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DO WE BELIEVE IN THE BOOK OF MORMON?
BECAUSE IF WE DON’T WE ARE
WALKING IN DARKNESS AT NOON-DAY

D&C 95:5-6, “ 5) But behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called but few of them are chosen. 6) They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day.” In 1830 those plates which Joseph Smith was allowed to translate were published. In 3Nephi  26:9-11 we are told that the greater things contained in the plates were to be withheld until we show the Lord that we believe the things found in that portion of the plates which were to be first translated. In those days of slavery and racism the members were quick to show that they did not believe the Book of Mormon teaching that in God’s sight “one being is as precious in his sight as the other”, Jacob 2:21.  D&C 38:26 also makes it clear that every member should be equal to the others. Because of their racist attitudes they refused to allow blacks of African descent to obtain the priesthood even though Joseph Smith ordained at least one black man.

We finally got past that problem with the revelation making the priesthood available to men of all races in 1978. Yet our leaders will not admit that Brigham Young taught that the blacks would not obtain the priesthood  during their mortal lives. He even taught that they would be the last ones to obtain the priesthood for they would have to wait until everyone else had been given the opportunity. Instead of admitting our error and that we had been walking in darkness our general authorities put out an explanation which quoted Brigham Young, speaking before the territorial legislature, wherein he simply stated that one day the blacks would get the priesthood without saying when. Meanwhile, in Sacramento Stake I heard two explanations; some suggested that pressure from the civil rights movement had forced the issue while others suggested that the popular mini-series Roots was a sign that the blacks were ready for the priesthood. When David O. McKay’s biography came out we would discover that he did not believe that keeping the blacks from obtaining the priesthood was doctrine. President McKay had been trying to obtain revelation directing him to put an end to the practice when one of his councilors suggested that the reason he hadn’t succeeded in obtaining the revelation was that the members were not ready for that.

Because we refused to believe the Book of Mormon we have lost the proper understanding of who should be allowed to partake of the sacrament. That it should not be administered to those who are unworthy or have not been baptized is clearly taught in 3Nephi 18 and in D&C 20. If it is not clear enough in the Book of Mormon read D&C 20:68 where it explains that the newly baptized are to be taught all things concerning the church before they are allowed to partake of the Sacrament.

If we believed the Book of Mormon we would not believe in polygamy as an important practice for the highest degree of glory, nor would we have practiced it in Utah. The Book of Mormon declares polygamy an abomination and a whoredom. In Jacob 2:25-27 the people are told that God led them out of the land of Jerusalem that He might raise up a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph which meant that they should not have more than one wife. Joseph Smith pointed the saints towards polygamy so that they could show that they were not worthy to establish a kingdom of peace and become a righteous people. In D&C 112:13 the Lord promises to eventually “feel after them [the quorum of twelve] and if they harden not their hearts and stiffen not their necks against me, they shall be converted, and I will heal them.” Being converted and healed suggests that repentance would be necessary. We cannot just sit around waiting for the Lord to call our leaders to repentance. We must learn to believe the Book of Mormon while we seek knowledge and understanding. Recently our leaders have disbanded the ward High Priests groups and placed Elder’s Quorum presidents in charge of them. It is beyond my ability to understand how this can be right.
 
I sympathize with the need to help resettle peoples who are in dangerous situations, but I’m concerned about turning millions of church dollars over to other groups who bring refugees here. I do not trust other groups to resettle Muslims here. Democrats have made it all too obvious that their efforts to resettle Muslims here and their encouragement of illegal immigration are meant to increase their political power no matter how it affects the rest of us..

First of all, allow me to acknowledge that I am not an expert on Islam. I have studied the Quran enough to know that it contains sufficient doctrine of a friendly nature to other religions to allow moderate Muslims to live in peace with them. The challenge faced by those trying to understand Islam is that there are nine sects of Islam and each sect is divided into subsects. Only a couple of the sects have long standing traditions of being friendly with each other. This makes it difficult to bring Muslims here that will get along with Muslims already here. If all the sects of Islam held the Quran in the same regard peace among them would be much more likely, but many Muslims also believe in the Hadith and biographies of Muhammad. The Hadith by Sahih Al-Bukhari is a five volume set, which I have in my personal library, totaling about 2,500 pages and is one of the six major collections of hadith. Sunni Muslims view this as one of the three major collections of hadith. It is the content of such biographies. not the Quran, which they use to justify the barbaric practices of some of the sects of Islam promoted by their Sharia Law and radicle Jihad.

Sharia Law has made inroads into our legal system and Islam is being promoted in many of our colleges and universities. The California text book on social studies for seventh graders promotes Islam and goes so far as to compare Sharia Law favorably with western legal systems. Islam is promoted in this country by the leadership of the Democratic party, the mainstream American news media, and in our public schools at all grade levels. Those same groups come out against conservative Christians. A great many of the Muslims coming to this country have little in common with us when it comes to our traditional family values and neither do they come here with the intension of assimilating into our culture.