Month: August 2019

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted the prophets which were before you. (Mathew 5:10-12)

As with all the previous Beatitudes, following and receiving the accompanying promise leads a person to want to experience the next Beatitude. In the case of those persecuted for righteousness’ sake, they are lead to this point after becoming peacemakers. It is the natural order of progression leading to persecution and obtaining the kingdom of heaven. The first beatitude is for the poor in spirit and its blessing is to be given the kingdom of heaven, which is the same blessing given to those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The first blessing is a promise of reward and the last is the fulfillment of the promise.

Living and sharing the gospel of Christ, which you really haven’t fully understood until you become pure in heart and “seen God”, will always bring persecution because the principles you live and teach are looked upon as aberrations by the world. Christ taught that if the world hates Him they will hate His disciples. People will reject your message because of ignorance and a lack of any desire to really know the truth. Religious people will reject your message because it does not support their understanding of God and do not want to rock the boat. Very religious people will not only reject your message, but will persecute you, denigrate your reputation, and have you punished for blasphemy. Priests who consider themselves defenders of the faith, will believe it appropriate and necessary to excise the “peacemaker” from society. At a minimum it will consist of excommunication, isolation, and making him look ridiculous. If they have the power and the law lets them, they will inflict worse. This is necessary, in their minds, to protect the church from contamination. But their zeal is really a covering for their lack of confidence in what they teach. They will vehemently deny there is any uncertainty in their minds, but it is there lying below the surface of their conscious minds where they have shoved it so it doesn’t bother them any more.

As a peacemaker you must expect to experience opposition and downright persecution. In fact, one of the signs that you are teaching the Doctrine of Christ is that you will be persecuted. If you follow Christ you should expect that you will be treated the same way Christ and His apostles were. Christ experienced the full wrath of the authorities because they felt threatened by His message. If they had honestly investigated the claims that Jesus had declared and the miracles that occurred they would have been forced to admit that He was the Messiah. Instead, they utterly refused to investigate and acknowledge that He was a prophet let alone the Messiah. The Peacemaker today finds himself in the same position; threatened with ostracism and excommunication. Thankfully in this country you cannot be sentenced to death. Unfortunately, however, in some cultures death is allowed as punishment for teaching the Doctrines of Christ.

Why does the Lord allow such extreme measures taken against the faithful and the righteous? I believe there are five main reasons:

• First, the truth has to come to light and people be given a chance to repent. In Lecture Second, in the Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith lays out the argument that a knowledge of God is necessary for all men to begin to understand what is expected of them. The idea that God exists comes initially from the testimony of men.
• Second, A testimony of the wickedness of souls has to be obtained. Those souls who perpetrate crimes in the name of religion must be made aware of their gross violation of the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. This terrible realization that will come to them on the day of judgement will actually help them to progress.
• The third reason is to create a milieu or environment on the earth where souls can be tested to the uttermost whether they will follow Christ or the world.
• The fourth reason is that persecution is one of the signs that truth and light is being taught. Being persecuted doesn’t always mean that correct doctrine is being taught, but the absence of persecution means that the world is not opposed and therefore suspect.
• The fifth reason is to give experience to the righteous peacemakers; experience that will prepare them for advancement in the kingdom of Heaven. They are being taught patience, compassion, forgiveness, and faith among others. This is the kind of experience that cannot be gained anywhere else under any other circumstances. The experience also becomes a complete syllabus on the word “hope”. It is in the crucible of persecution that one learns the meaning of hope.
• There may even be a sixth reason. In the Testimony of St. John, The Savior tells Peter, “In the name of Father Ahman I tell you, when you were progressing, you dressed yourself, and went where you chose to go; but as you approach the end of the path, you will have to let others stretch out your hands and likewise nail you, even if you plead to have the bitter cup removed. This He said to foretell the sacrificial death that is required for endless glory. And then He added, You must follow after me.” (Verse 18). It may be required of you to suffer extreme persecution, perhaps an ultimate sacrifice, to obtain the Kingdom of Heaven. At any rate, you must have proven that you will sacrifice all things, endure all things, to seal your faith.

When the Lord says to “Rejoice and be glad” he is not just using poetic language or metaphor. It is a great blessing to be persecuted and to be able to come through the experience with your integrity unbroken. By doing so you have proved that your faith is stronger then the bonds of death. You are trustworthy in all things and you can expect that the Lord will entrust you with greater things. You are worthy of exaltation and eternal lives.

The Beatitudes – In conclusion.

The beatitudes are a road map that the Lord has given us to follow Him and enter the kingdom of Heaven. His whole life is a sermon on how to do that. The Seventh Lecture in the Lectures on Faith, asks, “Where shall we find a prototype into whose likeness we may be assimilated, in order that we may be made partakers of life and salvation? …..for if we can find a saved being, we may ascertain without much difficulty what all others must be in order to be saved….It is Christ…” (Paragraph 9)

The Lectures on Faith goes on to explain that any person who desires eternal life and salvation must be precisely like Jesus. How can we do that? He was a perfect man, and we are so far from that mark, how could we ever become precisely like Him to gain eternal life? The beatitudes is the program whereby we are changed so that we qualify. You cannot do it yourself, but if you follow the steps that Christ gives us, follow the path He lived as an example for us, we will be transformed by the Holy Spirit.

In this journey we cannot see the final goal. We only have faith that it is there. Paul says we can’t even imagine what the Lord has in store for us. We only know that something better awaits us if we stay the path. We can only see small segments of the path and glimpses of what we are striving for. Usually we only see the segment we happen to be on. This is because much of the journey requires a great deal of sacrifice; if we knew what was required before a sacrifice is asked of us, we may lose heart and become discouraged long before we get to that point.

The Lord’s syllabus is a perfect one for us. First we become poor in spirit, then we mourn, then we are led to become meek, and so on. Each step requires tremendous work, experience and study to master, but the blessings are tailored specifically to help with the next steps. There really are no short cuts, each lesson is required to be fully tested before being able to fully engage the next one. It is true that there are overlaps, and the fulfillment of one promised blessing may coincide with another, but the eight beatitudes spell out specific objectives and blessings. For instance, as I have explained earlier, becoming poor in spirit is recognizing you don’t have God in your life and you begin to exercise faith. Mourning is repenting and turning towards God. The great blessing of receiving comfort is knowing that your sins are forgiven you. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness and being filled is receiving the Holy Ghost; the baptism of fire or being born again. The pure in heart receive a literal audience with God in this life. Each beatitude marks a specific event, ordinance, or marker that is obtained by the true follower of Christ on the path to exaltation in this life.

“When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel–you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.348)

The beatitudes can also serve as a yardstick to help determine areas of growth we need to concentrate. Do we desire mercy, relief from difficult worldly demands, or suffer from the consequences of sin or bad decisions? The Lord promises us mercy if we are ourselves merciful. Do you wonder why you have not seen God, or received an audience with the Lord as others have reported having? The Lord tells us it is probably because you are not sufficiently pure in heart (Matt. 5:8). Your heart is holding on to some aspects of pride, judgement, or worldliness. It has been my testimony that if you want to know what is holding you back, and it is sometimes very difficult to see error in ourselves, ask the Lord. He will tell you, if you are ready to listen and accept what He has to tell you.

God bless you on your journey.

The Devil was piqued such saintship to behold, And longed to tempt him like good Job of old: But Satan now is wiser than of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor. —Alexander Pope, Moral Essay III

Things are going very well in Disneyland. The CEO of Disney, Bob Eisner, made $63 million dollars in salary in 2018. That salary was actually reduced by $10 million dollars because the stockholders voted against giving him that big of compensation. I don’t doubt that Bob Eisner is worth that to the stockholders of Disney and to the board who voted him that salary, but, $63 million turns out to be 1,424 times the median salary of the 200,000 employees of Disney. His compensation totals the pay of 9,284 Disneyland workers. Does that seem a little excessive to you? Some argue, to justify the large salary, that if he gave all of his salary to those 200,000 employees it would only increase their yearly salary by $315. Maybe so. Abigail Disney, grand niece of Walt Disney, counters by saying that paying huge bonuses to Bob Eisner sends a terrible message to all the Disney employees who are struggling to make ends meet. She says the message it transmits is “Corrosive”.

I suggest to you the widening gap between top salaries and unskilled workers is a sign of our times. You have all heard of the robber barons and industrialists of the late 19th century like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Frick, J.P. Morgan, Vanderbilt and others who extorted fabulous wealth on the backs of workers. Living extravagant lives while their employees lived in deplorable conditions. Great labor unrest and the intervention of the government in the early years of the 20th century helped to close the gap and improve conditions dramatically for the blue collar worker. But, it seems, the days of the robber barons are back. The industrialists of late 19th and early 20th centuries have become the technocrats of our generation.

Now, I don’t really want this to be about how we take away from the rich and give to the poor. Bob Eisner is probably a good guy, right? He pays his taxes, gives lavishly to the poor, and is honest and full of integrity to a fault–I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I do know that Eisner was a big reason for the success of Disney over the last 10 years or so; he has made stock holders a lot of money and to them he is well worth the bonuses he has been paid.

I want to use his example to point out what is happening to our society, and the slippery slope we are careening headlong into. At $15 an hour, which is now the starting pay for most unskilled workers at Disney, an employee cannot make a living wage in southern California. $15 an hour is one the highest paying minimum wages in the country, and yet, no one can support a family on that.

A recent poll of Disney workers reveals the following:

1. 75% say they do not earn enough money to cover basic expenses every month.
2. More then 50% of Disney Resort employees are afraid of being evicted.
3. Two thirds (67%) are food insecure (don’t know where their next meal is coming from).
4. One half of workers live in over crowded apartments where more than one family shares a single or double bedroom.
5. 10% of workers have been homeless at one time.
6. Work at Disneyland is the primary source of income for 91% of workers, but full time employment is provided to only 54%.

Some might argue, “Why don’t they just leave and get a higher paying job?” First of all, Disney is one of the highest paying employers in the region. The median minimum pay in So. Cal. is $13.23 per hour. So, leaving Disney to work at a lower paying company isn’t really an option. Erratic work schedules at Disney also means it is almost impossible to find a second job. Most of these workers are trapped, there is really no other option for them. And what is really wrong about this is that Disney Corporation knows their employees have no better option, and is able to manipulate the situation to make larger profits.

I mentioned that Bob Eisner has been very successful at Disney. Stock price has almost doubled from $85 a share to $146 in five years. Revenue has doubled in ten years. Eisner was the key figure in acquiring several large acquisitions that have doubled Disney’s Market share. I’d say he has earned his bonuses. Like all successful CEO’s he has become a master at converting men’s (and women’s) lives into money. Other men’s lives, that is, into his money. There are no murders involved here as there was among the Gadiantons in the Book of Mormon, but there is the calculated plan to extort blood and sweat from people in order to gain the maximum profit. While Cain gloried in the murder of his brother, because he obtained his brother’s flocks through murder, the modern Master Mahan is more sophisticated. He knows how to convert men’s lives into money without shedding blood. And that is what is happening in corporate America. It is not about fairness, it is about how can the maximum amount of productivity be obtained for the least amount of expenditure. Squeezing the life of workers, because they can. And then squeeze the consumer to get as much money as they will pay. It is not about a fair wage for fair labor, or fair price for a fair product.

Our society has come to believe largely the same tenants and philosophy introduced by Nehor and Korihor in the Book of Mormon. Nehor philosophy became widely accepted by the Nephite and Lamanite societies and was embraced by the Gadianton Robbers in the last centuries of the Nephite nation before their destruction. The philosophy can be encapsulated in this passage:

“And many more such things did he say unto them, telling them that there could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.” (Alma 30:17

Very few would ever admit to believing such a philosophy because we still pay lip service to American founding ideals based on Christian principles of fairness and principled work ethic. But Nehor philosophy is there, lurking behind the scenes whenever greed, avarice, and extreme selfishness hides behind the facade of good business practices. “It is just good business sense to pay the absolute least amount you can get away with to your employees. If they don’t like it, they can go somewhere else.”

Paying the CEO of Disney $63 Million is no crime. And on the face of it is the right thing to do if you are a stock holder who wants every advantage for the stock price to continue to go up. And we can argue that it is the best system going right now. Even the poorest American is better off than 80% of the world. But from a moral point of view, I think everyone would agree, there is something fundamentally wrong with this system. Ivan Boesky, famous for going to prison for criminal insider trading in the 1980’s wore a t-shirt that said, “He who dies with the most money wins.” Wins what exactly? What sort of prize does someone get for cheating and stealing their way to amassing a fortune? He also was famously quoted as saying, ” I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”

Before the Industrialist Robber Barons there were the bankers, the land owners in England, Ireland, and France; the royalty; aristocrats; the financiers; and the warmongers. There have always been men who would stop at nothing to enrich themselves at the expense of the common man, serfs, and slaves. Laws have evolved over the centuries to make things more fair and to improve the standard of living among the lower classes. And for the most part they have succeeded in the Western world (Europe, United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand). But there are always ways to get around the law, and very smart and enterprising people can develop schemes to “game” (cheat) the system. The Nehor system always works within the laws, usually because they create the laws, and if that doesn’t work, get really good lawyers (Alma 11:1-20).

In Zion, there will be no classes of people. There will be no poor, but not because poor people are barred from entering, but because all people will be poor together or rich together. The CEO will receive as much in wages as the ditch digger and garbage man. Somehow we have this idea in LDS lore, that the poor man is the way he is because of laziness and that only the industrious and hardworking will be allowed in Zion. But that is exactly the belief of the Zoramites in the Book of Mormon. They kicked out all the poor people and as a result suffered annihilation because the very people they despised were the reason the Lord held back the destructive impulses of the world.

Zion exists because the people of Zion have no egos. They have been able to shed the idea that any one person is more important than another. In fact, the whole society is built on the principle that their neighbor is as important and special, maybe more so, than themselves. If you live in Zion, your job is primarily be to look after the interests of your neighbor, your neighborhood, your city. You would give no thought to yourself and your well being, because your neighbor will be taking care of your needs. You will love your neighbor as yourself. How could you steal or cheat someone you love like that? When I served a mission in New Zealand, I had to be careful what I said. I couldn’t say, “I like your shirt” to the Polynesians because they would give it to me. I think Zion will be something like that.

So, my parting words to Bob Eisner are: “Congratulations, Bob, you have made it to the top rung of the ladder, but, you are on the wrong ladder.”

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“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” (Mathew 5:9)

“All your strength is in your union All your danger is in discord Therefore be at peace henceforward, And as brothers live together.” – –Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

There are only two references in the scriptures to “peacemakers”, Matthew 5 and 3 Nephi 12. We can begin understanding what the Lord meant by this term by using the definition from any English dictionary for the word peacemaker, which is “any person who makes peace”, and the many references to “peace” in the scriptures. The world defines “peacemaker” as someone who steps in and stops a fight, or prevents one, perhaps as a statesman, diplomat, a Gandhi, or a Martin Luther King. Peace in the world’s understanding is absence of conflict, war. Two references to the name “Peacemaker” or “Peacekeeper” illustrate my point. The first is the Peacekeeper missile, or MX, built in the 1980’s and 90’s to carry ten 300 kiloton yield nuclear weapons. The second is the Colt 45 caliber Peacemaker revolver built in the late 1800’s. Both were instruments of war; the name “Peacemaker” or “Peacekeeper” having reference to enforcing peace by threatening extreme violence. The strategy of the US during the Cold War with the Soviet Union was fear, to make the threat of war so horrific and terrible that it would enforce peace.

In the way of the World’s thinking, peace is absence of war. But even in peacetime there is fear, anxiety, restlessness, jostlings, antipathy, animosity, hatred, and envying. Worldly peace comes at the cost of having to raise the economic prospects of one nation or people over the prosperity of another. Because of this, peace usually has to be maintained by force through unrighteous dominion engendering hatred and animosity. Peace and prosperity for some requires that other people suffer. Even in peace there are factions within nations and between races that prevent any peaceful feelings that might exist otherwise. Wordly peace always involves some discord, in contrast to God’s peace. ‘God is not the author of confusion, but of peace’ (Corinthians 14:33)

Peace in heaven’s dictionary is something more, much more. If worldly peace is absence of war, the peace of Christ is absence of conflict within ourselves. When we are at peace with ourselves, we are at peace with God. If we are at peace with God we are at peace with our fellow man and we have no basis for discord or animosity. “First keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.” (Thomas a’ Kempis, Imitation of Christ) The essence of this peace is described by Paul:

“to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6) “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace” (Galatians 5:22)

I am talking about the “peace that passeth understanding” (Philippians 4:7). In a previous posting I wrote about the pure in heart who have come to a point in their lives where they have no animosity towards anyone. Having seen God they now know their place in the scheme of things and their minds are at peace. As part of their spiritual maturity they are so full of light and truth that God grants to them the charity of Christ. Having exercised faith, and having obtained the hope of eternal life, which Christ promises to you when you receive your calling and election, they are now given some clarity on the true meaning of charity (1 Corinthians 13:13). True Christ-like charity really distills down, in one of its purest forms, to helping others obtain the same privileges that you have received. Helping others thereafter becomes a passion in the lives of those that have obtained redemption. The Sons of Mosiah are a great example of this. They “could not bear that any human soul should perish.” (Mosiah 28:3) When they met up with Alma the Younger years after leaving Nephite lands to preach to the Lamanites, Alma described that they experienced “incomprehensible joy” in bringing the souls of many to Christ. Joy is the very thing that Father in Heaven wants us to experience, and indeed, the very thing that defines the love of Christ fulfilled.

“And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.” (1 Nephi 13:37)

I believe the Lord’s words through Nephi’s writing describe the peacemakers, the ones who publish peace; the peace the gospel of Christ brings to the soul. Publishing peace through testimony and gentle persuasion is what peacemakers do. Anyone can become a peacemaker, but, there is a special case of peacemaker, spoken of in the beatitudes, of someone who has become sanctified and redeemed. His or her mission becomes that of teacher, expounder, and testifier. This is how we take upon us the name of Christ. And having been given His name, we become His children. The following words spoken to Moses and Aaron by the Lord frame the spirit of how a peacemaker publishes peace.

“Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel: and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6: 23-27)

“Wherefore I say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God,…” (Numbers 25:12-13)

I wonder if we really understand what Christ-like charity is. We think that giving money to a beggar, paying tithing, visiting the sick and the prisoners, volunteering at the food bank, sacrificing our time to help other people, etc., is the same as the charity that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13. What we think of as charity is only doing the basic minimum of what the Lord expects of us. Although this kind of charity is a good work that we do, we are only scratching the surface of what it means in the scriptural sense to have charity. Here is an example where peacemaking and charity are ultimately bound up in the same thing.

Hugh B. Brown, who was an apostle in the first presidency of the LDS church in the 1950’s and 60’s, tells a story of a Canadian Army Captain with whom he fought along side in France during the First World War. The Captain sent a squad of men from his company out on patrol in no-mans land between the lines of the British and the Germans at night to gain intelligence of the enemy’s disposition. During the patrol the men were discovered and fired upon by the enemy, and many of the men were killed. A few men escaped and were able to make it back to their lines, but the bodies of their comrades were left in no-man’s land. The Captain wrote letters to the families of the dead men telling them that their husbands or sons had been reported missing. The wife of one of the men wrote back that she could not bear not knowing whether her husband was dead or a prisoner. She had to know. The captain decided that he would go out into no-man’s land by himself at night and find the body of the woman’s husband. He was able to find the body and was able to report back to the woman that her husband was dead. In performing this act he became a peacemaker because the captain valued the grieving wife’s peace of mind more than his own life. Elder Brown reported that the man was wounded by a sniper while on his perilous mission to no man’s land and later died from his wound.

How much more valuable, more important is it to help a person obtain an eternal peace of mind? What is more valuable than obtaining eternal life? Along the way, the peacemaker can experience incomprehensible joy, which is not the motivation for being a peacemaker, but nevertheless is a consequence. Truly that person becomes a child of God, one who knows his Father and does his Father’s work.

The Lord is teaching us to be like Him. I think that if many people who have a notion of becoming like Christ, really understood what they would have to do, they would balk at the requirements. After all your whole job in existence, what really gives you satisfaction as a God, is to labor and work solely to bring about the happiness and joy of men. There is no ego involved and absolutely no self promotion or self aggrandizement. You do not do it because there is a reward somewhere in it for yourself. You do it out of a love that is incomprehensible to us right now. It is all about taking care of the needs and desires of others, even if they don’t deserve it. How many can endure that work? This is why I believe that one of the highest callings in the kingdom of Heaven, or anywhere else, is to be a peacemaker.

I am following the theme I established at the beginning of the series on the beatitudes, which is this: Christ was describing a step by step pathway to exaltation. It naturally follows that a person having obtained a pure heart and having seen God will also receive salvation and his or her Calling and Election. The “calling” part of Calling and Election is to be a peacemaker, to bring others to Christ. The next step in the process of following Christ is nothing more than the natural consequence of being a peacemaker; being persecuted. I will write about that in a follow on posting.