Day: December 21, 2014

Memorable Quotes

“The Lamp burns bright when wick and oil are clean.” H. P. Blavatsky

“I speak ‘with absolute certainty’ only so far as my own personal belief is concerned. Those who have not the same warrant for their belief as I have, would be very credulous and foolish to accept it on blind faith. Nor does the writer believe any more than her correspondent and his friends in any ‘authority’ let alone ‘divine revelation'”! H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. XI, p. 466 (October, 1889)

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every teacher needs to be a full time student, else he should quit teaching.” Ed Dawson

“Each ascension is a new creation in a new unit of time, because it really isn’t fully inside the stream of time. There is no repetition of ascension. Impossible.” Ed Dawson

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it. ” Alan Kay

“Do not enter into an unclean area, unless you intend to clean it up.” Mary Baker Eddy

Going Forward

Commentator:

Bottom line is that the polygamy proclaimed by Joseph as a revealed concept was then and remains entirely bogus. It was bogus then, it is bogus now and we only silly ourselves up by trying to pretend that somehow the Mystical, Magical Thinking Man-Child somehow had a special corner on God’s ear and mouth as regarded the rest of humanity.

Joseph truly made it up as he went along.

John Crane:

Perhaps, but he came up with a pretty compelling story. Even people who compose fiction and who reach within themselves for thoughts and ideas can bump into truth and revelation, now and then. There are passages in literature that deserve to be considered scripture.

Commentator:

As part of the thinking-people-everywhere, where would you like to go from here?

John Crane:

Since you asked, here’s my vision in rough form.

I would like to see the Restoration put back on course and continue, right up to and through the Millennium. Churches, organized religion, prophets, apostles, and the lone reformer (after the mold of “the one mighty and strong”) have all been discredited. What’s needed is something new. We have a responsibility to establish a true Zion, and prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. I don’t believe he will come until we are ready. We will not be idle spectators to events that unfold, but through the power of the priesthood, through our UNITED faith, we will control future world events. I don’t believe Christ will come until we are ready, and we invite Him to come. He will not come to impose his will on people, or solve our problems, but we, the people of the earth, can undo the problems, we ourselves created.

I see it continuing through a NEW dispensation, building on all former dispensations, in harmony with principles laid out the Joseph Smith dispensation, but not copying it. I see God working through MANY men and women to bring this about, not just one “chosen vessel”.

In order for the new “church” to be born, the old “church” must die — in the hearts and minds of the people. By new “church”, I mean “church” in the Greek sense “ecclesia”: the out-called — the gathering of the elect. By old “church”: the Old English “cir”, meaning the building or the legal institution.

Looking for leaders, not followers, and certainly not people who just complain, no matter how eloquently

It is one thing to complain about the faults of people and institutions, but it is quite another to take active positive steps to effect change, or create a better alternative. This is what I have been about for the past 30 years, and I’m not about to throw in the towel. The change I am talking about involves all of us taking responsibility for the conditions we find ourselves in.

The Restoration is far from over. If we don’t renew and reinvigorate it, apostasy will and already has begun to creep back in. I’m ready to step up to the plate and make sure it doesn’t die with Joseph Smith, but this time it will not founder or fail. Why? Because this time it will not be the work of just a couple of men, followed by wave after wave of uninspired caretakers. It will be the shared vision of MANY people, all working in concert, all working together, all connected to God, all able to reach out to others in ways they have never been reached before.

The supper of the Bridegroom has been set, and the rich, the wise, and the able have been invited, but they turned up their nose at the offering, while casting out the despised and rejected, the thinkers, and those who care enough to make a real contribution. Now, the invitation is sent out again, and again, all are invited.

You can read the invitation at https://john144.com/blog/?p=182. Joseph Smith said we ought to have the founding of Zion as our greatest object. Is it your greatest object? Is it even on your radar?

Read the invitation at the address above, then, don’t RSVP to me. RSVP to the Lord. In other words, pray about what you read and do as the Spirit directs you.

I am looking to start or join any organized church. I am not looking for disciples, followers, or sycophants. I am looking for co-workers and fellow servants.

God and Man

God and man exist upon the same principles. There never was a father without there first being a son, meaning that the being that we consider God the father, was first a son to another father, just as Christ showed us how we could become sons to him as our father.

One thing the endowment teaches so plainly and so up front that most miss it. The players in the drama are playing ROLES. They are acting in certain offices, just as the patrons are to consider themselves in the roles of Adam and Eve. The art of the drama imitates the life of the reality.

God is our god and our father, not only because he demonstrated a superior intelligence, but because we all sustained him/her as such. Satan demanded God’s honor, which is his power. God’s power comes as much from our faith and support as from his/her ability to marshal, command, and channel that faith and support.

We are really much more powerful beings than we give ourselves credit for. And the path to full godhood is as much learning how to become a god as it is to unlearn that which us prevents us from being a god.

Joseph Smith said that “man will be punished for his own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression”.

93:38 Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.

93:39 And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.

If we find ourselves out of the presence of God, as Adam and Eve were, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. We have an awful lot to unlearn, and churches do us no favor by forcing us to conform and avoid sin, rather than taking responsibility for it, learning from it, as we are supposed to do. Your church that preaches against damnation is actually damning or condemning you by holding back your progress.

But the course of God is one eternal round, and I don’t mean “God” in the sense that most religious people think of it. In fact, I can’t find an English word or words the corresponds to what I mean. I guess the closest I could come is the concept of god, not as a being, but as a principle, a pattern, or an order which is repeated throughout eternity.

We we say “in the beginning”, or we talk about God surrounded by intelligences, we are taking the ring of eternity that Joseph Smith spoke of, and cutting it at an arbitrary point, for the same of explaining an eternal principle to finite minds. In the book Dune, Herbert had in mind a huge back story leading up to the Saga of Paul. This is why he said, and why the historian Irulan said “beginnings are such delicate times”. Where to begin? Where to begin?

Just think about it and see if it doesn’t make more sense to you.

Teachers and Gurus

Any true teacher should make statements which the student can then confirm for himself. No more.

A real “guru” gives you methods whereby you can look for yourself.

Unfortunately, most people are not up to doing so.

Teachings are very valuable as they can guide where to look. That saves lots of time as one has the chance to inspect the relevant things first instead of engaging in endless journeys.

Manipulators like to indoctrinate others with truths that make them do things which is of benefit for the manipulator. The combination of certain truths are then known as ideologies. They are not made for the benefit of the people who live it out.

Holiness to the Lord

A temple, in and of itself, is a pretty, but useless relic.

It’s people who use the temple that make a temple a temple. It’s their participation and attentiveness to the ordinances. It’s their sincerity in entering into the covenants made therein.

And it’s the Spirit of the Lord that should fill the temple.

Rather than emphasize more temples, I would emphasize more temple preparation.

At the eastern entrance to every temple, there is a door which is intended for the Lord to use, should He determine to visit the temple. Emblazoned above the door are these words: “The HOUSE of the LORD. HOLINESS to the LORD.”

This is not just a logo, a slogan, or a catch-phrase. This is a greeting and a reminder of the attitude which we should bring with us into that house. Reading this ought to prick our conscience and cause us to reflect every time we enter.

Rhetorical question: If the Lord should walk through that door of your temple, looking for Holiness, would He find any?

My Personal Belief in God

As far as my personal belief in God, I see God as the combined intelligence in the universe. As such, we are each part of God, and as we humans become more united in heart and mind, we are able to begin to collectively exercise the kind of power we normally associate with a God. Joseph Smith and John Taylor both taught that no man (you could just as well add women), exercises the Priesthood alone, but does so in concert with all who now hold and have held the Priesthood in the past.

Churches, such as the LDS church, think they own and control the Priesthood, but the power of god is nobody’s exclusive right. To think otherwise, is like claiming an exclusive right to air, rain, and sunshine. They are available to everyone.

But, I also believe there are multiple planes of existence, and those who have evolved farther than us, exist on these higher planes, and through the exercise of natural laws, which we don’t fully understand, and aren’t yet ready to live, are so much more advanced than we that we would consider them gods, though they are really our friends and co-workers, possessing enough enlightened self-interest to understand that when they reach down to assist us, they are, at the same time, reaching up to beings above them, and we are all lifted up together.

Therefore, I see god as somebody I relate to on a personal and daily basis as a friend and co-worker — somebody I can deal with as an equal.

What is Perfection, Anyway?

Let’s start with the definition of “perfection”. The word is mistranslated from a Greek word meaning to be whole, complete, finished. It has nothing to do with moral exactitude or following authority. Christ commanded to all to be perfect, and the famous scripture in Nephi says that the Lord will not give us a commandment without showing us a way that we can fulfill it. Therefore, if a person finds themselves constantly striving, but never achieving, then the thing to do is to to stop beating themselves over the head and look at what perfection really looks like.

This attitude might make the present-day general authorities mad, and your bishop might not like you telling him this, but I actually got a knowledge of this principle from an old stake president, and from Steven R Covey, in a class at BYU. We don’t achieve perfection over night, but we gain perfection in one area at a time, and we do that by making a promise to ourselves and the Lord that we know we can keep, and we keep it. To that extent, we build up our personal integrity, or our wholeness in that one area. Then, when we have mastered it, we go on to another area.

This is not striving. This is achieving. And, when you have mastered even a small area, instead of feeling discouraged, you get a sweet feeling of success and accomplishment like nothing else. This is a great feeling, and there is nothing wrong with getting addicted to this.

I didn’t get this from listening to church leaders, alone. I study the scriptures a lot, and that’s where I get a lot of my spiritual nourishment. There is a passage in the D&C that says if your eye be single to God, your whole body will be filled with light. And in the NT, Christ taught us to love God with ALL our heart, might, mind, and strength. These are just other ways of saying that we need to be whole, have integrity, be without hypocrisy and without guile.

For my own life, after fitting all this stuff together, I felt like I finally really understood what the Gospel was all about. The Gospel is doable, and a joy, not a job. It’s really not all that difficult, but the only hard part is to strictly follow it, not try to live up to some impossible, arbitrary code.

Quotes from Boyd K Packer

“You seminary teachers and some of you institute and BYU men will be teaching the history of the Church this school year. This is an unparalleled opportunity in the lives of your students to increase their faith and testimony of the divinity of this work. Your objective should be that they will see the hand of the Lord in every hour and every moment of the Church from its beginning till now.”

“Church history can be so interesting and so inspiring as to be a very powerful tool indeed for building faith. If not properly written or properly taught, it may be a faith destroyer.”

“There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not.”

“Some things that are true are not very useful.”

“That historian or scholar who delights in pointing out the weaknesses and frailties of present or past leaders destroys faith. A destroyer of faith — particularly one within the Church, and more particularly one who is employed specifically to build faith — places himself in great spiritual jeopardy. He is serving the wrong master, and unless he repents, he will not be among the faithful in the eternities. … Do not spread disease germs!”

– Apostle Boyd K. Packer, “The Mantle is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect”, 1981, BYU Studies, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 259-271

Drama

People don’t just leave the Mormon Church. They have to stage a dramatic exit, then slam the door behind them. All for the affirmation, agreement, and amusement of those who have already done this. Otherwise known as preaching to the choir.

You brought up new evidence. You stated it more eloquently than most could, but the story is the same: somebody who made a man-made church their idol, but now has seen that idol has come crashing to the floor.

Have you ever considered what it might be like had you built your world around a real, personal relationship with God, and personal ethics in your life, rather than worshipping a legal entity and paying lip service to the fictional God they have created?

I built my entire life around following the Spirit of God. I learned about the Gospel as a youth, not from the church, but from reading the scriptures and the writings of the early leaders of the church. I basically converted myself to Mormonism because I wanted to know and live the truths experienced by the leaders in the scriptures, and early church leaders.

I made the mistake of thinking that all Mormons felt as I did. However, when I finally became directly acquainted with the Church, I found people who only saw the Church as a short-cut to doing their own thinking and blazing out their own personal search for truth.

I found myself in the same position as truth seekers in Joseph Smith’s day — there was no church teaching the truths of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and D&C. Claiming to have the same organization as the primitive church is not going to save anybody and hasn’t saved anybody. In the end, salvation is an individual affair. We need a Shepherd to guide us through life, and there is only one Shepherd, worthy of the name.

Then, I discovered the Church endorsing, if not master-minding, a plan, reminiscent of the people of Ammonihah to destroy the liberties of their fellow Americans, not through the force of arms, but through the force of law.

When I found all of this out, I could no longer reconcile the two.