Prologue

In my late teens, having gained a zeal for the gospel and the scriptures, as I attended my first semester at Brigham Young University, attending an honors Book of Mormon class taught by Truman Madsen, I tended to gravitate toward wanting to solve the mysteries of the gospel.  My intellectual proclivities spurred me to probe the deep and hidden things of religion.

But then I received my mission call to serve in Sapporo Japan, where most people remotely believe in God, have barely heard of Christ and the Bible, and are hardly interested in probing the riddles of religion.  This situation forced me to focus on the plain and simple doctrines of Christ:  faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, receipt of the Holy Ghost as a constant companion.  It is one of the best things that ever happened to me.  I developed a love affair with the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its glorious plainness.

Following an admonition of Elder Bruce R. McConkie, I assembled a notebook, writing the title of a gospel topic on the top of each page, then separating the page into two columns.   In the left-hand column I wrote "Bible," and recorded passages relevant to that topic from the Bible as I found them.  In the right-hand column I wrote "Book of Mormon and Modern Revelation," recording there scriptures from those sources relevant to that topic.  His promise was that in so doing one would discover that not only do the Bible and Book of Mormon teach the same thing, but the Book of Mormon does it with much greater clarity and power.

My experience was precisely that.  The Bible proved the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Mormon proved the Bible -- hand in hand.  But of these two witnesses, the Book of Mormon was almost always more clear and powerful in its presentation of the saving truths of God.  It did not contradict the Bible but clarified it.  Likewise, the Bible greatly facilitated a better understanding of the Book of Mormon.  I developed a deep love of the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.  My conviction that these books indeed contain the word of God was firmly established in Christ, of whom they bear witness.

This passionate love affair with the simple tenets of the gospel continued for yet two more years following my mission as I taught Gospel Doctrine classes to eager young men and women at the Missionary Training Center in Provo.

Then, over the next five years or so, my focus shifted to the Constitution of the United States.  I was awakened to an awareness of the role it plays in the latter-day work of God and was alarmed at the scope of the severe threats it faces.  On the one hand, I gained a strong conviction regarding the divine destiny the people of God have in promoting proper principles of government and preserving freedom.  I could see that this was as important to a person's salvation as was a person's religious walk.   Indeed, the two are inseparably related.  One cannot continue to be a righteous person and also build up instruments of government which subvert freedom.

Much to my dismay, I was shocked to see the level of complacency about these things among fellow members of the LDS church.  I could not fathom why they could be so lethargic about something so drastically important.  With Ezra Taft Benson being president of the Church at the time, who could deny these things?  No leader of the Church has been better prepared to be so powerful a spokesman on the subject of the Constitution and conspiracies out to destroy it as was President Benson.  And the Book of Mormon, which he emphasized so repetatively, further witnesses prophetically of these things. Yet deny and balk they did, from the local lay member, all the way up to the highest quorums of the Church.  I was aghast.

Yet as I probed in the scriptures, I discovered prophecies aplenty which described this very scenario.  The Jews were focused on a temporal government but got the gospel instead.  Now the Gentiles, or the Mormons most specifically, are focused on the gospel but are ignoring the government of God, which is going to be established in power when the kingdom of the devil falls -- which they are supporting instead because of their willful ignorance.  "What's so bad about the New World Order?" said one member of the First Presidency during a question/answer session of a regional priesthood leadership meeting in Payson, Utah in 1992.  He now sits as president of the Church.

During this time of awakening and zealous activity to try and do my part to stem the tide of erosion of our freedoms, leading us to the brink of captivity, very often I would hear people say, "All we have to do is live the gospel, and everything will work out."  Whenever they said this, I quoted to them the statement by President Benson in which he said that this irresponsible sentiment was one of the most effective lies set forth by Satan to keep the Elders of Israel ineffective in the fight for freedom.   (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson.)  He said that the fight for freedom is an inseparable part of living the gospel.

It's not one or the other but both.  Thanks to Christ's atonement, we can have a changed people who can build a righteous government of God that will protect the freedom of all mankind so that peace might reign on the earth.

"Just live the gospel."  I grew to deplore this statement because it was so trite and hypocritical when spoken.  Ironically, I allowed myself to overreact by setting the whole gospel thing on the back burner and turn the heat on low.  I figured I had already probed that one and that my foundation was well in place.  My attention needed to be with the government portion of the kingdom of God.

Many of my studies and activities went to show the parallels between the gospel and the government elements of the work of God.  One of the most sobering parallels I elaborated upon was that between the Jews at the time of Messiah's first coming and the Mormons in the latter-days as we prepare for the second coming of Christ.  Writing and speaking on that subject did not endear me to the hierarchy of the Mormon Church.   (Incidentally, most of the material on this web site, www.GreaterThings.com goes to prove this parallel between the Jews and the Mormons, with all its ramifications.  No wonder some LDS-based web-filtering services block my web site from their clients.)

Beginning in the Fall of 1995, I began once more a close inspection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This time my attention was focused specifically on the definition of the Church of Christ.  I could see that it had everything to do with the baptism of water and of the Spirit, but almost nothing to do with an institution.  What made a person a member of the body of Christ was not a baptismal certificate, but a mighty change of heart through the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost.

The more I looked at this doctrine of the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, the more I realized that the members of the Church in general don't have the slightest clue what this is about.  Certainly there are many exceptions.  Despite some false doctrine that is propagated in the various auxiliaries of the Church, the Church officially teaches the doctrine correctly.  You have to look hard for it, but it is there.  What is missing is a culture of people who understand the doctrine, who have experienced this baptism of fire, and who give it the proper emphasis.  This Church might bear the name of Jesus Christ, but few indeed are its members who are actually part of the Church of Christ as defined in the scriptures.  Furthermore, there are many people who are not members of this institution but who are part of the Church of Christ, having been born of the water and of the spirit.

You can imagine my sad amusement at the irony that I was now discovering.  Not only are the members out of line in saying, "Just live the gospel," as an excuse to not get involved in the fight for freedom; but they don't even know what the gospel is.

I'll never forget this one time I was in an interview with my Stake President.  I had just purchased music scoring software, and the first thing I did with it was compose a hymn using the lyrics of LDS hymn #180, "Father in Heaven, We do Believe," by Parley P. Pratt.  Tucked away in the sixth verse was the line, "Baptize us with the Holy Ghost, and seal us as thine own; that we may join the heavn'ly hosts and with the saints be one."  I made this the chorus of the song as well as the title:   "Baptize us with the Holy Ghost."

I was excited to show this piece to my Stake President.  I was hopeful that he would see it as evidence that the Lord is working in my life and that I am not the "apostate" he was convinced I was.

Sunday rolled around, and I showed up to my interview.  Before I had a chance to show them my song, I was reprimanded for writing a letters to the brethren.  I had written to the Reader's Digest, recommending Elder Maxwell's talks for their "Points to Ponder" section.  I had also written a letter to Elder Maxwell and the Copyrights and Permissions office, informing them of what I had done.  Also I had written a letter to Elder Oaks, showing him the chiasm I had discovered in his General Converence talk about "The Great Plan of Salvation."  When I queried my stake president as to why this was out of place, for I had thought these things would be viewed kindly; my stake president told me that it looked like I was trying to "counsel the brethren."

At that point, I pulled out my song, hoping that maybe this would turn things around.   I set the hymn on the desk, expecting a smile, but instead received a skeptical glare.  "Where did you get these lyrics?" he asked, questioning their doctrinal voracity.  Red flags were going up in his countenance.

"Parley P. Pratt, hymn #180," I responded.  I could have pulled the LDS hymnal off the shelf in his office and showed him.

Three times he asked.  Three times I told him.

Somehow he just couldn't fathom how "Baptize us with the Holy Ghost" was a legitimate doctrinal concept.  His frown told me that he suspected it to be some apostate teaching.  There sitting next to him was his First Counselor who is a full-time seminary teacher.  He said nothing; nor did he show any sign of recognition of this doctrine.

Yet there it is woven throughout the Book of Mormon as an integral part of the doctrine of Christ.  It is even highlighted as part of the Intent of that Second Witness of Jesus Christ.

Mormon 7:
    9 For behold, this [Book of Mormon] is written for the intent that ye may believe that [the Bible]; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them.
    10 And ye will also know that ye are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; therefore ye are numbered among the people of the first covenant; and if it so be that ye believe in Christ, and are baptized, first with water, then with fire and with the Holy Ghost, following the example of our Savior, according to that which he hath commanded us, it shall be well with you in the day of judgment. Amen.

Those two verses are nearly a verbatim quotation of the Title Page statement in the Book of Mormon.

Yet there in front of me was a stake president and his two counselors, life-time members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, thinking that "Baptize us with the Holy Ghost" is an apostate doctrine.

The sad thing is that they are a reflection of where most of the membership of the LDS Church is at on this most fundamental of doctrines.

So not only have we as a people built up secret combinations that seek to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries, but we have also rejected the fullness of the gospel.  According to the prophecies, we are therefore good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.  No wonder we are under condemnation.

. . . That is unless we repent and cry mightily unto the Lord our God.

Those who do not repent will be cut off from among the people.  Those who repent will be numbered among the remnant of Israel who will build the New Jerusalem upon this, the American Continent, from whence the literal kingdom of God will be established, no more to be thrown down.

Indeed, when one truly understands and lives the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes as its main feature the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, he will also support freedom, for "the Spirit of God . . . is also the spirit of freedom." (Alma 61:15.)

Thus the statement, "Just live the gospel," is the remedy for what ails this troubled world, for it entails a radically transformed people who will as part of loving one another also sustain the principles of freedom.

Indeed, "A Mighty Change" is what we need "for a New World."   And it is long time that those who claim to be members of Christ's church, called to proclaim this message to the world, awake and put on strength so that they might be chosen as God's people in the valley of decision that is before us.

Sterling D. Allan
May 7, 1999
sterlingda@greaterthings.com
http://www.GreaterThings.com

See Preface note regarding the "Appendix: Another Testament."