I have been quiet for some time on writing on this blog, mainly due to life and all of the happenings that go on with family, work, and everything else. That being said, I am deeply concerned with some of the things that are going on in this world and have been researching solutions.
I do vent at times on here without a solution because I hope that some of my readers (although, very few) might have some answers to the issues that we face as a people either here in the US or abroad.
I have however been watching the rise of ISIS or ISIL, however they want to be called at this time, and I am very disturbed. This scourge is spreading, and I am not certain all those who are waving that banner really understand what it is that they are supporting. While doing research, I have been reminded of warnings from the dust that were given for our day.
I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly know as either LDS or Mormon. As such, we believe that Jesus Christ restored his church through a young boy named Joseph Smith in the Spring of 1820 in upstate NY. As part of that, Joseph was told of gold plates that were hidden in a hill not far from his home, and that one of the tasks he was commanded to do was to translate them into English and make them available to the world. In this record, known as The Book of Mormon, written by ancient prophets living here in the Americas, there are references to an extremists group that set about forming "secret combinations", or oaths to each other to do evil on others for their own gain. These groups, commonly named in the passages as "Gadianton Robbers" became a scourge to society, plotted to take over governments, and killed many to get personal and group gain. They often spent resources taking away the rights, especially religious rights of others... sound familiar?
The account written in The Book of Mormon was abridged by a man and Prophet of God named Mormon (hence the name of the book) and was written and compiled for our day. In it there are many references to the wars that took place among the people, this always puzzled me, often they would say that there was but little precious space on the plates and that writing on the plates was tedious and difficult. Why then, would they included pages and pages of info on the wars and dealings with these Robbers. My take, we need to know this info for our days now, dealing with those like ISIS, to help us know how to defeat them and bring them to justice. His son Moroni was the last Prophet to write on the plates, his account of the demise of their civilization starts in chapter 8. We could all learn of what this kind of scourge can do to people by reading the Chapters of Mormon. It is a sobering account of the demise of a civilization that once were a righteous and humble people, now turned to one that only was interested in getting gain and taking away the freedoms of others.
The solution that seemed to work at different times was for the people to humble themselves before God, repent of their sins, then teach those "Robbers" the Gospel of Jesus Christ and those that converted turned from their evil ways, those that did not continued the traditions, but were weaker and less effective. Those that did not convert would later come back and try again to spread evil and gain followers. This was the pattern among the people there, when the people began to rely on their own philosophies and turn away from God, the people began to turn to secret combinations or secret oaths to do evil things to get gain. Once they began to do this, freedoms were removed, oppression reigned, wars started, and lives were lost. We can at least learn from the people of the Book of Mormon and try are best to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those that are creating these secret combinations and hope and pray that they will embrace the truth... If not, maybe we will have to take other courses of action that were included in the writings, let's hope the first choice will help take care of this scourge.
