Awake to Your Awful Situation

The God of the universe has always given warning to His people prior to any event threatening their lives. Pres. Henry B. Eyring recently stated,

“One of the keys to recognizing those warnings is that they are repeated…..When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention and fill our hearts with gratitude to live in such a blessed time”. (June 2008 Ensign p6)

The prophets have always used repetition so we cannot misunderstand. The Prophet Moroni gave a history of the downfall of the Jaredite nation in the Book of Mormon-Ether 8. In the middle of his account he stopped to give a solemn warning for us in these latter days.

“Wherefore, O ye Gentiles (which includes current members of the church) it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—-and the work, yea even the work of destruction come upon you, yea even the sword of the justice of the eternal God shall fall upon you, in your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.

Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall AWAKE TO A SENSE OF YOUR AWFUL SITUATION, because of this secret combination which shall be among you: or wo be unto it, because of the blood of them who have been slain; for they cry from the dust for vengeance upon it, and also upon those who built up”. (Ether 8:23–24)

Are we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints willing to take the time to find out who these conspirators are? Are we willing to do what we can to fight against them? Are we willing to follow our living prophets with exactness and prepare our families for the realities before us?

The challenge of the latter days is to make the scriptures and the words of the living prophets a reality in the lives of the members of the church. Pres. Ezra Taft Benson offered a very powerful statement when he said,

“Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.” (Ensign, November, 1980)

Who are these murderous or secret combinations that Moroni warns us of? I suggest they comprise the following: the power elite who control the federal reserve notes (fiat) money, the power behind the central banks, international financiers, the perpetrators of wars, cartel monopolies, owners and controllers of major media, globalists, the ones directing world oil supplies, and the forces suppressing precious metals. This list goes on.

All the prophets from Joseph Smith to the present have spoken of this conspiracy in very clear terms. Pres. J. Reuben Clark Jr. -an international lawyer, ambassador to Mexico, and counselor in the First Presidency- gave us this admonition,

“I say unto you with all the soberness I can, that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back, and once lost, we of this church will, in order to keep the church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known, heavy as our sacrifices and grievous as our persecutions of the past have been”.(Improvement Era, May 1944)

A prophetic statement considering how far we have deviated from the principles of liberty laid out by our Founding Fathers. Pres. Clark further stated,

“This principle of allegiance to the Constitution is basic to our freedom…..I wish to say with all the earnestness I possess that when you youth and maidens see any curtailment of these liberties I have named, when you see government invading any of these realms of freedom which we have under our Constitution, you will know that they are putting shackles on your liberty and that tyranny is creeping upon you, no matter who curtails these liberties or who invades these realms, and no matter what the reason and excuse therefore may be.”

German philosopher, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said,

“None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free”.

Moroni continues his warning to us,

“For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil….who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning, who hath hardened the hearts of men, that they have murdered the prophets and stoned them.” (Ether 8:25)

Pres. Benson spoke in clear language of this secret combination during the Oct. 1988 General Conference when he said,

“I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world.” (Ensign Nov. 1988, p87)

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley reinforced this warning in the October 2001 General Conference by declaring,

“We of this Church know something of such groups. The Book of Mormon speaks of the Gadianton robbers, a vicious, oath-bound, and secret organization bent on evil and destruction. In their day they did all in their power, by whatever means available, to bring down the Church, to woo the people with sophistry, and to take control of the society. WE SEE THE SAME THING IN THE PRESENT SITUATION”.

Our existence and our future depend on knowing precisely what Moroni and our modern prophets have seen and then acting upon it. The Lord has invited us by way of commandment to be informed when He said,

“And I give unto you a commandment, that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of god, that are expedient for you to understand. Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth, things which have been, things, which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad, the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments, which are on the land: and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms- That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you. Behold, I send you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads.” (DandC 88:77-82)

If ignored, these warnings leave us without excuse. Our lack of knowledge and preparation will be the cause of unnecessary suffering for ourselves and our families.

In 1831, at the beginning of this dispensation, the Lord again addressed this issue stating,

“And again, I say unto you that the enemy in the secret chambers seeketh your lives. Ye hear of wars in far countries….but ye know not the hearts of men in your own land….but if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” (DandC 38:28-31)

Pres. Thomas S. Monson in his BYU Women’s Conference address 4 May, 2001 gave this counsel and observation to help us prepare so we need not fear,

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year’s supply of food and clothing and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reversed: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free”. (Church News, 12 May 2001, p7)

Pres. Hinckley instructed, it is our spiritual preparation which allows us to call upon the Lord with confidence. In his Oct. 2001, 2002, 2005 conference addresses he spoke of the need to prepare and the urgency of doing so.

“We can so live that we can call upon the Lord for his protection and guidance. This is a first priority. We cannot expect his help if we are unwilling to keep His commandments”.

Pres. Eyring added,

“So, the great test of life is to see whether we will hearken to and obey God’s commands in the midst of the storms of life. It is not to endure storms, but to choose the right while they rage. And the tragedy of life is to fail in that test and so fail to qualify to return in glory to our Heavenly home. We will need to have developed and nurtured faith in Jesus Christ long before Satan hits us, as he will, with doubts and appeals to our desires and with lying voices saying that good is bad and that there is no sin. Those spiritual storms are already raging. We can expect that they will worsen until the Savior returns.” (October conference 2005)

My wife and I experience great peace in our lives amidst the turmoil, unrest and uncertainty currently taking place throughout the world. We are informed concerning this secret conspiracy and we have worked to prepare our lives, both physically and spiritually, by following the council from the prophets. Elder Neal A. Maxwell summarized what our attitude should be in these turbulent latter days.

“Our task is to react and to notice without overacting, to let life go forward without slipping into the heedlessness of those in the days of Noah. It has been asked, and well it might be, how many of us would have jeered, or at least been privately amused, by the sight of Noah building his ark.

Presumably, the laughter and the heedlessness continued until it began to rain-and kept raining. How wet some people must have been before Noah’s ark suddenly seemed the only sane act in the insane, bewildering situation! To ponder signs without becoming paranoid, to be aware without frantically matching current events with expectations and using energy that should be spent in other ways- these are our tasks.” (New Era, Jan. 1971)