Nauvoo Gathering 2003, Part 5
The Problem of Corruption
JJ: Okay, let’s continue. I’ll add a few things here. Someone asked about the various temples. The first temple was in Kirkland Ohio. That’s where they had the supernatural experiences. Joseph Smith received a vision of how it was to be built. One of his associates, Sydney Rigdon and he actually saw it together, if I remember correctly. They built it according to specifications. They had the different quorums organized in different numbers. They put the various quorums in the different rooms in the temple and the story goes that Joseph Smith kept moving from one room to another because they kept getting out of order. He wanted them in a specific order for the veil to be rent between heaven and earth. When he finally got them in the correct order, as he was instructing, a pillar of fire came down from the sky and shed light upon the temple.
It wasn’t only the believers who saw the pillar of fire, everyone saw it. It lit up the whole countryside. The enemies of the church thought the church was burning down. The next day the local newspaper published a report that the Mormon temple had burned to the ground.
Even the enemies of the church had seen that the temple was on fire. They thought it was burning down, but the people inside the temple knew that something else was happening. The veil between heaven and earth was rent and the pillar of fire came down. Many people reported seeing heavenly beings. Many different experiences happened in the temple dedication. The dedication lasted for three days.
Interestingly, the revelation of the temple building, given to Joseph Smith, said, “The glory of God” would be manifest in the temples. If it doesn’t manifest that would mean the temple has not been accepted by God. When they were persecuted in Missouri and chased out of the state they came here (to Nauvoo) and built the temple from scratch and were expecting a similar thing to happen. But just before the temple was completed Joseph Smith said, “I have to set the church in order before the temple is finished.” He saw that there was something amiss that had to be set in order to bring the pillar of fire down.
But before the temple was finished, he was killed. Brigham Young continued and finished it, but when they dedicated it no pillar of fire came down. A pillar of fire eventually came down when mobs destroyed it. (Laughter) After it was burned and just a shell remained, a tornado hit it and leveled it to the ground. It was almost like the wrath of God showing itself. Recently, the Mormons have done one of the most constructive things they’ve done in a hundred years. They’ve restored the temple to the way it looked originally. Now it’s a good tourist attraction and they do use it in their work here. Today you can’t get into the temple unless you are an orthodox member, pay tithing, don’t drink or smoke and do all sorts of things. In Joseph Smith’s day, when the pillar of fire came down, anyone who wanted could go inside.
Audience: Why did that transition take place that the person couldn’t take any substances?
JJ: An interesting story is that Joseph Smith received a revelation on what he called the Word of Wisdom. A lot of people were drinking and smoking during meetings and his wife was complaining about it, and she wanted him to ask God what He thought about it. So he got a revelation on what was good to eat or drink and what was good for the body and wasn’t good for the body. The revelation begins by saying, This is “not a commandment.” Do not give this as a commandment but leave it to people to use their own judgment. It said that strong drink it not good for you but it did name a drink which is good for you. Do you remember what it is? It said mild drinks made of barley are good. What is a mild drink made of barley? Beer. Joseph Smith drank beer.
Interestingly, scientific research shows that moderate drinkers are healthier than non-moderate drinkers. It also says in the scriptures, “The wine of your own make is good but certain wine made by your enemies may not be good.” This is the case today too. Some wines have a lot of additives in that aren’t nearly as good as some other wines. Tobacco isn’t good for you and that’s about the only one that I agree with as taught in the church today.
Even with tobacco I’d guess if you just smoked one cigarette a month it’d could be good for you. If you found the right amount to take it would be beneficial but we overdo it. We overdo in the amount that we eat and drink. It’s a human tendency if we like something we overdo. If we could find the right amount to smoke we would probably find it could be beneficial. For instance, smokers get less Alzheimer’s disease than non-smokers. Tobacco may be medicinal if it’s taken in the right doses.
He also said that hot drinks are not good for you and they have shown that if you drink too hot of drinks too often you’re more likely to get certain types of cancer. The later LDS authorities decided if they aren’t good for you in some circumstances they’re not good for you any time, so they made a black and white rule, no tea, coffee, cigarettes, or alcohol.
If you point out to a Mormon that it says in their own scripture that mild barley drinks (or beer) are good for you, they’ll go into shock! They’ve never noticed that scripture. (Laughter) They say it’s Pero, a drink from barley, but Pero didn’t even exist in the days of Joseph Smith.
Whenever you meet someone who has some strange belief it’s usually tied to a religious background somehow. Religion gets people to do and believe the oddest things. An interesting thing about the church today is that the revelation said not to make it a commandment but they did. The revelation said to leave it up to people’s judgment, but they don’t leave anything up to people’s judgment.
This is typical of all organizations. Almost every significant organization that’s appeared in history was started by some initiate that had some good ideas. Even Amway had some great ideas. Yet the Amway salesman of today will just bug you to death. I sold Amway for awhile in the early sixties and the Amway guy was really nice. Now you meet an Amway guy and he’s a pest! It’s the same with every organization that alters the world. It’s usually begun with good intentions and good ideas then within a generation or two, they will be altered so the final form becomes almost unrecognizable.
The Christian religion gets blamed for all sorts of horrors, like the crusades, burning heretics at the stake etc. People find all kinds of fault with it and there is fault to be found, yet Christianity was started by Christ, the Prince of Peace. People have taken many of His teachings and altered them and changed them to conform to their own belief systems. Many of the teachings in the name of Christ would be abhorred by Christ if He were here. This often happens.
The same thing happened with the Mormon Church and the Jehovah Witnesses. The Jehovah Witnesses are looked on as pests. They were a group that originally got together and studied the Bible just to see what it said. They said they weren’t going to organize a church and to this day Jehovah Witnesses still insist they are not a church, even though they are a church. They insist they don’t have a dogma, even though they have a dogma. When they started out, a group got together and decided they would just see what the Bible says. They were going to study at it as if they didn’t believe anything and start from scratch. So they got together to see what the Bible said. When they decided what it said, any new guy coming in had to accept what they thought it said. There was no room for creative thought once everyone decided what they thought the Bible did say. The original guys had some creative energy going. It’s that way with every organization.
The Mormon Church, of course, is no exception. It’s interesting to compare how it was 160 years ago to how it is today. For instance, Joseph Smith taught freedom of thought and really emphasized this a lot. He really emphasized thinking for yourself, communing with God without someone else interfering and telling you what to believe. Yet now the Mormon Church is the most strict of all the churches about keeping people in line with the dogmas of the church. If you were to say, “I think a little differently than the church on this.” Or, “I got a revelation from God” that’s something that really gets you in trouble fast.
Audience: Are they extreme in that they require a certain type of garment to be worn?
JJ: Yeah. So at the end of almost every organization, its faults or its problems are the distortion of what they were at the beginning. Like Christ’s main message was, “love your fellow man” but that’s the most difficult thing for many of the modern Christians to accept. Oftentimes people will feel more loved by their atheist neighbor than they will by their Christian neighbor. Any of you have any good friends who are atheists? All the atheists I know are really nice people. They go out of their way to be nice to show that the atheist can be a nice guy too.
When they completed this temple here (in Nauvoo) a lot of Mormons were really disappointed because no pillar of fire came down. They’ve rationalized that ever since and no pillar of fire has come down on a temple again. Does anyone know how many temples are built now? I’ve lost track. There are over a hundred temples now and not one pillar of fire has come down on any of them. (Note in 2021 there are 168 dedicated temples with 83 additional ones planned) Yet the scripture says that if this doesn’t happen it means the temple is polluted. It says that right in the Mormon scriptures. If a pillar of fire doesn’t come down, it means the temple is polluted.
Note – here is the scripture: “And inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it; Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God. But if it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples.” D&C 97:15-17
The current members, of course, rationalize this away because they don’t think their temples are polluted.
Audience: The LDS Church has come to a location where it’s been canonized as a church. It’s become a symbol of perfection, of self-perfection and if its membership is not compliant with all these expectations it reflects to something opposite to what it’s trying to project. So this is why there are a lot of excommunications which occur in the church. The church has a product and it’s trying to sell it out there. Two little handsome dudes are knocking on doors trying to sell a product. The focus of the church is not the individuals’ spiritual well being in my opinion.
In other words, if you as a member are compliant, then the natural outcome will be happiness and spiritual well being, as long as you’re compliant. And this does two things. It affords the individual to feel good about himself and feel joyful, and the church’s image is protected. That’s really what it’s come to, as I see it.
JJ: Just before the temple was completed Joseph said he had to set things in order in order. He didn’t mention about bringing a pillar of fire down, but that was an indication. If it was out of order then the pillar of fire wouldn’t come down. An interesting thing about the Nauvoo temple is that wasn’t the first temple like that he had built. He built a temple in Atlantis that was called the Temple Beautiful. The funny thing was that after I learned about this, I found in Edgar Cayce’s writings where he talked about the Temple Beautiful in Atlantis and I’d never seen that previously. That turned out to be quite fascinating. So this wasn’t his first attempt at building temples.
Nauvoo means “beautiful” in Hebrew and thus Nauvoo Temple means “beautiful temple,” yet the one in Atlantis was called the “Temple Beautiful.” The meaning is the same. He was the main creator of the temple back then in that day. So he was recreating here a temple that once existed in Atlantis. They did some interesting things in the temple in Atlantis that they don’t do here. They healed with music and dancing and movement. The temple was very much a healing center. In the Mormon Church it is meant to be more of a learning center. In Atlantis learning was also emphasized, but the use of temples was much more diverse.
Audience: Do you mean the lost city of Atlantis?
JJ: No, the lost continent, the sunken continent. He built a temple in Atlantis.
Audience: He reincarnated is what you’re saying.
Audience: So previously to being Joseph Smith he built one of the temples in Atlantis?
JJ: Yeah. That was when the last of the lizard people were still in existence. We talked about them recently. The lizard people wanted to continue their existence and they thought he had a secret. They thought he had the secret knowledge to continue the race so he was in hiding one particular life because they were chasing him all over the place trying to get this knowledge away from him so they could perpetuate their race. They were unsuccessful so the race died out. Now the people who were the last of the lizard race, who were sort of like spiritual vampires, those who achieved a certain amount of evolution have incarnated as humans. Some of them have adapted and others have not. Those who haven’t adapted very well have entered politics. (Laughter) They’re seeking power and continue to seek power over the race. There are a lot of good people in politics but there are many who are in it for power.
Any more questions about the Mormon experience here? We don’t want anyone to think we’re concentrating on that particular religion. They did have an inspired beginning as well as most of the other churches. Each one had a different purpose.
Christian Science had a purpose to introduce to humanity metaphysical healing techniques. They were partially successful and like the Mormons many techniques were misused and misunderstood and not presented to the world that way it was intended. Almost every organization was founded with good intentions and inspired ideas, often by an initiate and often by a representative of the Hierarchy then within a generation or two things turn around.
One thing that will happen in the New Age that will be different is the Molecular Relationship. The Molecular Relationship will be self correcting. When your body gets sick all the cells in it go into a mode to heal the body so the body becomes self healing. If you cut yourself, your body does everything possible to heal that cut so everything is as good as new. If we look at organizations of the earth, when they begin to get corrupted, there’s no healing. They don’t get better, they keep getting worse. All the nations and organizations make the same mistakes. If we look at all the governments of all the nations of the earth, they all have the same problems. They all evolve downward until there’s some type of revolution. After a revolution you either get a Hitler or a Lincoln. You either get one or the other. If you get a Lincoln you have a little progress, or a George Washington or a Winston Churchill. You have a little progress made if an initiate comes in and helps to fix things. But normally there is a deterioration in every organization until it collapses.
The Molecular Relationship will be different. We’re not going to go into this in any detail here because we don’t have time but in the molecular relationship it will be self correcting. When there is a problem, the problem will be corrected. It won’t need to wait until there’s a revolution. This is what the world is waiting for, a living organization that can correct itself so that when there is a problem, the problem will be corrected instead of letting it get worse and worse.
This problem of deterioration has been in every government and every religion and every business. Things get worse after they’re created. Look at this country. Some things have gotten better but we’re not nearly as free as we were when we first started, except for the African Americans. But as a whole we’re weighed down with many more taxes and many more laws; things have gotten worse and worse and worse.
The founders had a lot of good ideas that were implemented for a while. Many of the good ideas have been suffocated and taken away and there has been no self correction. We’ve had a few great men come and do some good and change certain things back or move certain things ahead but overall when an organization is created it deteriorates.
Hewlett Packard, for instance, was one of the best organizations in the business world. People go to work in their shirt sleeves and they have a very loose style of management. As long as the two founders were at the head of things that’s how it went. The two founders recently retired and now the people I talk to who are working for HP say it’s turning into a regular company now. It’s no longer an easy management system like they had. Things are becoming stricter and more controlled. They’re not as bad as orthodox companies yet, but my friends who work there are worried that it’s headed there.
Audience: A little mystery about the temple here in Nauvoo. The temple that burnt down had a carving of the sun, did you know that? General Washington, when he was elected as President of the United States, set up his original cabinet. His chair, where he sat in front of his table, had that carving in the backrest.
JJ: Really?
Audience: Yea, and you pointed out that Joseph Smith was Masonic but so was General Washington. This has always been intriguing to me.
JJ: Most of founders of this nation were Masons; the Masons had a strong part in the constitution. Many say the Masons are devil worshippers so that’s kind of funny.
Audience: There’s a Masonic temple in Charlotte, Michigan. My great grandfather started it. Just a few years ago all this negative dogma came of it. They tried to force them out of the community and they all huddled together. Charlotte is the county seat. I’m conflicted. Is it a good thing or what is it? It’s so secretive.
JJ: Like anything else, the Masons have gone through a deterioration. Then they have a reform once in awhile. Their basic principles are good. The basic principle is this: They believe in a positive conspiracy. They’ve been successful with a positive conspiracy using people like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and a lot of the founding fathers. They used a positive conspiracy to create a better government. They’ve used this positive conspiracy idea a number of times successfully in history to improve things. But then other people with bad motives used conspiracy in a negative way. They kill or destroy people who don’t cooperate with them and things like that. That’s where the negative history of the Masons comes for people are black and white. They think everything is either good or bad.
People tend to judge things by saying this is good or this is bad. So when people look at the Masons the basic idea behind most people is whether it is good or bad. They find something bad in it and believe it’s the work of the devil. But Masons are just like any other organization. They’ve done some really good things and some really negative things. In the early history of this country they used a lot of subtle influence by getting the right people into positions to make positive changes. They did make some positive changes, the most positive being the foundation of this country and the constitution that was created. This was done through subtle Masonic principles.
Audience: There’s some really weird stuff, like the Washington Monument has certain stars in the night sky.
JJ: Oh yeah, they used sacred geometry, symbols and things like that. DK talks about Masonry. We’re going to talk more about him at this gathering. He says it will be reformed in the near future. Joseph Smith tried to reform it but whatever reformation he did was mostly lost because the Mormon Church today will excommunicate you if you get involved in Masonry, even though Joseph, their founder was a Master Mason. That’s another ironic twist. Many the founders of Mormonism were Masons. Yet the Mormon Church today doesn’t want any of its members to have anything to do with Masons. Any ongoing reformation started by Joseph Smith in Masonry is just gone. But DK says Masonry will be reformed in the near future. In the New Age it will play a big role.
Audience: In our little neighborhood there’s a paper that comes out once a week. They’ve been running ads for the Masons and there’s been a series of questions. If you answer yes to these questions maybe Masonry is what you’re wanting. I just wondered if anyone else has noticed things like that. Are these things the beginning of the reformation?
JJ: I don’t think the reformation has begun yet. It’s like a club these days. The Mormon Church started out on the cutting edge of religion but now it’s just like any other religion. Masonry started out a long time ago but they were the cutting edge in a lot of things and then they got a bad name because some Masons with negative intent did some pretty destructive things and used the conspiracy idea for negative ends. The Masons today are trying to counter that image that they’re devil worshippers and things like that. Now they’re kind of like a club and if you join that’s about all you get out of it. Very few of the Masons today have knowledge of the esoteric philosophy.
Audience: Is there such a thing as a thirty second degree Mason?
JJ: Since I’ve never been a Mason I can only go by what’s written about it. The Scottish Rite is said to have 33 degrees.
“The goal of evolution is found to be a gradual series of light demonstrations. Veiled and hidden by every form lies light. As evolution proceeds, matter becomes increasingly a better conductor of the light, thus demonstrating the accuracy of the statement of the Christ ‘I am the Light of the World’”. DK, A Treatise on White Magic, Page 9
Dec 5, 2003
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