From Lundbaek
Posted: June 25th, 2018, 6:08 pm
Around this time of year as we are getting ready to celebrate American Independence Day and honour the men who, with the help of God's power, established the United States, I like to testify of certain events that were part of that achievement. But I don't express myself very well -- in English or in any of the other languages that I have had to get around in. So if you don't mind terribly, I'll call on a couple of others who have more credibility than I have.
I believe it was President J. Reuben Clark who way back in October 1941 wrote a very informative letter about certain LDS Church doctrines to a U.S. Government official at the U.S. Treasury. Included in that letter, signed also by President Heber J. Grant and President David O. McKay, was this statement:
"The people therefore believe that the President of the Church, his counselors, and the Council of the Twelve Apostles have a right to the revelations of the Lord....that the Lord actually speaks through them as the result to revelations which He gives them; and that therefore the members are under obligation, when the President of the Church speaks, to follow his advice and counsel."
That statement gives me the courage to get on with what I want to say here and now.
In the October 1988 Church General Conference, then President Ezra Taft Benson began his last address in person to the Church by saying:
"As a special witness of Jesus Christ, and as His humble servant, it is now my obligation and privilege, as the Spirit dictates, to bear pure testimony and witness to that which I know to be true. This I will do.....
Before I go any further with this, I want to tell of part of a conversation I recently had with a teenage grandson. He was telling me about his having recently read the First Book of Nephi. So I asked right then and there that he read
in 1 Nephi 13: 12-19. I was dismayed that he did not understand that in these verses the ancient prophet Nephi explains that the "power of God" delivered what is now the United States out of the hands of other powerful nations. He hadn't realized that the "man among the Gentiles" whom the "Spirit of God" wrought such that he "went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land" was believed by Latter-Day Saints to be Christopher Columbus, and that it was the American War For Independence that was assisted by the "power of God". I like to think that my effort to set him straight on that much was well worth the time we spent on the subject.
I guess that is why I appreciate so much the clarification of Nephi's vision given some 2500 years later by President Benson. In that general conference address he said, in his usual no-uncertain-terms:
"I testify that America is a choice land. God raised up the founding fathers of the United States of America and established the inspired Constitution. This was the required prologue for the restoration of the gospel. America will be a blessed land unto the righteous forever and is the base from which God will continue to direct the worldwide latter-day operations of His kingdom."
But later on in that address President Benson gave us a warning that still rings like a clarion in my head. 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."
In the printed version of the prophet's address reference is made to Verses 18-25 in the 8th Chapter of the Book of Ether. In those verses the ancient prophet Moroni warns us of a "secret combination which shall be among you", that "is build up by the devil", and that it "seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries."
I could ramble on quoting other LDS Church authorities on the subjects of how the United States became a nation free from the tyranny that afflicted most other countries at that time, and that still afflicts so many countries today, and about "the evils and designs of conspiring men in our day who would enslave us." I'll not go there. I don't think I need to. I'll simply end this with the plea that we each endeavor in our own way to learn what other latter-day prophets have said about the American Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, to heed the latter-day prophetic admonition that "We must learn the principles of the Constitution in the tradition of the Founding Fathers", and the ancient prophetic admonition that we "awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you", and "suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you".
If you got this far, thanks for reading this.
I believe it was President J. Reuben Clark who way back in October 1941 wrote a very informative letter about certain LDS Church doctrines to a U.S. Government official at the U.S. Treasury. Included in that letter, signed also by President Heber J. Grant and President David O. McKay, was this statement:
"The people therefore believe that the President of the Church, his counselors, and the Council of the Twelve Apostles have a right to the revelations of the Lord....that the Lord actually speaks through them as the result to revelations which He gives them; and that therefore the members are under obligation, when the President of the Church speaks, to follow his advice and counsel."
That statement gives me the courage to get on with what I want to say here and now.
In the October 1988 Church General Conference, then President Ezra Taft Benson began his last address in person to the Church by saying:
"As a special witness of Jesus Christ, and as His humble servant, it is now my obligation and privilege, as the Spirit dictates, to bear pure testimony and witness to that which I know to be true. This I will do.....
Before I go any further with this, I want to tell of part of a conversation I recently had with a teenage grandson. He was telling me about his having recently read the First Book of Nephi. So I asked right then and there that he read
in 1 Nephi 13: 12-19. I was dismayed that he did not understand that in these verses the ancient prophet Nephi explains that the "power of God" delivered what is now the United States out of the hands of other powerful nations. He hadn't realized that the "man among the Gentiles" whom the "Spirit of God" wrought such that he "went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land" was believed by Latter-Day Saints to be Christopher Columbus, and that it was the American War For Independence that was assisted by the "power of God". I like to think that my effort to set him straight on that much was well worth the time we spent on the subject.
I guess that is why I appreciate so much the clarification of Nephi's vision given some 2500 years later by President Benson. In that general conference address he said, in his usual no-uncertain-terms:
"I testify that America is a choice land. God raised up the founding fathers of the United States of America and established the inspired Constitution. This was the required prologue for the restoration of the gospel. America will be a blessed land unto the righteous forever and is the base from which God will continue to direct the worldwide latter-day operations of His kingdom."
But later on in that address President Benson gave us a warning that still rings like a clarion in my head. 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."
In the printed version of the prophet's address reference is made to Verses 18-25 in the 8th Chapter of the Book of Ether. In those verses the ancient prophet Moroni warns us of a "secret combination which shall be among you", that "is build up by the devil", and that it "seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries."
I could ramble on quoting other LDS Church authorities on the subjects of how the United States became a nation free from the tyranny that afflicted most other countries at that time, and that still afflicts so many countries today, and about "the evils and designs of conspiring men in our day who would enslave us." I'll not go there. I don't think I need to. I'll simply end this with the plea that we each endeavor in our own way to learn what other latter-day prophets have said about the American Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, to heed the latter-day prophetic admonition that "We must learn the principles of the Constitution in the tradition of the Founding Fathers", and the ancient prophetic admonition that we "awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you", and "suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you".
If you got this far, thanks for reading this.