The Book of Marshall: Chapter 1

1. I Marshall, having been born to righteous parents who raised me in the true church and taught me the doctrine have had a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and a love for the Savior at least since I was but three years of age.

2. Having been taught in the learning of my father and mother and having partaken of the rites of the Holy Temple and the rites of Freemasonry and also the York Rite have come to a knowledge and understanding of reality and have attained a personal relationship with God my Heavenly Father.

3. Having suffered exceedingly, yea, I have suffered physical and emotional pain more severe than the finite mind can comprehend, have been brought to a knowledge of the full furry of Hell. I know of the suffering that awaits the wicked in Outer Darkness, which suffering is so great that only those who experience it can know it.

4. Nevertheless: I have to glorify and praise God in his infinite wisdom and mercy for blessing me with such great trials. I join with the prophet Alma in declaring the great and marvelous joy that has come upon me.

5. I was racked with that pains of a damned soul, condemned by illness to lay in bed weeping in utter torment. An now, this was the fate I was inescapably condemned to suffer all of my days. The best doctors in the land wept a my plight because they knew there was no power in all the world to ease my pains or comfort me. Yet in my moment of great despair, when the tangible forces of darkness from an unseen realm to combine to crush me my strength spent, I did turn my heart unto the Lord for redemption.

6. As I turned my heart in full to the Lord I felt such wonderful peace and redeeming light as to exceed my pains and they did leave me and I remember them no more.

7. Yea, like the prophet Alma was I comforted and now my hearts desire is to spread forth the glorious message of hope unto the world, that every child of God would partake of his goodness and mercy.

8. And it came to pass that on the eighteenth day of the third month of the year of our Lord twelve and twenty I was reading in the forth verse of the first chapter of the Book of Mormon that the Spirit of the Lord did reveal unto me that it was the desire of God that I should keep a record of my testimony and of my people engraven upon electro-magnetic plates to be copied and stored in many locations that they might not be lost and would stand as a light and a hope to the people of God and stand as a witness against the blood and sins of my generation.

9. Behold, I knew not what to engrave upon the plates but it is revealed unto me what I should write according to my faithfulness and my diligence in obeying the commands of God.

10. And now behold, these are the words given unto me:

11. Wo wo wo unto this generation! Your hearts are set upon the things of the world. Ye are lovers of your own selves more than lovers of God or his fellow man. Every man seeks advantage over his neighbor by the laying of traps and snares. Behold: In days of past the King of Tyrus, the Grand Master Mahan did reveal many things of wickedness unto a few who joined the Order of Lemech, that is the Order that was first established by Lemech.

12. This Order after Lemech did work priestcraft of darkness in secret. Yea, they sought every man of them his own power alone by harming any man not a brother of the secret oath.

13. And now there have been many secret combinations established by Lucifer the fire-barer that wickedness would spread abroad in the land.

14. Wo wo wo unto this generation! Ye do work dark priestcrafts in the light of day and do glory in it and sign praises of darkness from the rooftops. Once, the dark arts had needs be worked in secret because if the darkness was known abroad the land the people would have destroyed them from off the face of the earth.

15. Wo wo wo unto this generation! Because your hearts are so inclined to do evil and offend God and your fellow man, yea, ye seek only the welfare of your own creature, the enemy of your souls doth openly work in the light among you.

16. Yeah, there are many black wizards who peep after the Order of Lemech among you, yea, among your leaders. (Now these wizards did not come to a knowledge of that order by searching the records because they scorn such things and are blind and dumb. Rather, that Grand Master Mahan by cunning artifice did reveal it unto them in ways pleasing unto them.) Because ye have black wizards who peep among the people working darkness a sore curse has befallen the land.

17. Yea, your money has been cursed with a sore curse because ye rejected your God, the God of mercy, success and happiness and went a whoring after the gods of money, pleasure and vanity.

18. Because ye have loved treasure more than God it has been taken from you. It is slippery unto you, if a man should try to hold it it should slip easily out of his hands and if a man lays up treasure in a secure place behold on the morrow it has vanished from among the world of men and is no more.

19. Yet still the Lord extends his hands forth unto you if ye will but turn to Him. Though many do persist in scorning God and despising his faithful children, there is salvation sufficient for all who have faith in Christ.

20. And if ye will surrender your life into the hands of the Lord and love Him and trust in Him will it ever be a blessing to thee. God is the source of all happiness. Unhappiness is the result of trying to be happy, happiness is the result of trying to make others happy. This is Charity, the pure love of Christ. If ye will take the name of Christ upon you and become like unto him ye shall find everlasting happiness.

21. Now this is the testimony which is in me and this testimony is true. Through great faith I have gained a relationship with God the Father and this is the cause of great happiness in me. 22. If thy faith is lacking. pray unto the Father for more faith.

23. If thy prayers are lacking, desire to pray for faith.

24. If thy desires are lacking, wish for the desire to pray for faith.

25. If thy wishes are lacking, ask help of another to pray for thee to wish for the desire to pray for faith.

26. In all things and in all trials the answer is always found in the correct application of Gospel principals. If thy application of the Gospel is insufficient, increase thy understanding of the Gospel.

27. If thy understanding of the Gospel is lacking, invite the Holy Ghost to remind you of the Gospel.

28. If thy invitation of the Holy Ghost is lacking, pray for the Holy Ghost.

29. If thy prayers are lacking, ponder these things in your heart.

30. If thy ponderings are lacking, read the scriptures.

31. If thy scripture reading is lacking, have faith.

32. If thy faith is lacking, pray for increased faith.

33. If thy prayers for faith are lacking, desire more faith.

34. If thy desires are lacking, seek help from one who knows God.

35. Ye can accomplish all things through Christ. Pray always that ye may come off Conquer.

36. God be with you.

Idolatry

In the classic sense, Idolatry is praying, sacrificing or worshiping statues. Scripture makes it clear that idolatry is highly offensive. I have been pondering what idolatry really is, what is it about worshiping idols that angers God so much? I have tried to look beyond the act, or outward manifestations to look at what is going on at the core of idolatry. If we can understand the why of the sin of idolatry, we can examine our own lives and actions better. My intent at the end is not to come out with a list of "idolatrous" practices in the modern day, but rather that I might better equip my reader in their own spirituality.

First, we should look to elements of idolatry, why is it so enticing? Why has this such a major stumbling block? The first thing that comes to mind is peer pressure, everyone else is doing it, what's wrong with us? Creating the excess to create an idol, more especially a good one, was huge. If we take into account that most of their economy was subsistence based and many lived hand to mouth then just making an idol was an enormous sacrifice. Any nation worth it's salt would have one as a symbol of how rich they were that they could waste that much on something useless. Any nation without an idol was considered very poor.

Now another interesting thing about idolatry was the "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" attitude anciently. There was nothing wrong with worshiping one idol when you are at home and another when you are traveling. It is interesting in 2 Kings 17 that after the northern kingdom of Israel is carried and Assyrian settlers are brought in and start having problems they decide to bring back some Jews to teach them how to worship the local god. This mixture of Jews and Assyrian idolatry is the foundation and the Samaritans, who I should really do a blog on.

Now when foreigners, traders, sailors etc came to Israel (it sits on top of some extremely valuable trade routes) wanting to honor the local gods to ensure safe passage home they would have been told that there were no idols and would either thought the Jews were to poor-or would have judged them to be greedy and immoral for not sacrificing some of their wealth to honor the gods. Now when they learned of sacrifice at the Temple they might have wanted to go there but then would have been told that they were excluded from worshiping there. The Jews would have come off and intolerant and racist for not allowing all nations to worship with them and denying others the blessings of their God.

Now the gods of the polytheists are an interesting thing to study. I am unsure how much they were thought of as actual beings verses aspects of nature. Greek spirituality, with which I am most familiar, made the gods to be exactly like themselves. When they worshiped one god on another they were trying to improve an aspect of themselves. Apollo, considered the most Greek of the gods, represented music, medicine and learning, things highly valued by the Greeks. Women, wanting to improve as lovers could meditate on improving themselves while worshiping and vowing to follow Aphrodite; if on becoming a better respected wife, worship Hera.

Next, is moral relativism. The True God is cheapened with a "yeah, everyone worships their own idol, you got yours and I got mine." attitude. When you are dumb enough to worship some hunk of medal, that will do you no good, your belief in the efficacy of God will wane. Every man looks for his own god, according to his own strength and intellect.

Thus, Idolatry is worshiping yourself and the workings of man and the fine things of the world. You are setting aside the councils of God because you think you know better. When I think of Idolatry, as well as most sins, this is the thing I think of most. God has told us what to do to be happy and choosing to do different because we think we know better is a manifestation of a lack of faith. I think it is the galling lack of faith, not the actual praying to a golden calf, that is so offensive to God.