June 30, 1994
Dear Editor,
After several years of deliberation, the Vatican released a 36-page
document on June 21, entitled "The International Arms Trade: An Ethical
Reflection." (Daily Herald, Provo, UT, 6/26/94, p. D-1.) Its advocacy of gun
control and endorsement of socialism stir deep questions for Christians of all
denominations, for this trend is not unique to Catholicism.
While downplaying the God-given right of defense, the pontifical
council said national security is "based on the determination of the state to assure
that its people enjoy a completely different type of security: adequate food and decent
housing, access to education and to health care, the possibility of work...." That is
socialism. Socialism is satanic in that it seeks to accomplish by force (through
government) what should be done by choice (volunteerism). A free government ensures
that the people have the freedom to pursue these things unfettered.
Though the world seeks to drive a wedge of separation between church
and state, the tenants of truth underpinning both are inseparable. All truth comes into
one great whole. As godless social planners succeed in driving religious influence from
public life, the public policy degenerates to an atheistic morass. As religious leaders
acquiesce to these gods of state, their loyal following are faced with a dilemma: to allow
their loyalty to their denomination turn their worship of Almighty God to the worship of
and all-powerful state; or shift their final loyalty away from the corrupted institution
in order to maintain and strengthen their allegiance to Almighty God.
Though socialism is the prospering global trend now, and aligning with
it will win many friends and riches in the world, its fate is to be ground to powder and
thrust with Satan into the bottomless pit when the Lord, Jesus Christ returns to rule.
Those who align with it will likewise be doomed to weeping and wailing and the gnashing of
teeth.
Wisely did Isaiah say: "The leaders of this people cause them to
err; and they who are led of them are destroyed." (Isa. 9:16; 2 Nephi 19:16.) As for
that destruction: "Upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth,
saith the Lord; first among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my
name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith
the Lord." (See 1 Pet. 4:17; Doctrine and Covenants 112:25,26.)
