"Now I Have a Priesthood": Part 5

Now I Have a Priesthood: Part 1
Now I Have a Priesthood: Part 2
Now I Have a Priesthood: Part 3
Now I Have a Priesthood: Part 4

A Dirty Little Secret

​Context is everything.
 
On the wrestling mat we watch two people throw each other around and we call it “competition.”   

But the very same conduct, off the mat, suddenly becomes "assault and battery!"

Or take sex.  Within the bonds of matrimony we call it "procreation."  Something ennobling and sacred and part of a divine plan, right? 

But removed from the wedding bed and taken across town to the seedy mattress of an extramarital motel hook-up, that very same act has now become "adultery" or "fornication."

The Gig is Up 
 
Well, guess what?  Satan knows that context is everything, too.

There's no reason for Lucifer to reinvent the wheel.  It is much more effective to take something God has ordained and . . . tweak it.  Twerk it?

We see the devil taking something that is good and godly in certain contexts, and placing it in another context, thereby creating what the scriptures call an "abomination."

An abomination is not just something bad, or sinful, or reprehensible. 

An "abomination" in the sight of God refers to a religious rite, ordinance, practice or doctrine that has been corrupted by churches.

   Like baptism.

Grandmother's Recipe for Sticky Abomination Buns
 
Here's how to cook up a hot batch of abomination:

   Step 1.  Take something good and godly; and

   Step 2.   Put it into a context where it is no longer good or godly; but (and here's the important part)

   Step 3.  Treat it as if it were still good and godly.

Voila!  Now, remove from the oven our hot-n-ready "Dead Work."

This is how apostasy works.  Or what we call a "falling away."

Dead Works

According to the Lord, the same practice (at least, it looks the same on the outside) can either be "living" or "dead."

   Wherefore, although a man
   should be baptized an hundred times
   it availeth him nothing, for you cannot
   enter in at the strait gate
   by the law of Moses,
   neither by your dead works.

(D&C 22:2)

Well, this is alarming!  Apparently baptism a hundred times is not good. 

Nowhere in Section 22 does it talk about "authority."  Nowhere does it mention "priesthood."  

But did you notice what is mentioned three times in just four verses?  

   Covenants.

The scary part is where the Lord warns us that we "cannot enter in at the strait gate" under a legalistic religion, or by keeping the law, or by any other "dead work."

The reason I am sweating bullets now is because (as we all can attest), our LDS traditions are (1) legalistic (just read the Handbook); (2) filled with obedience to laws; and replete with "dead works" (just ask Mormon to quote Moroni 7:6-12 to you).

Hmm.  So we see the problem.  

Religions, ironically, are the main source of abominations because we practice a gospel wherein we have broken (perverted) the everlasting covenant and yet we still think our rites are efficacious.

Satan does his very best work in our churches, where most of his mischief is accomplished (do you really think he is spending quality time on skid row?  No, he much prefers the refined sanctuaries of the Great and Spacious Buildings we furnish for him).

This is why Satan's church is called The Great and Abominable Church.

Infant Baptism

I mentioned baptism, so let's use it as an example by running it through our Recipe:
 
   Step 1.  Take the ordinance of baptism; and
   
   Step 2.  Place baptism in a context where infants need to be baptized to escape Limbo; but

   Step 3.  Act as if infant baptism is good and godly, since baptism is, after all, part of Christ's gospel.

​Maybe this explains why Mormon was so mad about infant baptism.  Perhaps his anger was not directed at the sincere parents who just wanted to bless their babies with baptism, but at the religious leaders who taught the parents to participate in this abomination in the first place.

As we read the following words about baptism, open your mind to other practices this could relate to in the Church:

Mormon said:

   I know that it is solemn mockery
   before God, that ye should baptize
   little children.

   He that supposeth that little children
   need baptism is in the gall of bitterness
   and in the bonds of iniquity . . .
   For awful is the wickedness
   to suppose that God saveth one child
   because of baptism, and the other
   must perish because he hath no baptism.

   Wo be unto them
   that shall pervert the ways of the Lord
   after this manner, for they shall perish
   except they repent.

(Moroni 8:9, 14-16)

What came to your mind?  

Does God save one person because they don't drink coffee, but the other must perish because he drinks coffee?

Is it solemn mockery for leaders to implement a policy where we must pay tithing to enter into the temple to receive saving ordinances, which effectively places a price tag on them?

I wrote about this in my poem, Toll Road.

​Toll Road

I met a highwayman
journeying to the Sea.
Pity in his coral smile showed,
so I thought,
as he took my eyes
from me, and much more,
until, blind, in disbelief
I cried,
”You cannot charge a toll
on this straight and narrow road!”

Laughing, he said,
“No living soul
can pass this gulf
without Charon’s fee.
Did you think salvation
would be (or ever could
be) free?” And laughing
cut my throat.

I fell among thieves
who unburdened my boat
as I sailed a forsaken,
tempestuous Sea.
I had no coin
for their hungry purse
as they bound me gleefully
and severed my tender flesh,
until, a eunuch, in agony
I pled,
“I’ve nothing left;
just let me live!”

“There is always more to give,”
they laughing said. “Bodies sink
but corpses float
to greet the devil’s hearse.
Will you buy his token
to pay the final fare
in lovely lilac blood?”
and slit my throat.

I sank
beyond all breath
into the depths
of the cool, calm Sea.
I asked, “Does no one care
what happens to me?”

I heard a voice
and looked up to see
a man dressed beautifully
in fairest silk and ivory pearl.
He stretched his hands in prayer,
smiling down at me,
and kissed my throat.

    “Of course I can help you,”
    Master Mahan said,
    “In death there is much to gain.
    Have you not learned the lesson
    descended down from Cain?"

Are There Toll Booths Along the Strait and Narrow Way?

Religions present themselves as toll booths along the straight and narrow path, inserting themselves as blockades on our journey back to Father.

And the leaders of religion, who man these toll booths, use priestcraft to become popular and to profit from their labor.

What price have we paid in order to purchase our ticket through the Gate?  

Sure, Lehi taught "salvation is free" (2 Nephi 2:4); and Nephi explained that redemption does not require any money, not one red cent (2 Nephi 26:25); and Peter made it very clear that the ordinances of the priesthood could not be purchased for 10% of our income (Acts 8:18-21); and Alma spoke truthfully when he said Church leaders should not receive any money, not a single penny, for serving in their spiritual offices (Alma 30:33); and Jesus himself never taught his disciples to pay tithing, but used a Full Tithe Payer as the ultimate example of the damned (Luke 18:9-14) . . . 

. . . but I am sure there's nothing to worry about when Elder David A. Bednar told the Press Club last month, on May 26, 2022, that members should continue to pay tithing (when asked about the Church's vast wealth), stating, "The Church does not need their money, but [members] need the blessings."

Ah, I see. 

   No dead works here.  Move along.

   Let us go on to perfection,
   NOT laying again the foundation
   of repentance from dead works.

(Hebrews 6:1)