Mormon Chronicle EXCLUSIVE! Never before available personal writings of Elder H. Verlan Andersen.
When the people commence to look to the federal government for their support, and if they don’t receive what they feel they are entitled to, they will strike against the power which is withholding that to which they consider themselves entitled. Just as in times past, men have struck against the companies who gave them jobs and provided them with a livelihood when they felt they were entitled to higher wages or shorter hours.
In both cases the recipients are not grateful for what they are receiving. They are angry because it isn’t more. The difference lies in this: When the strike is against a private company there is an independent unbiased police force to maintain peace and arbitrate the case in court, but where the government is one of the parties to the dispute there is no appeal to anything except force.
The employees can come to hate the government and its officers just as they come to hate the company and its officers when the law is not based upon moral principle. When the law can no longer appeal to either reason or justice, and where it is nothing more than a power which takes what is available and dispenses it with an arbitrary hand, with no fundamental principle to guide it in saying how much is to be given to which group, people lose respect for such a law and the police power which enforces it. No appeal to justice, reason, or compassion will prove effective. The people who are the backbone of civilized nations—the thrifty, hardworking self-respecting independent honest class—cannot respect such a law.
Where the right of private property is protected man is encouraged to look to himself to supply his wants. He is even forced to this just as nature and nature’s God decreed: Thou shalt eat thy bread by the sweat of the face. But when government announces that it will now see to it that his wants are supplied, he no longer feels the need to rely upon his own brains and body. That man loses respect for the rights of others. He looks to the use of force to provide for his needs. He looks to force which takes from others what they have created, and the more he is pampered the more he demands. He comes to believe what the government tells him: That there are no property rights which may not be invaded to provide for his wants. He no longer regards it as necessary to conserve and limit his desires or to save and provide for the future. In our complex economy this is the worst possible attitude, for when it breaks down the suffering will be most intense.
When a government encourages and advocates the belief that force may be used by groups, acting together through government to despoil others of their property, the reliance upon force becomes accepted. As the reliance upon force becomes accepted and as the numbers increase who depend upon government largesse, the greater becomes the problem of restraining this group when government can no longer supply their demands. The government must resort to force to keep them in place when their demands reach that point (which they soon will), where it is impossible to give them what they ask. Civil war will occur just as it did in Rome.
There are always large numbers in any society who are industrious and thrifty and who respect the rights of others to own and control property. These people know within themselves that it is morally wrong for the government to take from them the fruits of their own labors and saving practices and give to those who won’t work and won’t save. As the immoral practice of government grows, disrespect
for law also grows. They no longer can be counted on to uphold and obey a law they know is immoral and is at variance with their conscience. The foundation of any stable government is respect and voluntary obedience by the masses of the people. When this is destroyed, free government is no longer possible and dictatorship becomes the only answer. Such a form of government must resort to a policy of foreign war to keep the people united in any respect. They must conduct a war against some real or imagined foreign government and cry danger in order to get any support.
In such a government only the corrupt will accept positions of responsibility, or those who are so blind that they are unable to see the perversion of government. Such a group will not scruple to stay in power. The love of power becomes the dominant aim in their lives. No means is too devious or too reprehensible. They will use force, lies, bribery, murder, and imprisonment to hold their opponents in check.
The loss of political and economic freedom is an inevitable consequence of socialism. Self-government becomes impossible because centralized planning displaces all local planning. As immorality grows apace, the people are unable to act in concert in sufficient numbers to put respectable and moral men in office. Each group is striving to protect its own selfish and government protected interests. Any man who stands up and says this is all wrong is vilified, maligned, and literally torn to pieces by the mobs who want government to continue to protect their labor monopoly, business monopoly, subsidy, welfare check, etc.
The moral element, seeing that it is impossible to restore government to its proper function, begins to plot its violent overthrow. This is the only recourse they have. Appeal to the ballot box is futile. Death is preferable to slavery to them. If there are no moral reference points, then government becomes nothing more than an instrument of force which treats man as if he were just another beast of burden. Not only does the government presume to own and control all land and natural resources, but it arrogates unto itself the power to treat each citizen’s labor as its own, to dispose of as it pleases, and even to direct what labor shall be performed.
(Personal Journal, / /1962)
Wow. This is outstanding. It’s a nice and steady explanation of the last several decades. I suppose when it comes to Elder Andersen, foresight is 20\20. How are you guys getting access to these awesome writings? Post more please!
Also waiting on that article Ezra promised about Utah’s path to statehood. :)
Awesome article. But still pining for the one on Utah’s path to statehood. :) Ok I’ll stop whinning :)
Considering that the national democratic platform promotes abortion, gay rights, organized labor, political correctness, and many other satanic practices and that God inspired the Constitution and the freedom to engage in capitalism, why are democrats allowed to receive a Temple Recommend? I understand socialist countries where there is not a choice, but in the United States where there is a choice and we even have the opportunity to kill for our beliefs, democrats take the side of Satan on almost every issue regarding free agency.
Excellent question Floyd. Our Democrat child of hell Senate President Harry Reid is a member in good standing with a temple recommend. I have no doubt but that every president of the Church from Joseph to Ezra would have excommunicated him. So, why doesn’t Pres. Monson do this? The answer is found in the parable of the wheat and the tares. Both are being allowed to grow together now, be members in good standing, and attend the temple. Both are being allowed to influence us for good or evil, to gather their own for satan on the one hand, and Christ on the other. The former teaches us “the precepts of men” as the Lord warned in 2nd Nephi 28:14. The latter teaches us the Gospel of Christ. Previous prophets up to and including Ezra Taft Benson often and vociferously
warned us at General Conference about the increasing numbers of these “ravening wolves” in priesthood leadership positions on the ward, stake, and even the general level, who teach us those “precepts of men”. It is difficult for many LDS to believe this, that they cannot afford to blindly trust their leaders. All I can say about that is to repeat the warnings about such imposters that we have already been given from the Lord through earlier prophets. Spiritual laziness is anathema to our eternal progression. It must needs be that we have the opportunity to continually hone our ability to discern, through the influence of the Holy Ghost. The only way this is possible is for both wheat and tares to be baptized, preside over us, and entice us one way or the other.
This is an amazing article.
I’m not so sure that I agree that the moral element will be those who begin the riots though, the ones taking to violence. Instead, I see that as a new president takes office, those who have come to rely on what they feel they are entitled to from the government will take up arms and riot as their entitlements are limited or stripped from them.
Either way, my husband and I have been talking about this quite a bit lately. We don’t think it’ll be so much of a Civil War as it will be terrorism from our own upon our own.
I think everything is in motion. All we can do now is pray that Christ will return soon and make things right. Oh, how I do look forward to that day.
Elder Andersen’s assumption is based on an immoral president and government oppressing the moral element. Yours is based on a moral President and government taking the reins again and restoring things as they should have been. In that scenario I would agree with you that “covetous class” will rise up to riot and take back what they feel is rightfully theirs like the wicked lamanites (I realize they were not always wicked by I use the group loosely) who felt their ancestors or themselves had been wronged and were entitled to reparations even by force.
While I can respect your optimism I think Elder Andersen’s is a safer one to make. We won’t do much and things will get worse until we realize what we have allowed to get over us.
“Do we realize that if we enjoy a Zion in time or in eternity we must make it for ourselves? That all, who have Zion in the eternities of the Gods, organized, framed, consolidated, and perfected it themselves, and consequently are entitled to enjoy it?”
“When we conclude to make Zion we will make it, and this work commences in the heart of each person. When the father of a family wishes to make a Zion in his own house, he must take the lead in this good work, which it is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the spirit of Zion. Before he can produce the work of sanctification in his family, he must sanctify himself, and by this means God can help him to sanctify his family.”
Brigham Young
James, I see what you’re saying. I suppose I’m the eternal optimist, even while recognizing that things are going to go downhill either way. We just left the book of Alma this week and it’s amazing how they used to deal with things. Those who fought against liberty and freedom were put to death. I suppose it’s difficult for someone of the moral class to see violence as ever being the correct answer because what does that turn us into? Would someone still be of the moral class if they were turning to violence, even as they were defending righteousness? It sure doesn’t make anyone look at that group of people and think “yeah, they’re right, I should join myself with them.” Such a difficult position.
Well what they were dealing with could easily be called treason. If anyone internal tried to raise up arms to impose totalitarian rule over the Nephites they put them to death if they would no enter into a covenant of peace. But if they were defiant to that, they were executed under the justification of treason(self defense from an internal enemy). Mormon took extra care to highlight Captain Moroni and others that did not glory in killing but did so only in defense of their lives and their families and their natural rights. Even after having their enemies surrounded they still offered to let them drop their weapons and leave with a covenant of Peace. God loves each of his children and wants each and everyone of us to return to him. Showing each other love is key.
Ginger, since when did violence per se have a moral element? Answer? It never did and doesn’t now. When you see a roach or an ant or a spider in your home, you act with violence against it. You kill it, even though it meant you no harm. How much more deserving of violence are those who with malice and forethought deprive you or your loved ones of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, or attempt to? All occupations have hazards. For example, a treasonous outlaw freely chooses his occupational hazards, such as sometimes getting shot or beheaded by his intended victims. Elder Andersen wrote at length about this eternal law of retribution: A person who chooses to deprive another of their God-given rights immediately forfeits his own such rights. There is no
possible way to have a safe and prosperous society without this principle.
Excellent points, Mr. Craig, and every single person that voted for Obama is a member of the treasonous group you speak of. Obama and his liberal progressives view the Constitution as negative freedoms and as such, a hinderance to their plans of socialism. President McKay declared that socialism is of the devil. Consequently, every vote for Obama was a vote for Satan or at a minimum, anti-Christ.
Our God given right to defend ourselves even to the shedding of blood includes most of the things that our government is doing against us currently. Personally, I do not think that we would be punished any more for removing the oppressor than for removing the cockroach.
Within the Church it will be more than wheat and tares. It will be, as Hugh Nibley called it, Kingmen vs. Freemen, or as his second witness called them, Leaders vs. Managers.
http://ash.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=73&chapid=897
True dat
The article you linked is incredibly insightful. Quite heavy for a single read. While pointing out that we should not commit mass extinction of liberals as we may not be qualified to tell the wicked from the righteous, and as pointed out earlier, that Senator Reid does not resemble what is normally portrayed as Temple Worthy, this information should be common in all Wards and Stakes and not buried in a blog where only extensive research can find it.
“Seek and you shall find” is the key principle here. If he average member was interested in the info it would be easily found. Satan does not care how he leads us off the reservation just that it is done. If he can’t sell us the overt evil(liberal platform you pointed out) then he will sell us the Lord’s plan done Satan’s way(republican plan). Forcing people to live righteously will also bring us down and drive peoples hearts away from Christ and see him as an oppressor. Unrighteous dominion is not righteousness anymore than overt evil is. Think of the catholic church during the dark ages.
I have always, ALWAYS loved the Walter Rane version of the 10 Versions. It was the only painting I’ve ever seen where there was compassion from the wise for those who had learned, too late and to their hurt, that they had been foolish. Spencer W. Kimball taught that this parable was about members of the Church, not the world at large. In my life, I have had times where I knew I was among the foolish. Where I have feared that perhaps it was too late and I was lost. It was then that those few, those very few compassionate members – the deeds they did and the words
they said became enshrined inside my heart as gold. They continue to heal today. I own this painting as a reminder and a question to myself, “Which one am I? Today? Now?” Because that’s all that really matters. Yesterday I found a footnote to Rane’s thought in the art of Liz Lemon Swindle. It about took my breath away. I wanted to both rejoice and weep at this close-up of the heart of the matter.
http://www.reparteegallery.com/p-30924-the-ten-virgins-biblical.aspx
The protests lately in America are but an example of things Elder Anderson talked about in this writing. The breakdown of our society could be coming if things don’t improve. It would be good if his writings could stand as a warning for our current leaders.
I thought the OP was just another typical example of capitalist right-wing American mumbo-jumbo. The problem of government taking from the rich to distribute to the poor is caused by the selfishness of the rich and their unwillingness to voluntarily share their wealth with the less fortunate. The rich amass vast fortunes, far beyond their requirements, and then complain when the government insists on doing what they (the rich) should have done themselves. They have only themselves to blame, and quite frankly deserve the treatment they receive at the hands of politicians.
Redistribution is not justice it is further injustice which redistributes the damnation you acuse the rich of, to all the people by tempting them with covetousness. Besides the power needed to redistribute becomes centralized in the han of exactly those you call rich and corrupt to ensure that free markets never bring true justice but enshrine the corrupt in positions to which they make sure no virtuous person can ascend. We each get to choose when we will stop being the devils chump.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The rich are doomed unless they give away their excess wealth to the poor and needy. In most cases they won’t. Therefore it is entirely appropriate that they should be forced to – for the sake of the poor. If rich and corrupt men (politicians) are the means by which this is done, that’s poetic justice.
The rich in the church (and there are a lot of them) are in for a big shock.
Please, Listen to yourself. Doomed(your passing final judgement when even the Lord refrains from doing so), should be forced(sounds a lot like satans plan, what made you like Gods plan in the PE but then reject it in this one?), justice (where the ends justify the means).
You dont even seem to know that robin didnt steal from the rich to give to the poor. He reclaimed from corrupt centralized government what had been taken(taxed) unjustly from the people making sure that only the elite upper crust would ever have the means to do anything beyond survive.
You seem to have no idea how your advocating the exacerbation of the very oppression you seem to want to remedy. Please dont respond right away. Please consider if the Lords plan can be carried out satans way
Alma says that it is best to be humble of our own volition, but if we’re not, then we are forced to be humble. Either way, we get humbled. God can only make headway with the humble.
It is not meet that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore, the world lieth in sin.
I recommend you read the scriptures a little more often, and the right-wing capitalist “freedom loving” Babylonian press/media etc, a little less. Actually, a lot less.
Humbled by God, robin. By God. Because he has the full picture and the authority to do so. Standing in judgement to take your brothers life, liberty or property when he has not done so beyond a shadow of a doubt to anyone else is a direct attack upon the sovereignty of the father. Just like in the PE where satan crowed that he had a better plan, a fairer plan, and that he would be more just than our father, he is selling the same wares today and dragging down saints left and right who error because they have been taught by the precepts of men. Redistribution by force is a wholly wicked and perverse doctrine which prophets, apostles and other church leaders have clearly identified as satans plan. Why you would fight them or call it right wing is beyond me.
And why so-called saints (especially in the US) think that the capitalist market economy is any better is utterly beyond me. The difference is that under the present system the captivity and theft is covert, whereas under another it is overt…..you can see your enemy.
My point is that if there is distribution by force, the rich will have brought it upon themselves because of their meaness. The rich are required, by God’s law, to care for the poor and the weak, but they have failed to do this “wherefore the world lieth in sin”. I have been to Utah and seen the affluence in which most of the saints there live. I have also seen awful poverty there. It is an absolute disgrace that so-called saints permit this state of affairs. If their wealth is taken, it’s their fault.
You are ignorant if you believe we have a free market in the US.
And so you believe theft is proper? You are already deceived and are supporting Satan’s plan.
The third world war will come first, then the total civil unrest. Get a copy of Duane Crowther’s, “Prophecy” – it’s all documented.
Don’t rely to much on Duane Crowther’s book, “Prophecy, Key to the Future.” Some background on his book. It was submitted as a Thesis at BYU several years ago. However, the Board had him remove several pages from the thesis, as it could not be accurately documented. After receiving his degree, he put everything back in it and published it. I received this information from one of the Board members; he was a professor of religion at BYU. Someone in his class asked about Crowther’s book and he told us that most of the book could not be accurately documented.
This is a great article. I would encourage everyone to look a little closer at the sins of the Republican Party as well as Democratic Party. Which party is it which wants to allow big business to control taxes, education, immigration, wars, public transportation and other aspects of our lives. I feel these men and women are wolves in wheels clothing. Many Republicans support the transfer of wealth through government force as long as this transfer of wealth is deemed “for the good of conservative principles”. This is just as insidious as anything democrats do.
Corruption, influenced by Lucifer, is deeper than many realize. The secret combinations made notorious by the Gadianton are at work, and have been, for many years now. There will be no robbing the 1% to redistribute to the masses, because the 1% super rich already control everything behind the scenes. The avarice and intrigue is rampant and runs deep. When you take in the big picture, the mega corporations selling us poison for food, drink, medicine, and even entertainment, an ugly picture emerges. Lies are taught as truth, truth is reviled as bigotry and myth, and contention readily ignited. Truly, Satan rages in the hearts of the children of men. Murders, rapes, promiscuity, and cold cruelty is happening everyday, especially amongst the millennial generation.