(Avoid The Deception and Confusion of Missed Placed Loyalties)
The world practically screams for the people to put others first. But doing so leads us down a destructive path. It’s only when we put the commandments in their proper order that we gain the correct perspective and avoid deception. This is the purpose of the truth and wisdom in today’s blog.
According to Elder Ezra Taft Benson, (Aug 4, 1899 – May 30, 1994) prominent religious leader and strong defender of the US Constitution: “The world largely ignores the first and great commandment – to love God – but talks a lot about loving their brother. They worship at the altar of man.” It’s only when we put the first commandment first that we have the correct perspective to be able to help our brother in the best way possible! God is the creator of the entire universe. Ignoring him and his wisdom is foolish at best and destructive at worst. Ezra T. Benson said it this way: “…Only those who know and love God can best love and serve his children, for only God fully understands his children and knows what is best for their welfare. Therefore, one needs to be in tune with God to best help his children.” Unfortunately the world would have us believe that man knows best and we can ignore God and still do what is best for others. Never has this been true! Not in the entire existence of man on this planet, and not at any time in the age of the universe. It just simply cannot be! Again from Elder Benson, “”The attitude of the world is reflected in a phrase of falsehood that reads, “Presume not God to scan, the proper study of mankind is man.””
I’ve always thought it presumptuous to think that the puniness of man’s limited knowledge and wisdom is a match for God’s infinite knowledge and wisdom! Isn’t He Omniscient after all?! Yet, that has been the stance of the natural man or worldliness for as long as time. Further, in my book, Lookup and Live, I explain that the following thought is the mantra of the natural or “worldly” man. “No one, not even God is going to tell me what to do.” Wow! So we put the love of self above the love of God and presume that we can still have peace, joy, and eternal bliss and we can still love our neighbor?! How foolish! How short sighted! How ridiculous! Satan doesn’t much care who or what you love most just as long as it is NOT God. He knows that no matter what, if you love something, anything, more than God, then you will be off the mark enough to be deceived. This is exactly what is going on in the world today! People of all walks of life, religious and not so religious, are deceived because they do not put the first commandment first. You don’t have to look too far to see the effects of this either.
Again from Elder Benson, “When we fail to put the love of God first, we are easily deceived by crafty men who profess a great love of humanity, while advocating programs that are not of the Lord.” The so called Obama Care program rises to the top of the list. Anything that limits peoples freedoms and choices to do good is on that list. The seatbelt laws are another. What is the point and purpose of these laws? To control. It’s that simple. It’s not about providing health care for the poor or safety for people. Those are just the deceitful words used by those who really want to take away your last remaining rights. I remember when the Clinton’s were touting a program similar to “Obama Care”. They would say, “20 million American’s are without health care.” But what they didn’t tell you and what they didn’t want you to know is this: Those 20 million people weren’t the poor. Because the poor already had insurance through Medicare or other programs. The 20 million were people like me. Hard working self-employed people who couldn’t afford health insurance for themselves because they were paying for others to have it. See the deceit? Now we have “Black Life’s Matter” which is also deceitful. This organization doesn’t care about Black life’s or any others for that matter. What they want is to prompt strife among us. To create division. Why, So the Government can come in and be the hero. They will fix it all. Or so they say. But what they will really do, is eliminate the constitution of this great nation and replace it with communism. Those in tune with God, already know this. Those who fail to love God first or who think that man knows best, are completely blind to the real agendas.
Throughout my lifetime, there has been a number of “causes”, I’ll call them, that may have sounded good on the surface to some or all people, but underneath were deceitful agendas. Here is a list of a few. 1) The civil rights movement. 2) The Equal Rights movement. 3) The Homosexual movement. 4) The “Pro Choice” movement. 5) The “right” to health care movement. 6) The “right” to education movement. 7) Black Lives Matter. Now, before you make any negative assumptions let me say this. There is nothing wrong with civil rights or equal rights for women, for example. If I were older when Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, I probably would have been marching with him. We are all equal in the site of God and we should all treat each other as such. But the issue is that these causes are high jacked by none other than communist and the legislation that is pushed and then approved, has very little to do with helping the cause and a lot to do with taking away citizen rights. The so called “Equal rights amendment” is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.
Again from Elder Benson, “As far back as 1928, the Communists declared that the cultural, economic, and social differences between the races in America could be exploited by them to create the animosity, fear, and hatred between large segments of our people that would be necessary beginning ingredients for their revolution.
Three-fold attack
1) Create hatred
2) Trigger violence
3) Overthrow established government” (From a General Conference report dated Sept 29, – Oct 1 1967)
So the very causes that “we the people” get behind because we love our fellowman and want to eliminate unfairness, those very causes are high jacked and turned against us all and become weapons of Communism. We are living through all these steps today. Steps 1 and 2 have been going on for years. Again, Black Lives Matter is going strong and is very much designed to complete steps 1 and 2. And believe it or not, step 3 has been actively in process for just over a century. What governors are doing all over the USA is evidence of this. They do NOT have the constitutional authority to close down businesses or churches or restrict gatherings. But they are doing it largely because “we the people” are letting them do it and because we vote wolves in sheep’s clothing into office.
Even within the Church of Christ we find those who are “Ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing.” They promote the agendas of man and ignore the spirit of God, his wisdom, and his commandments. J. Reuben Clark, Jr. another prominent religious leader of the 20th century warned: “the ravening wolves are amongst us from our own membership and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing, because they wear the habiliments of the Priesthood… . We should be careful of them.” (The Improvement Era, May 1949, P. 268)
I’m not certain it can be turned around. It certainly cannot be done by man alone.. Only with the help of God will it be turned. But there are things we can do and must do. We must put the first commandment first. It can be second to none. The second commandment cannot take precedence over the first. Doing so creates a path to deception. Only when God is first can we be close enough to His spirit to see what is really going on and prevent it from taking root.
(G. Dean Wessendorf @2020)