, God required them to smother such instincts and bare the repellent idea of sharing their beloved with other women, in religious dogmatism that legitimises adultery, all in the name of the holy priesthood. Why would an all intelligent and compassionate Being as God, want to enforce such a devastating entrapment for his daughters, especially when he created them to intuitively abhor and loathe such a command? Can you answer this question please? Can any LDS who is reading this, answer the question? If you cannot and if your version of God cannot be explained by you, I can do it for you and so can every virtuous man and woman alive today. Every person’s sense of right and wrong, even their ‘common sense’ screams out that Smith’s holy law of the priesthood – plural marriage, was driven by a system of marriage theology, under the false excuse (In D&C 132) that the ancients were commanded by God to do it. I challenge you Elder C, to find me any biblical verse that says that the Lord commanded it of them. It does not exist. Smith made it up and we like sheep, just trusted he was right
He made it up because he wanted to get his leg-over a bunch of females and sort to create a theology that allowed a licence to do it legitimately. There is a chance that Smith was more ‘Crackers,’ than we imagine. For it is possible that he was self–deceived by his own imagination and of dynastical misconceptions, to run with the idea of sealing up families and connecting other family pedigrees eternally with his own bloodline.
But why not accomplish it by being sealed to another family patriarch, instead of that father’s teenage daughter(s) or beloved wife?
Isn’t this pattern of behaviour extremely worrying? Does it not suggest his desire was for control and access to women, for purposes aside from his eternal, spiritual theories of plural marriages, which he tried to instruct them in?
Still, on the subject of ‘The Sealing Power’ being a thing that is real and necessary, according to the prophet; is why he has put a great deal of stock in the interpretation of Malachi 4: 5-6, where it says:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
As LDS people, we always run with Smith’s explanation of these verses, yet the world-wide consensus of its meaning, by bible scholars, is quite different.
They say it has reference to John the Baptist. Though John himself denied he was the Elias or Elijah, which was to come. However, Jesus said he was. But it is thought that he meant that John came in the spirit and power of Elijah. There is a key phrase in Jesus’s identification of John the Baptist that must not be overlooked; He says,
“If you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah.”
In other words, John the Baptist’s identification as Elijah was not predicated upon his being the actual Elijah, but upon peoples’ response to his role.
Read Luke 1:17 it tends to put a different spin on Malachi’s words, where it says:
“And he shall go before him (Christ) in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
This would seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the claimed coming of Elias/Elijah to the Kirtland Temple, or to do with Genealogy work for the dead, or Sealing Power?
Rather, it was to do with preparing Israel, especially the Jewish nation; warning the parents to prepare their offspring and rededicate themselves for the coming of the Messiah.
The understanding of the Jewish nation, about the Second Coming of Christ was Zero. They believe in a coming Messiah, but they thought he would come as a liberating king (The Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord) to vanquish their enemies. Which means the prediction of Elijah coming was not to be in our time, as Joseph interpreted, but to herald his ‘first’ coming.
These facts or evidences highlight and put into serious question the whole theology of claimed ‘Sealing Power’ and from whence it came. Strange too – why the Book of Mormon says nothing about it, or about Genealogical work, or vicarious work for the dead in the spirit world, or of celestial marriage and the Melchizedek priesthood, etc. Rather it slams the door shut on the ‘wicked’ in the spirit prison and paints a hell going on for them everlastingly.
The reason these things are absent is because Smith wrote the Book of Mormon himself and at the outset, had not begun to formulate such doctrines as Temple work, or the doctrine of a variety of rewards (Degrees of Glory) or the concept of the Godhead being separate and distinct, unlike Mosiah 15, which preaches of a protestant trinity.
The fulness of the Gospel, or we could say: The things that make Mormonism unusual and distinct from other Christian churches, is the Sealing Power, along with keys to operate its use and perform all the functions of temple ordinance work along with our other tenants of faith and belief in such things as our concept of degrees of glory and what I have mentioned above, none of which are in the Book of Mormon. It seems to me that if these things were important eternal truths, why God didn’t reveal them to old and New World Prophets, especially if exaltation apparently depends upon it? Is not this also very strange?
Joseph was always talking up the necessity of a Restoration. One key verse he used was Ephesians 1:10
“That in the Dispensation of the Fulness of times he might gather together all things which are in Christ.”
I have learnt that the word: ‘Dispensation,’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘economy’ or ‘administration,’ Joseph took it as meaning a ‘Time Thing,’ a period when certain truths are dispensed by prophets to the people. Also the phrase: ‘The fulness of Times’, has reference to what the early Christians believed… that they were in the last days – in their time, not 2000 years hence. The evidence in the New Testament is overwhelming on this fact. Taking this view, we could say that Paul is speaking in Ephesians of things from God’s perspective as the author of the eternal plan. So, when Paul uses the word “dispensation” in the phrase “the dispensation of the fullness of times,” he is saying that in his lifetime, or that generation, God was organising his people for the final culmination of things.
Joseph also takes the word Restoration, as if it’s a physical thing, a gathering of peoples, of eternal concepts, etc. Yet all world-wide biblical scholars say that it is certain to be something else pertaining to the redemptive process, i.e. A Restoration from Sin to Righteousness by the power of our redeemer. Restoring us by his Grace to become his Sons and Daughters and so forth.
The whole point of the New Covenant in Christ (Or, all that is written in the New Testament) points to a new way for God. Christ is the great High Priest, to perform the very last Sacrifice for the sins of mankind. He is the sacrifice, which is why all old sacrifices of livestock, together with the whole paraphernalia of ancient rituals and ordinances are to be done away with. All fulfilled in Christ. When Jesus said on the cross… “It is Finished,” I’m sure he meant also that the old covenant was finished and a new one was beginning.
Unfortunately, however, Joseph wanted – with a vengeance, to bring it all back and amalgamate it with the New Testament (Covenant) – Gospel of Christ; chucking in polygamy and the laying on of hands, authority and ancient Priesthood stuff and so on.
Joseph wrongly imagined (Only because he had a fixation on power) that Priesthood Power was the greatest thing we should seek for, but theologian’s world-wide accord in scripture, that Love is the greatest thing in this world and the universe. My own discernment and experience in the church and in life, confirm this truth.
Joseph Smith was a charlatan, a pious fraud. I believe it is almost certain that he experienced no visions at all, though like many ordinary people, may have had impressions or intimations of things, part of which, could have been subjective, and not strictly true. Like every soul on the planet, then and now, we are more than the measure of our particular parts, our failings or weaknesses. Smith was no exception.
Smithy was a genius with regard to remembering and writing scripture. Some of it, by happenstance was quite inspired; a lot was not! He was highly charismatic and charming, a natural born leader. He erred greatly by not remaining a humble follower of the one who had all power, who chose to love as a way to influence and encourage others. Jesus cared not for position, for high reputation or status; Smith sought the opposite.
I am almost twice the age of Joseph Smith. I have written scores of love songs, in the process of which my soul has had glorious views of eternal things, which, at their pinnacle, have been ‘out of this world.’ I have been seeking to discover for a longer period of time, than the whole life of our founding prophet – all that can be known and experienced about Love. Today as I write this, I have come to know, as intimated above, that LOVE IS THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD, far eclipsing power, which Smith cleaved to so tightly.
His creation of the temple endowment, borrowed and spiritually realigned from Freemasonry, was weird, but quite a revolutionary manoeuvre in terms of getting commitment from the saints to adhere (Controlled) and stay on the Covenant Path – back then.
However, the relics of it, portrayed in our day and to which I have participated in as a patron in the temple hundreds of times over decades, has seldom given me the impression – in all its priesthoodness – that God was visibly part of it, or ever validated to my soul.
Neither has the doctrine of the priesthood in the Temple or in weekly church services, ever inspired me; just the opposite, it has always left me a little cold, feeling abstract and unappealing to my spiritual senses.
I can feel ‘faith’ working in me – giving me hope and assurance. So too – the spirit of God, comforting me and inspiring me, even giving enlightenment in sacred moments, but little to nothing ‘rocks me’ in the temple, or any of its ritualistic ceremonies.
I have reject it and all it stands for, not just because as said above, it didn’t appeal to my spiritual or emotional senses; like an ice cream, or a pork chop can appeal to our physical hunger, but because historically and theologically – it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The extraordinary absence of spiritual confirmation, together with a clashing in my mind of how I view the nature of the divine, versus the temple – throws up a wall of conflict, because its rituals and ceremonies seem contradictory to how I see God and his requirements of me. It has always remained a peculiarity and oddity to me.
I appreciate that one can find peace in the temple, it being a sanctuary of sorts, where all are equal, dressed in white and working for the common good and salvation of the living and the dead. I was once a cook in the temple, as well as a temple worker, so I know how it could be fulfilling; yet I felt at the same time mostly unmoved by the repetition of ordinances – but that doesn’t make it untrue. Of course, many beautifully adorned religious buildings, as well as many unreligious buildings, can have within their walls, a sense of peace or calmness – especially so, if we are requested to speak in whispers – all dressed in white and wearing soft slippers!
I think I felt conflicted though, about temple work as a whole, feeling that it was all so very mechanical and emotionless, wondering why the God who looks on the heart would require all these rituals to save the living or the dead.
Years after many pilgrimages to the Temple, I found that if anything, I veered towards believing (As recorded in the 137 section) that….”All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel,who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God.”
Because the church says it has the unique ‘Sealing Power,’ it infers that once you are sealed and remain faithful, you will come forth with immortal celestial bodies in the resurrection, with the ability to procreate and so forth. In connection with this, it also unfortunately, means fewer faithful souls (Which we may love dearly) will be resurrected with a lesser glorified body. This is our doctrine – peculiar to Mormonism.
Since losing trust in many things, which I previously accepted; I have given much thought to this doctrine, along with other tenants of our faith that I am discovering are a wrong interpretation by Smith. I am seriously wondering whether the 76th section of our scriptures and Paul’s writings in the New Testament of resurrected bodies which are parallelled with the glory of the sun, moon and stars, are really just about differences in levels of light, not physical, material bodies. So that in the resurrection all bodies are raised to similar immortality, but with varying degrees of perhaps ‘light’ (Awareness, truth, intelligence, understanding and righteousness) all having the propensity to grow, change and advance.
Did Joseph, who had access to Emanual Swedenborg’s visionary writings, take his rhetoric to heart when he wrote the 76th Section, because it is virtually identical to Swedenborg’s vision of the hereafter?
The bible says, God is light and that in him there is no darkness at all. Can I suggest that the word darkness can represent everything from spiritual darkness or sin and plain evil, to sincere, but unfortunate ignorance?
In the next world, agency will always be respected, so that those who elect to reject God or who do not want to advance from their own filthiness, darkened character, etc., may not be forced to do so. So indeed, there might need to be Many Mansions, or dominions in the Father’s house (John 14) or universe, where such may be able to abide without enlargement.
In connection with all I have said here about the Temple; about the Priesthood; about Joseph and where my heart and mind is right now and with what I feel is a better enlightenment – I’m thinking also, that ‘darkness,’ ’shadows’ and ‘ignorance’ abound in all of us and in all churches/institutions. That though we may have some concrete truths and absolutes, in all fields of science, astronautics, physics, biochemistry and on and on, yet understanding or substantiating even the existence of God – let alone his nature, is fathomless and beyond our power; we just exercise faith, learn what we can and hope for an outcome – spiritually speaking – that somehow comforts and directs us here and now, then later, perhaps, delivers what we anticipated.
We hardly even know ourselves, let alone others, so especially some Being out there, in the big somewhere! Yet I choose to believe that I am known and am loved, just as I have known love towards my family that it’s real and can be measured, etc. So likewise, I extend by faith, a trust in God – that He loves me. He has said: “Ye are worth more than many Sparrows.” And because in Him is Light and no darkness at all, it must follow, that He knows and loves me (And of course) all of us.
Remembering these things, I look at the main thrust of the Endowment, wherein a lot of time is taken up rehearsing how we shall identify ourselves to God one day, or any of his angels. The names, signs and tokens in the temple, are thought essential in the process of identifying ourselves to eternal beings, on our onward journey. I say: How come? Doesn’t heaven know who we are?
Whatever regime operates in heaven, its two main characteristics are light and love, where ALL THINGS ARE KNOWN, (Not one trace of ignorance or darkness about us is unseen) if not, then I can say after 60 years of seeking God, reading scripture, learning and longing and feeling after God via the spirit – that if I am not loved deeply, and absolutely known, then the whole show is a sham. In terms of us being IDENTIFIED at the gates of heaven… hand-shakes and key words, become utterly superfluous. We will be KNOWN right down to our most secret self. We will be ablaze with the transparency of our entire history. Trying to suggest we cannot enter heaven without the formalities memorised from the temple veil, is a major fault in temple theology, which makes one question the whole pantomime, including the so-called Sealing Power.
Would not the process of Godhood and heaven – for all classes of people, who, for a multiplicity of reasons having never found God in this world, or signed up to any religion, be similar to the processes that operates here in our world? Namely, that we allow and cater for the ignorance of our children, that despite their unknowing characteristics, we love them without reservation, we condescend to nurture them still. We cherish and delight in them – is this not so? I believe that God operates similarly.
Imagine please, an angel at the gates of the Celestial world addressing brother Kevin, who, though Mormon, failed to get to grips with keeping all his covenants, yet was known for his compassion and kindness to all he met and was a super husband and father – a man who lived and breathed goodness, but rarely got to the temple…
“Oh Kevin, you almost did it! You just messed up on that last token and the failed hand-shake. OH dear, never mind – look, there’s an angel down there escorting other rejects to the lower kingdom, if you hurry, you’ll catch the spaceship.” Kevin suddenly exclaims: “But I can see my family just beyond those gold gates, waiting for me?” “I know,” says the angel, “it’s such a shame Kevin – loved to have helped, but remember what the Lord said….. “when you do not what I say, you have no promise.”
If my assumption that Mormonism is not the only true and living church, but man-made with faults and mistaken doctrines in part; it means that God is nevertheless nurturing us along as local members of the organisation, blessing and guiding us. I have come to see that God is not particularly phased by falsehoods, like: ‘We (The LDS people) are the only ones who have authority and the only ones who can pass-on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, etc.’
He is not preoccupied, just as earthly parents are not, whether their child’s drawing is to scale, or correctly illustrated in the way the child is portraying something.
God, like a decent parent – blesses, encourages and works with all his children, from their entrance into this world and on into eternity. So, whether we be LDS, Catholic, Methodist, Evangelical and so forth – God is not worried or obsessed over our ignorance, as to whether a specific tenant of faith is true or untrue; rather, He is stuck on our hearts and seeing our great potential, seeks to bless us by his long suffering and grace. I am a witness of it. He cherishes individual souls – more than institutions or religious organisations, or dogma.
A slow, thoughtful reading of John, chapters 13-17 indicates that it’s about one to one relationships with him.
The Church talks-up ‘making our calling and election sure.’ (A speeded-up job of the sealing powers upon us) Yet, I cannot for the life of me see, that when Jesus said: “I will send you another comforter,” (Beside himself) who could stay with and comfort us forever after his departing… that he was NOT talking about anything else, except sending the Holy Ghost. Smith has it, that he was talking about Jesus and his Father coming to us in the 2nd Anointing, which anointing relatively few LDS have experienced. In fact, it seems only reserved for big leaders and their wives – too bad about very faithful Primary workers, who have remained solid LDS all their lives – God does not care about them – they will never receive the 2nd Anointing. I have never heard of any visitations as a result of this ordinance. (It is, no doubt, as duff as the amount of truth in the idea of needing to learn signs and tokens)
Why am I speaking about this? It is because Christ was talking about oneness with him and his Father. Note: Not oneness with the church ORGANISATION, neither its hierarchy, but with individual souls. Right now, God is working with all LD Saints and the rest of mankind, especially those who ‘long’ after him. Thus, he says:
“Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. ….That they may also be one in us.” (John 17:20-21)
One of the reasons why LDS people hold on tightly to their convictions in the face of those who challenge them over the historical narrative and theology, is because they think back on their experiences in the church and so respond to encounters about church history by a proclamation about all the blessings they have gotten because they are members of the true church. So how can it be false?
I believe that Smithy got many things wrong and I think was not a Bona-fide prophet, nevertheless, because of God’s love for him and probably in many instances when he wanted to do the right thing (Choose the right) and get inspiration or the ability to search out fragments of truth, wherever he thought it lay, it would mean that occasionally, he would stumble over inspired ideas and thoughts. Such as D&C 88….Speaking of how God is very closely intwined in our lives, no matter where we are or who we are… Says he:
“He is in all things and through all things and is roundabout all things….”
.I believe we can take this literally.
Thus, there is no part of any one’s life (Inclusive of our church life) that God cannot be involved in, no matter how many skeletons lie around, hidden in our own lives or the institutions history to date. The same institution that tells you…you’re getting blessings because you’re on the temple covenant path.
This explains why an abundance of other Christian’s bear testimony that God is working in their lives. Their religions are irrelevant to God, because He simply wants to bless these individuals, despite their differences in their tenants of faith.
I will close here with a scenario of an imaginary soul…..
‘A Man who dies and goes to heaven looking for his wife, whom he dearly loved in this world, despite being one of the 99.02% of humanity who will never make exaltation, because he did not act on a chance to be sealed in the temple. (Also one of the 99.02% who never read, or if he did, rejected the ghastly misogynistic doctrine of EXALTATION in the 132nd section about JS’s Plural Marriage)….
Seeing her in the outskirts of heaven, he begins moving towards her, and she to him. As he does so, he begins singing a well-known song he has loved on earth. It emphasises the life-long and still present depth of love and how it can affect every part of our body, mind and soul. Read all the words:
I feel like a song without the words
A man without a soul
A bird without its wings
A heart without a home
I feel like a knight without a sword
The sky without the sun
‘Cause you are the one
I feel like a ship beneath the waves
A child that lost its way
A door without a key
A face without a name
I feel like a breath without the air
And every day’s the same
Since you’ve gone away
I gotta have a reason to wake up in the morning
You used to be the one that put a smile on my face
There are no words that could describe how I miss you
And I miss you everyday
Yeah
And I’m never gonna leave your side
And I’m never gonna leave your side again
Still holding on girl
I won’t let you go
‘Cause when I’m lying in your arms
I know I’m home
They tell me that a man can lose his mind
Living in the pain
Recalling times gone by
The crying in the rain
You know I’ve wasted half the time
And I’m on my knees again
Till you come to me
Yeah
I gotta have a reason to wake up in the morning
You used to be the one that put a smile on my face
There are no words that could describe how I miss you
And I miss you everyday
Yeah
And I’m never gonna leave your side
And I’m never gonna leave your side again
Still holding on girl
I won’t let you go
I lay my head against your heart
I know I’m home
As the man goes to embrace his wife, Joseph Smith, or was it Brigham – it could have been Todd Christofferson, steps between them and announces: “Sorry, you can never have a continued connection here. She is no longer your wife. You are not now her husband.” The wife shouts out: “How can this be?” The retort is: “It’s a Priesthood matter and it overrides your lifetime of love. All earthly bonds of devotion are inferior to priesthood sealing powers in this world.”
The husband – that was, responds with: “Well, if love has no eminence here, then what efficacy or usefulness did it have on earth? Was it all a complete waste of time, energy and sacrifice? Was it all ‘unconnected’ with the love that emanates from the Father and the Son?”
Is there some lower world, outside of heaven, that we can be assigned to, that is similar to the world we have left behind, where perhaps the rest of the 99+% of humanity have gone?
And, can you tell us, are all the singers, artists, novelists, writers, musicians, poets, film makers and all that inspired and gave us joy on earth – the ones who loved ‘love,’ will they be there?
Then Bro Todd replied, along with Joseph and Brigham: “Tell you what we’ll do…. We’ll all take you down there personally. We could do with a break from this place of so much regulation, correlation, elitism, pious dogmatism and empty mechanisms… let’s all go down!!
After-thought:
…This one thought alone is sufficient to question the whole EXALTATION paradigm. The verses below show not just the truth that the saving of souls would be important and joyous to us individually, if we assisted another – even one soul, to find God. But it also must demonstrate that God himself would be equally over-joyed for every soul that turns to him.
The other thought that stems from this – that is very disturbing – is the fact that at present, the LDS Church is infinitesimally small, compared to the population of the world, so that even if you doubled our membership, we would represent less than one percent of humanity. And even less if we have to achieve enough points to expect exaltation.
Given that God has an infinitely higher propensity than us, to feel empathy, sorrow, joy and pain, it would follow that his regret and mourning for lost souls would be excruciating. So, if the ratio of those who make it back to him in the highest kingdom was barely 1 %, how agonizing would be his sorrow? The statement that says:
“This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man,” will not ever be appropriate. Rather, it would be: “This is my lament and my greatest sorrow, that I have lost eternally an unbearably-vast number of my children.”
“And if it so be that you should labour all your days in cry in repentance unto this people and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the Kingdom of my father.And, now if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the Kingdom of my father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me.” D&C 18:13,15, 16
This is the arithmetic on souls that are lost to the Father in the eternal worlds, but add on to this in our present world, all loving relationships across the globe, multiplying it by all generations of peoples going back to man’s conscious beginnings; then multiply that again by the heartache, anxiety, stress, challenges and sacrifices involved in all those relationships and the chaotic nature of life, where – in this world, illness, accident, criminality, war, starvation, ignorance and all other elements – both man-made and natural disasters – that infringe on smaller amounts of pleasure or joy and into this mix – this arduous probationary period, let us not forget that according to Mormon teaching, hordes of evil spirits are also here to tempt and derail us if possible, making even more difficult to measure-up and qualify.
One ends up with a PLAN of ABUSE; of Exploitation and Cruelty, NOT a ‘Plan of Happiness’, either here or hereafter… and all this implemented by GOD HIMSELF, who sets this ghastly regime up and running, via His church.
This though, is not really my believe of what the Father has done, it is the dreadfully skewed dogma that Smith invented and the Mormon church claimed was the Father’s Plan; this is what I castigate.
If we subtract from our paradigm the nature of the conditional God of Mormonism and His discriminatory Holy Priesthood Sealing Power, we may end up with a chance that there could be a blueprint that might scrape-through as a Plan of Happiness – only if all those who never got on the Covenant Path for very legitimate reasons, were given an extra lifetime, even a thousand years + to find the God of Love!
I believe, because of his love, He will wait. Charity is the pure love of Christ and IT ENDURETH FOREVER – so said Smith, though his Book of Mormon contradictorily limits loves functions and turns the plan into a monster programme that assigns all poor souls who don’t become righteous enough, to damnation and never-ending torment.
This applies to me, not now being on the Covenant Path, according to church doctrine. For even just those who are strong LDS families, the percentage would be very high, for at least one soul in a majority of these families to be at variance for some reason with church teachings and theology. All these are at risk. And all these individual circumstances bring grief and anxiety to parents and other siblings who believe. This is what our Sealing Power Monstrosity conjures up in practically all LDS families across the world.
Strange that we promote the lie: ‘Families can be together forever,’ slogan. The real truth is that our own love IS the Sealing Power. The church though, wants us to believe that THEY are the arbiters of this power; the mediators between God and man. So, they try to sell us the gift of our family connections and exaltation hereafter, in exchange for our obedience, our consecration and our money.
Joseph Smith produced this whole theology, which was up and running about the time of his demise in 1844. Succeeding prophets/Presidents, added, subtracted or mismanaged the doctrines, down till our present time (2023)
It still rolls on and few detect anything is wrong.