Bruce Hammer
Bruce Hammer
I remember one time in Moab, Utah we had a started a small picnic fire on some property that my dad had bought. We were enjoying each others company and it had gotten dark. I was standing at the tailgate of an International Scout (similar to a jeep) that my family had and all of a sudden it was as if it was noonday. I distinctly remember my thoughts that this must be the end of the world in the biblical sense. I found out much later that a small asteroid had entered the earth's atmosphere and it was actually bright enough to light up the whole area.
I grew up mostly in Moab, Utah and had many wonderful experiences hiking, camping and fishing in that area. I always liked finding Indian ruins or writings that I hadn’t seen before or finding a dinosaur track in the sandstone or discovering a fossil in the rock that we had been climbing on. I always apreciated the natural world that I lived in and everyday was a new opportunity for more experience. I’ve tried to instill in my children this sense of wonder, respect and appreciation for the world that God has created for us. I guess I could be accused of being, in a sense, an enviromentalist though not in the liberalist school.
As I said, I wasn’t all that active in the organizational activities of the LDS Church. I attended Primary and MIA. I did not serve a mission for the LDS church. I met my future wife Debbie as I was playing the piano by myself after a talent show at a MIA meeting.
I always had an inherent testimony of God and Jesus Christ but I can’t say that I ever considered the organization of the church infallible. The gospel was true and therefore I knew that there was a God. The organization was only a vehicle to dispense the gospel to Gods children. I did not worship the organization, I worshipped God.
Over the years as I went to meetings I realized that what was being taught there was not the whole picture. The scriptures began to make more sense and I could see that there were differences in what was said in meetings and the written word of God through the ancient prophets. I sensed a loss of the truth and an ongoing denial by the majority in the church of the fullness of the gospel.
My wife and I became interested in studying the early documentation of the church to find out what the early brethren and sisters believed and knew. This documentation in the LDS church was almost non-existent as it seemed that all they really wanted to do was to forget their past and merge with the world society. It seemed that they had stopped talking about the higher doctrines of the Kingdom long ago even though it was evident that these doctrines were fairly common knowledge with the saints in Brigham Youngs and John Taylors time. It was as if by not talking about the early doctrines then the history of their own ancestors and the early church never existed. I wanted to know what happened in 1890. I wanted to know what happened in John Taylors administration and Brigham Youngs Presidency. I wanted to know all the circumstances of the Manifesto of Wilford Woodruff. I wanted to know WHY they gave up plural marriage and the Law of Gathering and the Law of Consecration. So, as in my youth, I embarked on an adventure to discover the truth.
The problem was that none of this information was available in the church. I found out very quickly that even talking about what REALLY happened in 1890 was cause for concern by the church authorities in my stake and ward. I came to the conclusion that the majority of the members of the church did not know their own history. And what was even worse is that they didn’t care and didn’t want to know. I could see something was wrong. Ignorance was the rule. If a people are ignorant of their roots and of the gospel which they purport to know, sustain and defend I could only come to one conclusion. The church by definition and the very testimony of its members was in apostasy. They didn’t know the early doctrines which the foundation of the church was supposedly built upon. Some of the authorities would say, “Well, you can believe and study it if you want but keep it to yourself don’t practice it and don’t proselyte.” This sounded very contrary to the scriptures that said “faith without works is dead”.
It reminded me of someone walking through the desert and coming upon a spring. Being very thirsty he looked and investigated the water to make sure it was good water and fit to drink but then was told by someone standing by the spring that he could look and study the spring all he wanted but was not allowed to drink from it because the local authorities in the desert had proclaimed that the spring did not exist any more.
I chose to ignore the local authorities ignorance and apostasy because of the fact that the spring did in fact exist. We were excommunicated for apostasy by the local authorities that said that the spring did not exist.
We investigated many groups of people who claimed to be living the original doctrines of the dispensation and we were eventually told by God to join with the Allred group. ( Apostolic United Brethren, Inc.) We learned much and did our best to live the gospel as far as we knew. But something was still missing. We prayed that Heavenly Father would let us know what we were to do.
We heard about the group in Manti in the newspapers but thought little of it. In the fall of 1993 we had some visitors that had joined with the group in Manti come to our home in Motoqua, Utah. They testified of the witness of the Holy Ghost that they had experienced in the meetings they had attended in Manti and testified of Jim Harmston and how he had had Angels ordain him to teach the truth and the fullness of the Gospel. At that time I gave them the standard line of authority that the Allreds laid claim to from John Taylor and Lorin C. Wooley to Joseph Musser and down to Owen Allred. They left kind of wondering why they had felt inspired to even come out to our home and visit.
However, I felt something different about their testimonies. I thought to myself, “IF this is actually true that Angels had appeared to this man then I want to know about it. I don’t want to slam the door on this without investigating it myself.” “If it isn’t true then God will reveal the falsehood to me by the power of the Holy Ghost and I will do my best to serve God here at Motoqua and do whatever God tells me to do.” Either way I had nothing to lose. We traveled to Manti and searched out Jim Harmston. He invited us into his home to talk and we had a pleasant conversation. As we were talking to him about some of the doctrines of the Kingdom. I had a profound witness of the Holy Ghost that what he was saying was true and that we needed to investigate the situation in Manti further.
We came to Manti the following Saturday and Sunday and attended the Models Seminar. Jim taught the models and over the next two days all the pieces of the puzzle all came together. We received more witnesses of the Holy Ghost that what was being taught was true and we immediately felt the spirit of the gathering and knew by the witness of the Holy Ghost that we needed to gather to Manti. We finally were able to gather the next April and moved into a small trailer south of Manti in Sterling, Utah. We now live in Manti.
The Lord has truly blessed us with whatever we needed. I now have four wonderful wives and I have 26 children at home.
I know by the witness of Heaven that God has once again set his hand a second time to recover and teach his children the mysteries of Godliness. ZION is being built. The Kingdom of God is once again established with power and authority from on High. Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer. He will come suddenly to his Temple soon and receive His children and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords on this earth. The Lost Tribes of Israel are being gathered even now and as darkness reigns on the earth the life and light of the Gospel of the Father and the Son is being established in the Mountains of the Lord. The sons of Levi are again offering a offering in righteousness unto the Most High God. All praise be to Adam our Father and God, His Son Jesus the Christ, and Joseph Smith the Witness Testator. Come and drink of the waters of life freely. This is my testimony by the witness of Heaven and in the Holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen, Amen and Amen.
E-mail: bhammer@tlcmanti.org