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Many on the fringe of LDS culture hold the belief of One Mighty and Strong. Along with that belief is the understanding that a beloved religion may be in apostacy and be in need of a setting in order. He is said to be a Davidic servant and depending upon the particular group may be thought as one who will come from within the LDS ranks, or a Native American Indian, or one of Hebrew descent. They usually all hold one thing in common: they have the name of David and they are marred in some way. The marring is seen either as a physical handicap of some kind or persecution in a more general sense. As one learns about the One Mighty and Strong and the needed cleansing of the house of God a fairly typical path emerges.
If the house is out of order and needs cleansing what should it look like? A quest is set upon to study early LDS church history and it's leaders writings in The Journal of Discourses. Another fairly predictable pathway is studying The LIterary Message of Isaiah by Avraham Gileadi where the scriptural pattern for a Davidic servant is spelled out. For those that lean to the Journal of Discourses, polygamy and its demise naturally enters in as one of the hallmarks of the apostate church. For those leaning to the Isaiah definitions they are seeing the fact that the leaders do not have a personal relationship with Christ as a definition of an apostate leadership. Both groups of seekers see that "the poor among us" is a condemnation too blaring to miss. The Law of Consecration is not being lived as it was taught in the Doctrine and Covenants.
As these seekers further their studies and pray and ponder, an interesting phenomena occurs. They start to have wonderful spiritual experiences. They are taught special insights and gain a lot of knowledge about things that they have never before considered. Their minds open, their hearts open and the treasures of heaven start to unfold. They start to run into others who think like they do and they often start studying together, formally or informally. Study groups are a common phenomena. Being raised in a culture that looks to a leader to guide them, they start to search out The One Mighty and Strong and to be a part of that Zion that will be an example and a light set on a hill to the rest of the world during the coming calamities. These seekers are well aware of all the Last Day prophecies and watch the Signs of the times for their fulfillment closely.
Then often one of two things happen. During the search for One Mighty and Strong they run across someone who fits their idea of this Great One and they follow him OR they discover to their wonder that THEY are the One Mighty and Strong and set about to teach others and bring about Zion.
Because of this fairly predictable path and the resulting apostacy from the mainstream LDS faith, the LDS church has sought to stop this progression at its bud. It discourages the direct study of The Journal of Discourses. It has done this through providing to the members a study manual of the early prophets and tells them that this is all they need to know. It is a very sanitized version of The Journal of Discourses and leaves out all the controversies like pologamy, the Adam God doctrine, Blood Atonement, missionary work without purse or script by mostly married men and so forth. I believe the church hopes that in giving some of the material in an acceptable format and discouraging the study of dead prophets when we have living ones, that they will stop the outflow of some of their most dedicated members.
On another front they excommunicated Avraham Gileadi, he then retracted some of his more pointed statements and he was re-instated back into the LDS faith. This creates confusion for some seekers and they dare not stray too far from what is considered acaceptable. The threat of exommunication for expressing some of these beliefs results in a lot of underground study and beliefs. They do not feel free to openly express to others of their faith what they are learning and the wonderful spiritual experiences they are having. They start to feel ostrasized even if no one knows of their secret studies. They experience a vey real and painful cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, they believe the LDS faith holds the keys to their eternal salvation, yet on the other they believe the church to be in a state of growing apostacy. This realization is a painful, heart wrenching process for most who traverse it. Some suffer in silence their entire lives and stay within the ranks of the church hoping to be an influence for good amongst the members, but most eventually leave the church either on their own or they are excommunicated for acting on some of their beliefs or talking about them too much.
As the church seeks to stop this process they actually increase its occurrence by creating a strong underground of persecuted saints who seek one another out and look for The One Mighty and Strong. Because they cannot study this in an open and free manner within their sunday schools and other auxiliary meetings, they turn to one another in small groups. Inevitably one of the group discovers HE is the One Mighty and Strong. When the others follow him, excited that they have lucked out and found HIM, another predictable cycle occurs.
The ONE receives more and more revelation for the group which eventually exalts the One, his ego becomes the focus, and the followers leave in disgust. Then they either continue to look for the real One or they isolate themselves from any group or gathering of any sort, despairing that there is no true servant to follow. Some of them return to the mainstream church with their tail between their legs, while others eschew all religion and become near atheists.
It is a confusing path for those who truly study and ponder the scriptures as they remember their many spiritual experiences in the beginning of their study. They wonder what in the world happened? They end up discouraged, bitter, and feeling little spirituality. They wonder if they are crazy, deluded or are in league with the devil unknowingly. It is not a path for the faint of heart. Some, after going through such trials, discover a richer spiritual life, involving a very personal relationship withi Jesus Christ and/or God, the Father. They no longer seek for a mediator or One Mighty and Strong, but go "direct to the source." They often turn to very unorthodox studies, often involving Eastern religions and start believing some very different doctrines such as multiple mortalities, or reincarnation, the God within and a very different heirarchy of Gods or Masters.
Is there any wisdom that those who have trod this path can give those just starting out on it? Does the pathway to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ have to be so painful? IS there any hope for the LDS faith?
Recognizing that I am only a little further along than some, I will share what insights I have received by walking this most painful of paths. The first bit of advice I would give is to recognize that there is opposition in all things. It seems to be an eternal truism that for every truth we are given, a falsehood is presented in some manner to contrast with the truth. The further along we get in our spiritual progression, the more subtle are the falsehoods presented. The second piece of advice I would give is that not all truth testified to by the Holy Ghost is the ultimate truth. If we are heading South and we need to go North, the Spirit may confirm for us to go East in an effort to get us turned to the right direction eventually. If we do not recognize that East is not our ultimate direction, we may spend untold amounts of wasted time going in the wrong direction. But the Spirit that testified go East was not lieing, we did need to turn that direction for a while in order to turn another 90 degrees and end up going North which is the ultimate destination. Very few people will do a 180 degree turn all at once and so interim steps are given.
The third caution I would give I will term the mirror effect. If during our spiritual feasts we experience tremondous spiritual insights and share those insights with others, we realize the spiritual high is even stronger as we share. If we can picture truth or knowledge as a stream of light that passes from God through us to others, it seems as though our friends are holding a mirror and the light gets reflected back to us and feels very powerful. If we continue to act as a conduit for God's light and share with others all that we learn, and the reflected light is allowed to pass through us and go back to God, it is a signal to him that we are ready for more, and so more light is sent our way.
In contrast, some become addicted to reflected light. They start out as conduits for God's light, but the reflected light experience is so strong, that instead of being a window they, too, set up a mirror just beyond themselves to catch the reflected light and bounce it back. The light wanes in this circumstance and so they seek out people who will reflect light back to them. It becomes harder and harder because no one is a conduit now, they are all reflecting the same light over and over and it loses its energy charge eventually.
When the truth becomes a hall of mirrors it becomes distorted. Only when we have true conduits or windows of light can the experience continue unabated. Often what happens when we are conduits of light for others, they, too learn to be conduits for others and cease to reflect light back to us. If we allow ourselves to remain as conduits to pass light on to others, we are filled with all the light we can bear. We became a light bearer to others, who in turn are light bearers to yet others and so on and so forth. Eventually the light is reflected back to one of the senders, and they send the light up their ladder or heirarchy and it again goes back to its source, who then sends out an even stronger beam of light. In this way we all become Saviors on Mount Zion to one another and all our lights are set upon a hill. As the light becomes blindingly brillant, it will attract the notice of others and they will come to see what the light is all about. In that way we build the true Zion. Because we are all conduits we are all One as the same light passes through us all. As our light burns brightly we become One, Mighty and Strong.
Susan
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