Mormon – Freeread

McCall Gathering 2007, Part 33

May 22, 2017 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 33 of 54 in the series McCall Gathering 2007

The Disciple Prepares

JJ: Fortunately a lot of the ones that we know are only half way mad like on Susan’s list. They usually only have one or two followers so they are limited in the amount of harm they can cause

Audience: So JJ, are you saying that everyone who taps into spiritual energy goes through a period of madness?

JJ: When they first tap into it, yes. When this happens people go mad in different ways and like I said the madness that I have personally seen from the people I have taught hasn’t been over the edge. They have not gone out and killed anybody but they have still gone kind of mad.

Audience: JJ as a group can we go through these because we were talking about when we first connected as group and we all went a little mad. We all wanted to get together and live in the same city and work together and so on and now of course we realize that we all lives and must continue on our present path. Can we talk about this?

JJ: Well when you first get a taste of the spiritual energy you naturally want to be with others that are like yourself which is normal but it is like Isaiah says, “He that believeth shall not make haste” and like Annie said yesterday, “make haste slowly” so to speak. The Tibetan says that the tortoise beats the hare every time. That is because the hare gets all excited and jumps up and down, and the tortoise proceeds slowly towards the goal and does not stop and he gets to the finish line and always wins the race. So the nuts and bolts person who applies the practical solutions moves ahead slowly and will eventually get there before the excited hare will get there.

The next thing Hercules did before he began his journey is he killed all of his teachers. This is symbolic again in the fact that we were saying yesterday that the person in the Ephesus stage that begins his journey finds that those who were his teachers and apostles proved to be liars and so he discontinued their association. In other words, he killed their association with him.

The disciple learns this – he finds that the people he thought who were teaching him the truth in fact were not teaching him the truth so he eliminated them from his life and this is what the disciple has to do. If he has a priest, prophet, teacher, king or whatever that is misleading him then he must find those that are misleading him and cut him self off from them. It does not say in here that he eliminates all teachers because throughout the whole book the presiding one so always has true teachers available for Hercules.

For every one true teacher there are many false teachers that Hercules has to discover and eliminate from his life. What you have to do is eliminate your relationship with false teachers and what that means is that you do let their teachings permeate you so they do not have a negative influence on you. It is impossible to shield yourself from all false teachings out there because you turn on the TV or radio, open a book or read the paper or the internet and there they are, but you do not let them have any negative influence on you and you no longer have the god outside of you and you only the God within guiding you.

Audience: I think of this scripture a lot, “when I was a child I spoke as a child and when I became a man I put away childish things.” I think that there are some teachers that are there for a child level work, an astral level that eventually you just out grow them and it is not that they are necessarily a false teacher, they are just a lower level teacher teaching a principle that once is learned then it is time to go on to higher principle.

JJ: There is a lot of truth in that too but then when you want to progress unlike in kindergarten, when it comes time to graduate and move to the first grade in real life the teacher says okay it is great that you are moving on, but often in the spiritual arena the teacher does not want you to move on. He wants you to stay there so he can continue to have power over you and so you have to break away from him. So there is a correspondence to what you are saying but then there is that other area where you have to actually free yourself from the teacher. For instance the Mormon Church never said to you, well you have learned everything in Mormonism why don’t you go on to the greater mysteries.

Audience: I did have a teacher like that; he said that if people were following him too long then he would tell them to do outrageous things to make them mad so that they would move on.

JJ: Was he still a good member of the church?

Audience: Absolutely not!

JJ: Okay, what I am saying is that the Mormon Church does not tell that but you had a good teacher and that is a sign that he was a true teacher.

Audience: I always got the feeling that those who are in a seat of spiritual authority that they would like to kill those who do not believe.

JJ: Yes a lot of them still would if it were legal and this is one of the reasons I think that so many people are terrified of the religious people gaining control even though right now they do not have much control. I think people fear them because in past lives these people might have just burned a lot of these guys at the stake and if you are burned to death at the stake for being a heretic and religious people put you death in a painful way and you have come back then you are probably pretty nervous about religious people gaining authority again. You will notice that there are quite a few people that are really nervous about any religious people getting any kind of power in the government and that is probably why – because of past life memories of what was done to them.

Audience: Isn’t Romney running for president this year?

JJ: Yes he is.

So the gods get together and say to Hercules that they are going to help him as much as possible. While he goes through these labors they are going to give him some gifts. So they give him a bunch of gifts, Minerva gave him a robe and it is a symbol of like the mantel of Elijah. Remember when Elijah left he gave his mantel to Elisha, and he said I want the spirit and power from me rest upon you, and Elijah said “I will let my mantel fall upon you.”

Minerva is doing the same thing and letting his mantel fall upon Hercules and give him additional power to do his works. Vulcan came and gave him a golden breastplate symbolizing spiritual power, Neptune came and gave him twin horses which gave him power to control his emotions and his thoughts and his impulses, Mercury came and gave him a sword of rare design. The sword is a symbol of the mind, the power to think and reason.

Apollo came to him and gave him a bow of light. The bow of light symbolizes the capacity to shoot straight to the target, to go straight towards the goal and shoot straight to the heart so to speak.

So Hercules was given all these gifts and he says, I do not feel comfortable taking all these gifts so he sheds them all and goes out into the woods and he finds a living tree. He fashions himself a club of it and he comes back and says, I feel comfortable with this club. I am going to take this club and go and do the mighty deeds with this.

So the gods say that these gifts will be there when you need them. Now this is symbolic of when the disciple begins his deeds he has all of the gifts of the gods. He has all the qualities of the soul within him. He has all these abilities and he does not really believe that he is ready for them and he does not really believe that he can tap into them so instead he gets a blunt club that he fashions with his own hands and is comfortable with this.

We know how to use this club and we start with our club to go do these great deeds that we have to do rather than use these fine tools given to us of the gods but by the time we are done with the labors we know how to use all the tools. But when we begin the labors we are uncomfortable because we think that we are just regular people not capable of getting a great revelation or doing these great deeds.

Unless we are very powerful in the ego we all like to think of ourselves as regular people. This is what Hercules thought as well – that he was just a regular guy and he just wanted to use something he was familiar with. You take an old person who has never been on the computer and put them on the Internet and they would just be all thumbs and say I can never use this. It takes a while for them to get used to the new tools and this is the way we are. We have been using the same tools for hundreds of lifetimes and now finally we begin the labors of Hercules as a disciple and the soul begins to open up and we have all these tools at our disposal. The oneness principle that is out there and all the powers of Godliness are available to us and we are afraid to use them or we do not feel worthy to use them or we don’t feel we have enough skill to use them.

There is deception here. Hercules could have used them earlier but he did not because he went with what he was comfortable with. But the disciple has to start somewhere so he said, give me great deeds to do, I want to go forth! He was eager to go and do great deeds and he said, when you give me these great deeds, I would show you what I can do; I will show you great things. So even though he was hesitant to use the great tools he was confident that he was going to do these great deeds, and he did and he didn’t. Sometimes he screwed up and sometimes he performed well.

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Joseph Smith Weighed in the Balance

March 3, 2010May 24, 2017 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 31 of 34 in the series 2010B

Posted June 13, 2010
Ruth writes:
I was contemplating if Joseph Smith was the reincarnation of “Mormon”.

John C Responds:
This is what Chris Nemelka teaches, if I am not mistaken.

JJ
I read that he was teaching this and wondered if he got that from me. Here is what I wrote back in 1978 and published it on the net in 2001:

Why was Joseph Smith told that he was “called and chosen to WRITE the Book of Mormon”? We know that as Joseph Smith he did not write the book, but translated it. The one most responsible for compiling and writing it as it reads was Mormon. Could this be a clue that Joseph was once this ancient hero? This would mean that Moroni was no stranger to Joseph for they had worked together before (Since Mormon was his father.).

His mother gives an interesting account of Joseph’s early childhood that indicates that Joseph had flashbacks to lives on the ancient American continent:

“During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He could describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, AS IF HE HAD SPENT HIS WHOLE LIFE WITH THEM.” (Lucy Smith Biographical Sketches, Pg 85)

It is interesting that this occurred when he was a young boy before he ever met Moroni in this life and before he was supposed to know anything about those ancient inhabitants. It sounds as if he were merely recalling his past life experiences just as numerous young people do today to an ever increasing degree.

https://freeread.com/archives/1560.html

John C:
We need to stop imitating the Catholics with their Peter fetish, their whole foundation upon which their hierarchy of authority is built. Joseph Smith sought glory and authority for himself and did not honor God, nor his fellow servants. This is one reason why his talent will be taken away from him and given to another.

JJ
I wouldn’t be so quick to so harshly judge the man. He had his faults but he had a lot of good things going for him. The King Follett discourse showed that near the end of his life he was still greatly progressing in light and truth.

Then at his death when, at the time of a clear blue sky, a man with a Bowie knife went to cut his head off a great light struck him paralyzed and dispersed the frightened mob after they recovered from shock. This illustrates a recognition that his service was more in the light than the dark and his mission was not done or given to another.

A Gentile (non-Mormon) named William W. Daniels claimed to have witnessed the martyrdom. He wrote that after Joseph Smith fell from the second story window a miraculous event occurred after a member of the mob attempted to cut-off Joseph Smith’s head with a bowie knife. Daniels wrote:

“The ruffian, of whom I have spoken, who set him against a well-curb, now gathered a bowie knife for the purpose of severing his head from his body. He raised the knife and was in the attitude of striking, when a light, so sudden and powerful, burst from the heavens upon the bloody scene (passing its vivid chain between Joseph and his murderers,) that they were struck with terrified awe and filled with consternation. This light, in its appearance and potency, baffles all powers of description. The arm of the ruffian, that held the knife, fell powerless; the muskets of the four, who fired, fell to the ground, and they all stood like marble statues, not having the power to move a single limb of their bodies.”
Murder of an American Prophet, pp.175-6

Other witnesses of this quoted at:
https://freeread.com/archives/3696.html

There’s an interesting book called “The Fate of the Persecutors of the Prophet Joseph Smith” that tells what happened to many who put him to death. Many died strange unnatural deaths testifying on their deathbeds that they killed a prophet. The copyright has expired on this and if there is enough interest I will post it.

Branches of the Tree of Life

March 1, 2010May 24, 2017 Joseph Dewey

This entry is part 17 of 34 in the series 2010B

Posted June 4, 2010
Alex, who is a member of the Keys s well as an LDS related list in which I have been posting the mission series asks essentially this.

If the Mormon Church is corrupt and many of its teachings are flawed then why would the Spirit or soul give any witness related to it or guide anyone to join it?

This is a good question and is one I expected to receive.

The problem is that there is no person or organization that is perfect. The first lesson the seeker after truth must realize as he seeks an inner verification is that the Spirit never witnesses to infallibility.

Of course, many people who think they received a witness merely received a good emotional feeling about something that sounded good. On the other hand, some do receive an true inner verification from the Spirit through the soul. What they often fail to do, however, is not carefully reflect on just what it was that was that was verified.

The Spirit verifies truth in two major areas.
Direction and true principles

(1) Direction.
There is a path that takes us back to union with God. As we begin the path it is as if we have choices of many branches, like the top of a tree of life. Now even though there are many branches, and some are stronger than others, it is still a true principle that even the smallest and most imperfect among them receive life giving force from the Source. Therefore, if the seeker has a choice of merging with one of the branches or being separate from all branches the Spirit will witness to him that merging with the available branch is desirable.

The religions and churches of the world are the first branches of the Tree of Life.

None of them are perfect and all of them have many flaws and just criticism can be made against them. Even so, they are the kindergartens and elementary schools that take us on the path out of darkness and point us toward light and life.

Many of those reading this have been associated with a church in their past. Consider this question: Did you learn things of value from your association with it? I would guess the answer is yes. My answer is certainly yes, even though I outgrew it and they kicked me out. The church, as imperfect as it is, was the initial source that set me on the quest for the meaning of life and search for truth.

My initial experiences in the church were invaluable.

Therefore, when the seeker, who is not yet connected with a branch leading to greater connections with the Tree of Life, has a choice to hold on to a branch or no branch at all, the spirit will verify to him that he should move forward.

If he seeks it the verification or witness may be to join the LDS, the Catholics, Protestants, Buddhism or any particular school that will just pull him into the system whereas he begins to contemplate the meaning of things.

A person can also receive inner direction on various choices in life such as marriage, career or place of residence. If an inner verification is sought and none is received it means that the partner, career or location will not make much difference to your progression. But sometimes you may need to marry a specific person or follow a certain career and in this case you will receive a witness or verification.

Such verification does not mean that you will have smooth sailing, but it does mean that you will either spiritually benefit yourself or help others progress because of it.

So the spirit therefore gives witness to true direction – a direction that leads the One Path.

(2) True Principles.

The language of the soul is the language of principles. Facts are so relative that rarely is any inner witness relative to them. Instead, on reflection, the seeker will find that an inner witness is related to some principle.

Many people read the Bible and receive an inner verification and then assume that the whole thing is infallible but what is it that was really verified? It could be one or more of a number of things:

That Higher intelligence (God) does exist and there are beings of a higher order that work with us to aid us in our progression.

That there is an inner Christ or God that we can access for guidance.

That supernatural events and miracles are possible.

That there is a higher or spiritual love that we should embrace.

That we should see ourselves as servants willing to give a helping hand to our neighbors.

Now when a seeker reads the Bible or joins a church and receives an inner warm confirmation of any of these principles he is likely to interpret such as confirmation that the whole of the church of the Bible is 100% true and infallible.

The same goes for the LDS church, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. When a person receives a witness in connection with them it is either connected with direction or some true principle revealed. When I was in the church I never received a witness of the Book of Mormon as a whole but I did receive some powerful witnesses of some of the principles taught.

My first witness happened shortly after I started reading the book and came across this scripture:

“For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.” I Nephi 10:19

I have applied this teaching throughout my life and it is indeed a true principle.

Another thing that struck a powerful chord with my soul was the teaching that little children do not need baptism to be saved from original sin.

Then, here’s another scripture that registered within:
“But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.” Moroni 7:13

Similarly, there are a number of teachings and experiences of Joseph Smith, despite his imperfections, that call forth an inner witness. One thing that brings forth the Spirit verifying that at least, at that moment, he was in the Spirit was Parley P. Pratt’s account at Liberty Jail:

The incident takes place in Richmond, Missouri, sometime in November of 1838. The Prophet and his associates had been taken prisoner at Far West, Missouri, and were awaiting trial at Richmond in some rough log houses situated near the courthouse.

Six men at a time were chained around the ankles with a long chain that was held to each ankle by a lock. Parley poignantly recounts: “In one of those tedious nights [imprisoned in Richmond in a rough log house] we had lain as if in sleep till the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our guards, Colonel Price at their head, as they recounted to each other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had committed among the “Mormons” while at Far West and vicinity. They even boasted of defiling by force wives, daughters and virgins, and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women and children,

I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified, and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards; but had said nothing to Joseph, or any one else, although I lay next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, as the roaring lion, uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:   

“SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and bear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!”

  He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.

  I have seen the ministers of justice, clothed in magisterial robes, and criminals arraigned before them, while life was suspended on a breath, in the courts of England; I have witnessed a Congress in solemn session to give laws to nations; I have tried to conceive of kings, of royal courts, of thrones and crowns; and of emperors assembled to decide the fate of kingdoms; but dignity and majesty have I seen but once, as it stood in chains, at midnight, in a dungeon in an obscure village of Missouri.”

Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pp. 209-211.
http://www.artbyandrewk.com/majesty.html

The seeker gains valuable knowledge when he realizes that many people of widely differing belief systems have received inner verification of true principles and direction. This is why it is so important to be cautions in making negative judgments of others. Maybe your friend has received an inner direction to follow a path that you consider to be in error, but for him such a path will lead to his next step on the path of liberation. If we are not careful a condemning judgment may prove to be a great error.