“The Almighty has His own purposes. ‘Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.’
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”(Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural address)
Abraham Lincoln seemed to understand the divine judgment behind the civil war.That for all the young nation’s sins we were punished to wake us up to cleanse us of sin through a baptism by fire.And many currently see a modern judgment of God enacted on America and I believe they are right, that it is happening.But for what reasons remains very much debatable.
Some think it is due to gay marriage and abortion.But those revolve around many issues and free agency is at their core.To ban gay marriage is to legally sever a person’s agency to marry who they choose.To force a woman by law to give birth is also to sever her agency to choose.Whether those choices are right or wrong are not at issue, the God given right, the free agency to choose between right and wrong is.
A good decision made by force has no value at all.A choice made by force is no choice at all.Remember it was Satan’s plan for us to have none of our free agency and to be brought back to heaven by force, by forcing us all to live the Gospel life, which without agency is actually abhorrent to the nature of the Gospel led life.
And of the greatest note, Jesus never mentioned homosexuality in the slightest throughout any of the 4 Gospels or 3rd Nephi, so had it been an issue that would ruin the world one day he surely would have brought that up, however he did not, not once.Therefore, it cannot be a key point to his ministry as many claim today.
But what did he mention as being the key to living the Gospel?Loving the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul.And also to love your neighbor as yourself, to love our enemies and pray for those that curse us.
Have we done that as a nation? No.We were attacked not by a nation but by a terrorist organization, it was just an attack.And we started a World War over it.We did not “forgive those who trespass against us as we hope to be forgiven for our trespasses.”We did not profess love to our enemies, we cried out for war and for their blood as repayment for American blood spilled.We seem to only value the loss of American lives and not the lives of our brothers and sisters elsewhere.We have not taken care of the sick and afflicted, we have not taken care of our poor, more to the point we have committed the sin of Sodom in modern America.
Now let’s look at how we have forsaken the poor as a nation.
Republicans will tell you Obama has ruined the economy, when I tell them Wall Street profits are at record highs and so are fortune 500 companies as well they tell me that that hasn’t helped them at all, and I tell them that’s because trickle down economics doesn’t work.The trickle down economics of the Republican Party does not work and has kept us either in a recession or teetering toward one the entire 28 years they’ve held office in the last 50 years.
The Lord commanded us to live by the Law of Consecration which is a Celestial Law and we have rejected that for the capitalism because under this system we too could become phenomenally wealthy, however that is just a pipe dream, most do not get paid well for their hard work.They get minimum wage and no health care.And according to those republicans it’s their fault for not having enough education or for not working hard enough, but is that what Jesus would tell them?It’s not what he told us the first time around. For example:
32 And before him shall be gathered all anations: and he shall bseparatethem one from another, as a cshepherddivideth his dsheepfrom the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his arighthand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his arighthand, Come, ye bblessedof my Father, cinheritthe dkingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an ahungred, and ye bgaveme meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a cstranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye avisitedme: I was in bprison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee asick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have adoneit unto one of the bleastof these my cbrethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the alefthand, bDepart from me, ye ccursed, into everlasting dfire, eprepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an ahungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the aleastof these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into aeverlastingbpunishment: but the crighteousinto dlife eeternal. (Matthew 25:32-46)
19 ¶There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain abeggarnamed Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the aangelsinto bAbraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in ahellhe lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime areceivedstthy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great agulffixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have aMosesand the prophets; let them hear them.30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the adead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they ahearnot Moses and the bprophets, neither will they be cpersuaded, though one rose from the dead.(Luke 16:19-31)
And then there are the words of King Benjamin in Mosiah:
16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just—
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
Do we really own anything and if not, are we not all beggars?And how often do politicians and pundits declare that the poor are poor because they choose to be because they are just lazy and unmotivated.But scripture has something very different to say.
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
And if we are called to be like him we must not turn a deaf ear to those who plead with us.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.(Mosiah 4:16-23)
We the people have sinned against our own people, we have sinned against many other peoples as well.And we have turned from God, from his teachings, from him as a living God and refused to speak his name in the public square or shout his name and truths from the rooftops as we are commanded to.We have removed him from our daily lives and forgotten him in the bustle of our daily grind, we devote no time to him(some go to church but do not praise him, they zone out and are more concered with people being quiet than people feeling the spirit as if standing next to a roaring fire and praising his name, his word and his works) and his word falls on our deaf ears.
This is why the hedge of his protection has been removed and unless we repent as a people we shall not prevail as a people.
