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It is amazing to me how quickly apostates forget all that is good in the church and resort to such vile slander of the church and the church members. It is people like Andrew [Erickson] and Jeff [Hanks] who provide a great deal of the persecution they claim that we are lacking.
It is interesting how people use the words 'apostate' and/or 'apostasy'. I would like to look at the definition of apostasy:
- APOSTASY: an abandoning of what one has believed in, as a faith, cause, or principle.
- APOSTATE: renouncer of one's professed faith.
I would like to ask as to who the true apostates really are? It is the LDS Church and membership that has departed from their former beliefs, principles and practices. Especially those principles pertaining to Zion and Celestial laws.
[Name Withheld], you have quoted Joseph Smith in regard to this subject. I hardly believe Joseph would even recognize the current slaughter of the beliefs and principles that he put in place, as it is now practiced by the LDS Church. It is the LDS Church that has abandoned former beliefs and principles. This is a fact.
Many LDS people have said that Joseph was wrong on doctrinal points. Many right here [LDS discussion board] have said that Brigham Young and other Apostles were wrong in their doctrines and teachings. If we accept that they were 'wrong' then the current leadership has no legs to stand on. Do you truly believe that Gordon B. Hinckley knows more about the purity of the Fullness of the Gospel and Priesthood than Brigham Young? Brigham was as close to Joseph and his teachings as any man on earth. What blasphemy and hypocrisy it is to say that those men were unenlightened and yet those leaders today could never lead us astray and that they know more than those who were the closest to the fountain and dispensation head. That is the height of blasphemy.
You still have not addressed the issue as to the warning voice that must go forth in the last days. All I have seen are lame excuses and sidestepping of the true issue. The point is that no one in the LDS Church warns anyone of the judgments which are to come. It is completely foreign to the worldly direction of the corporate church today. In other words, today's LDS leadership and membership are incongruent with the scriptures and specific charge in the last days. If you ask most LDS, they don't even believe that these are the last days. I testify that these are the very last days and that sweeping judgments are about to overwhelm the United States and bring this nation to its knees as prophesied. If this is true, then why aren't your 'watchmen on the tower' saying anything? Because it is not financially, politically or popularly correct in today's world? That great and spacious building that Lehi saw is just as full of LDS leaders and members as anyone else, and their great fall is coming. Soon.
And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the HOUSE OF ISRAEL hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (1 Nephi 11:35)
I know that these things seem hard to believe and that it is easier to defend your place in the current LDS Church and its direction. To assess things any differently would mean that you would have to make some drastic changes and repent in your life. That is sadly too much for most people who have so much invested in the material world and their place in the LDS synagogue. But I say this; this is what is required of all true saints in any age. To be willing to sacrifice everything to follow the truth and to find where it is that the Lord is placing His Priesthood power and the foundations of the future Zion. If the Church apostatizes along with the majority of the people (which by the way has happened over and over in the scriptures), God always calls out a remnant of those who will serve Him at all costs and God does fulfill His plan with that remnant. That has been and is the pattern today. That is why the Lord calls this final work a 'strange act' and 'bizarre work'. This is the great surprise at the end.
Again [Name Withheld], who are the real apostates in this last dispensation? If anything, I was cut off from an apostate church. The truth and power have now been driven into the wilderness. This has occurred again and again in the history of God's people. Contrary to Faust's remarks, this dispensation is not 'safe' from wholesale apostasy. Judgments are about to befall this nation and all who pervert the right way of the Lord. This is a day of warning and of choosing. The Lord will not be mocked as His mighty arm is about to be bared to the nations of the earth. This message is not popular: it never was, it never will be.
Sincerely, Jeff Hanks
"For a man to lay down his all, his character and reputation, his honor, and applause, his good name among men, his houses, his lands, his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, and even his own life also-counting all things but filth and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ-requires more than mere belief or supposition that he is doing the will of God; but actual knowledge, and most assuredly knows that he is doing the will of God; but actual knowledge, realizing that, when those sufferings are ended, he will enter into eternal rest, and be a partaker of the glory of God." (Joseph Smith, Lectures on Faith, Lecture 6:5)