The Gods Of Eden

Master Smith and the Angel

WE HAVE SEEN many instances in which religious agitation and revivalism were associated with the UFO phenomenon:

the Hebrew rebellions in Egypt under Moses

the Christian agitations under Jesus

the Islamic militancy under Mohammed

the religious activism during the UFO-plagued years of the Black Death

In the early 20th century, a particularly interesting bout of intense religious fever overtook some communities in British Wales. This incident is known as the Welsh Revival of 1904-1905, in which a preacher driven by “inner voices” electrified the countryside with his sermons. People were reporting all manner of unusual phenomena during the Revival years, including bright moving lights in the sky that we would today label UFOs.

For example, we read the following personal eyewitness accounts gathered by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and published in its Proceedings of 1905:*

First of all my attention was drawn to it by a person in the crowd, and I looked and saw a block of fire as it was rising from the mountain side, and it followed along the mountain side for about 200 to 300 yards, before it gradually rose to heaven. Then a star, as it were, shot out to meet it, and they clapped together and formed a ball of fire. It also grew brighter as it rose higher, and then it seemed to sway about a lot; then it seemed to form into something like the helm of a ship. The size of it at this time would be about the size of the moon, but very much brighter, and lasted about a quarter of an hour.1

. . . the star appeared, like a ball of fire in the sky, glittering and sparkling, and as it went up it seemed to be bubbling over. This continued for about 20minutes . . .2

Firstly, there appeared in the heavens a very large and bright ball of fire. It was of a much more brilliant lustre than an ordinary star—very much the colour of a piece of iron white-heated. It had two brilliant arms which protruded towards the earth. Between these arms there appeared a further light or lights resembling a cluster of stars, which seemed to be quivering with varying brightness ___ It lasted for ten minutes or more.3

It is interesting that in some regions of Wales, the lights arrived at the very same time as the Revival. The Proceedings report:

“For the SPR’s complete report on the Welsh Revival, please see “Psychological Aspects of the Welsh Revival” by A. T. Fryer, which was published in the Society for Psychological Research, Proceedings, 19:80, 1905. A copy of the complete article may be ordered from The Sourcebook Project.

In reply to questions about his experiences, Mr. M. stated that he had never seen such lights before the Revival, nor before he had heard of others seeing them. . . . They [the lights] were seen “high up in the sky, where no houses or anything else could lead us to make any mistake” (i.e. to mistake ordinary lights for them); they were seen both on very dark nights and also when the moon and stars were visible.4

The lights were seen at least once near a chapel, and also leaving an area where a prominent preacher lived, thereby hinting at a direct UFO involvement with some of those people who were responsible for the Revival:

We happened to reach Llanfair about 9:15 P.M. It was a rather dark and damp evening. In nearing the chapel, which can be seen from a distance, we saw balls of light, deep red, ascending from one side of the chapel, the side which is in a field. There was nothing in this field to cause this phenomenon—i.e. no houses, etc. After that we walked to and fro on the main road for nearly two hours without seeing any light except from a distance in the direction of Llanbedr. This time it appeared brilliant, ascending high into the sky from amongst the trees where lives the well-known Rev. C. E.

The distance between us and the light which appeared this time was about a mile. Then about eleven o’clock, when the service which Mrs. Jones conducted was brought to a close, two balls of light ascended from the same place and of similar appearance to those we saw first. In a few minutes afterwards Mrs. Jones was passing us home in her carriage, and in a few seconds after she passed, on the main road, and within a yard of us, there appeared a brilliant light twice, tinged with blue. In two or three seconds after this disappeared, on our right hand, within 150 or 200 yards, there appeared twice very huge balls of similar appearance as that which appeared on the road.

It was so brilliant and powerful this time that we were dazed for a second or two. Then immediately there appeared a brilliant light ascending from the woods where the Rev. C. E. lives. It appeared twice this time. On the other side of the main road, close by, there appeared, ascending from a field high into the sky, three balls of light, deep red. Two of these appeared to split up, whilst the middle one remained unchanged. Then we left for home, having been watching these last phenomena for a quarter of an hour.5

Included among the Welsh aerial phenomena were music and sound effects coming from out of the sky. It seems that the sound effects were designed to more firmly implant the Revivalist message in people by making them believe that they were witnessing visitations from heaven:

E. B., on Wednesday previous, heard about four o’clock what appeared to him to be a thunder clap, followed by lovely singing in the air.
E. E., on Saturday evening, between seven and eight, while returning home from his work, heard some strange music, similar to the vibration caused by telegraph wires, only much louder, on an eminence, the hill being far from any trees and wires of any kind, and it was more or less a still evening.
J. P. heard some lovely singing on the road, about half a mile from his home, on Saturday evening, three weeks ago, which frightened him very much.6

It is interesting that these UFO phenomena were debunked in 1905 in an identical way that modern UFOs are debunked today, revealing that debunking is by no means a late 20th century phenomenon. One investigator, in his report of February 21, 1905, dismissed all of the Welsh phenomena as farm lanterns, marsh gas, the planet Venus, and “phantasies of overwrought brains.” Such explanations were no more helpful in 1905 than they are today in shedding light on some genuinely remarkable phenomena.

The Welsh Revival was not an isolated event. It followed a similar occurrence in New York state almost a century earlier. The events in New York included a vision leading to the founding of the Mormon Church by a teenaged youth named Joseph Smith. His story is worth looking at.

Joseph Smith described it as a beautiful clear day in the spring of 1820. Master Joseph was 14 or 15 years of age and his mind was in a state of confusion. In his hometown of Manchester, New York, intense quarreling had broken out between various Christian sects, all of which were vying for members. To sort out the controversies in his mind, Joseph climbed a lonely hill near his home, prayed aloud, and hoped that God would answer him. What happened next was probably more than he had bargained for:

.. . immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

JOSEPH SMITH 2:15*

*The words of Joseph Smith are quoted from the book, Pearl of Great Price.

Just as Joseph was about to give in to despair, he saw:

. . . a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spoke unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!
JOSEPH SMITH 2:16-17

So began a series of appearances by an “angel” whose reported dictates and pronouncements are the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. This church is, without doubt, an important institution. Its membership in 1985 totaled approximately 5.8 million people and the Church has extensive business and land holdings. Beginning with a teenaged boy on a hill in New York State, the Church has grown to influence the lives of many people.

Joseph’s vision on the hill was the first of several visits that he would receive from his “angel” friend. The second visit occurred three and a half years after the first. Joseph Smith had just gone to bed, was in the act of praying, when:

I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did not
touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant.
JOSEPH SMITH 2:30-31

The figure in Joseph’s room had naked hands, wrists, feet and ankles. It also had a bare head, neck and exposed chest. The figure introduced itself as Moroni, the angel of a man who had lived centuries earlier. The resurrected “Moroni” imparted a message to Joseph consisting of quotes from Final Judgment prophecies in the Old Testament. Moroni stated that the prophecies were about to be fulfilled. Moroni also informed Joseph about the existence of ancient metal plates which contained some of the history of the early North American continent.

Joseph was told that he must later dig up the plates, have them translated, and present the translation to the world. After this message, the image of Moroni vanished in a unique way:

. . . I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended till he entirely disappeared . ..
JOSEPH SMITH 2:43

Joseph did not have long to ponder the curious phenomenon. The mysterious light and visitor soon re-entered his room. Of this second visit that night, Joseph relates:

He [the angel] commenced, and again related the very same things which he had done at his first visit, without the least variation; which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this [Joseph Smith’s] generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he had done before.
JOSEPH SMITH 2:45

The apparition in Joseph’s bedroom came and went repeatedly the full night. On the following day, while he was out in the field, the exhausted young Smith abruptly lost his strength while trying to climb a fence and he fell unconscious to the ground. Upon regaining awareness, Joseph observed above him the same angel repeating the same message. A new postscript had been added, however: the angel instructed Joseph to tell his father of the visions.

Some critics dispute the accuracy of Joseph Smith’s stories, pointing out that Smith did not record his first vision on paper until nineteen years after it had happened. Under the circumstances at the time, this delay is understandable when we consider Joseph’s youth and minimal education.

To the degree Smith’s accounts are accurate, they are worth looking at. Did he have a true religious vision as his followers believe, or was he, as others suggest, a victim of UFO tampering?

Joseph’s angel, Moroni, was different than the angels described by Ezekiel and John in the Bible. Smith’s angel did not wear items that could be interpreted as a helmet and boots. Moroni was a figure in a true robe. However, Joseph appears to have been looking at a recorded image projected through the window into his room. The clue to this lies in Joseph’s words that Moroni had repeated the second message “without the least variation.” This suggests a recorded message. The manner in which Moroni disappeared indicates a projected light image from a source in the sky outside the house. When Moroni returned for a third time that same night, Smith,

“heard him rehearse or repeat over again . .. the same things—as before....” (Joseph Smith 2:48-49).

If Smith’s account is accurate and UFO-related, there would be tremendous humor in it. Today we can go to Disneyland and marvel at remarkable, lifelike, projected images of talking heads in the Haunted House ride. A similar projection viewed by a young country bumpkin in the 19th century would no doubt be considered nothing less than a true vision from God. Certainly young Smith’s narrative resembles earlier Custodial encounters in many respects: a bright light descends from the sky followed by the appearance of “angels.” Joseph’s testimony that he felt seized and unable to move is identical to several modern UFO close encounters in which eyewitnesses report being immobilized, especially before an abduction.

Other Mormon writings also tend to support the likelihood that Joseph Smith had had a UFO encounter. The Mormon doctrines revealed by Smith state that there are many inhabited planets in the universe. This was quite a daring idea for an uneducated man of the nineteenth century. Smith added that God inhabits a human flesh-and-bones body (see, e.g., Doctrines and Covenants 130:22) and that God lives near a star called Kolob (see Abraham 3:1-3). In other words, God is a humanlike extraterrestrial living on another planet. What we seem to clearly have in Joseph Smith’s experience is another appearance of our Custodial friends pretending that they are God and meddling in human affairs by implanting yet another apocalyptic religion on Earth.

Harsh criticism is often aimed at the “bible” of Smith’s religion: the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is said to be a translation of the ancient metal plates that Smith had dug up at the command of his angel. The stories contained in the Book of Mormon are remarkable, and to many, unbelievable.

The Book of Mormon is written in a style of prose resembling the Old Testament. It ties the history of ancient North America to the history described in the Old Testament. According to Mormon, people from Palestine were transported in saucer like submarines to the Americas under the guidance of “God ” in the year 600 B.C. “God ” was sending them to the New World largely because of the Tower of Babel incident. Somewhere in the Americas (perhaps Mexico or Central America) the refugees built magnificent cities rivaling those of the Old World. They fought wars and were obedient to the same “God ” and “angels” worshipped in the Middle East. The Book of Mormon tells of regular visits by “angels” and of their deep involvement in the affairs of ancient America. The angels encouraged their human servants to practice important virtues, the foremost being, of course, obedience.

The Book of Mormon tells us that many other remarkable events took place in ancient America as time went by. In the first century A.D., Jesus Christ reportedly made an appearance in the Americas immediately following his crucifixion on the other side of the world. The Christ vision described in Mormon is complete with glorious rays of light in the sky from which Jesus emerged.

Although many scholars take the Old Testament seriously as an historical record, little such deference is given the Book of Mormon. Mormon stories seem so outrageous, and the manner in which Joseph Smith reportedly obtained and translated the plates appears so suspect, that scant academic heed is paid to them. The question is: should the Book of Mormon be dismissed out of hand?

In truth, the Book of Mormon may well be one of the most significant historical records to come out of the Custodial religions. Based upon all that we have already studied in this book, the history of ancient America as told in Mormon is precisely the type of history we would expect. Earth is small. We would anticipate that an “ancient astronaut” (i.e., the Custodial) race would rule human society in the same fashion everywhere, on every continent. We would expect them to exhibit the same brutality and to promote identical religious fictions.

The dates extrapolated from the Book of Mormon for the arrival of the Palestinians to America are especially interesting because they coincide with the dates that historians have assigned to the emergence of the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. The Book of Mormon might therefore explain why those civilizations abruptly arose in North and Central America so long after similar civilizations had already come and gone on the opposite side of the world.

This still leaves a puzzle unsolved.

If Mormon is at least partially true, where are the ruins of the cities it names? Many magnificent American ruins have been found, of course, but not all of the key cities identified in the Book of Mormon. Mormon offers a chilling answer: some were utterly destroyed by “God” in a frightening cataclysm.

As elsewhere, it was very difficult for humans in ancient America to please their Custodial masters. Mormon tells us that some ancient Americans did an especially poor job of it. As a result, a massive punishment was inflicted upon a large American region reportedly around the year 34 A.D., coincident with the crucifixion of Jesus on the other side of the world. The Mormon account of this American cataclysm is extraordinary.

It accurately describes a nuclear holocaust:

.-. . in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month,
on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great
storm, such an—one as never had been known in all
the land.
And there was also a great and terrible tempest [violent wind];

and there was terrible thunder, insomuch
that it did shake the whole earth as if it was about to
divide asunder.
And there were exceeding sharp lightnings, such as
never had been known in all the land.

And the city of Zarahemla did take fire:

And the city of Moroni did sink into the depths of the
sea, and—inhabitants thereof were drowned.
And the earth was carried up upon the city of
Moronihah that in the place of the city there became
a great mountain.
And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land southward.
But behold here was more great and terrible destruction

in the land northward; for behold, the whole face of the land was changed, because of the tempest and the whirlwinds and the thunderings and the lightnings, and the exceeding great quaking of the whole earth;
And the highways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough.’
And many great and notable cities were sunk, and many were burned, and many were shaken till the buildings thereof had fallen to the earth, and the inhabitants thereof were slain, and the places were left desolate.
And there were some cities which remained; but the damage thereof was exceeding great, and there were many of them who were slain.
And there were some who were carried away in the whirlwind; and whither they went no man knoweth, save they know that they were carried away.
And thus the face of the whole earth became deformed, and because of the tempests, and the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the quaking of the earth.
And behold, the rocks were rent in twain; they were broken up upon the face of the whole earth, insomuch that they were found in broken fragments, and in seams and in cracks, upon all the face of the land.
And it came to pass that when the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the storm, and the tempest, and the quakings of the earth did cease—for behold, they did last for about the space of three hours;
and it was said by some that the time was. greater; nevertheless, all these great and terrible things were done in about the space of three hours—and then behold, there was a darkness upon the face of the land.
And it came to pass that there was thick darkness upon all the face of the land, insomuch that the inhabitants thereof who had not fallen [died] could feel the vapor of darkness;
And there could be no light, because of the darkness, neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled with their fine and exceedingly dry wood, so that there could not be any light at all;
And there was not any light seen, neither fire, nor glimmer, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, for so great were the mists of darkness which whereupon the face of the land.
And it came to pass that it did last for the space of three days that there was no light seen; and there was great mourning and howling and weeping among all the people continually; yea, great were the groaning of the people, because of the darkness and the great destruction which had come upon them.
3 NEPHI 8:5-23,

BOOK OF MORMON

The rumblings, flashes of lightning, rapid incineration of cities, all within three hours, followed by three days of thick heavy darkness combine to accurately depict a nuclear strike followed by the inevitable thick lingering cloud of soot and debris. The above passage is especially remarkable when we remember that it was first published over a century ago—long before nuclear weapons were developed by man. It gives added credence to the Mormon Church’s claim that Joseph Smith had not invented the Book of Mormon as some critics have charged. It is highly unlikely that any person in Smith’s day could have accidentally imagined an event so closely mirroring a nuclear holocaust.

Some Mormons stress that the spiritual teachings found in Mormon texts are more important than the historical information. Mormon spiritual beliefs are indeed significant because they are quite forthright about Custodial intentions.

The basic spiritual beliefs of the Mormon Church can be summarized as follows:

Humans are immortal spiritual beings occupying human bodies. The spirit is the true source of intelligence and personality, not the body. As spiritual beings, we existed before birth and will continue to exist after death. The true goal of life is to improve spiritually, and everyone can eventually achieve a rehabilitated spiritual state that mirrors the state of a Supreme Being. Ethics are an important step to achieving such a state. Everyone is endowed with free will.

These beliefs sound like the teachings of a maverick religion. We can at once understand why so many people are drawn to Mormonism and remain devoted adherents. Members are told important truths. When we read further into Mormon works, however, we find that the above truths are given many fatal twists which actually prevent people from ever attaining their spiritual salvation.

Mormon texts state that people are actually immortal spirit bodies which inhabit human bodies. Spirit bodies are made of matter and look just like human bodies. Joseph Smith said that “spirit is a substance; that it is material, but that it is more pure, elastic and refined matter than the body.” (HC, IV. p. 575.) A Supreme Being (God) is said to be a similar material being who inhabits a perfect and immortal flesh-and-bones body.

The ultimate goal of Mormonism is to achieve the same state as “God ” and dwell in a perfect immortal human body for the rest of eternity. Mormon teachings, which are alleged to have come from ancient plates and Custodial “angels,” therefore encourage humans to welcome the grim fate of endless entrapment inhuman bodies. The Book of Mormon expresses that objective this way:

The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form;. . . their spirits united with their bodies, never to be divided;. . .
ALMA 11:43, 45

Ancient Mesopotamian texts told us that mankind’s Custodial “Gods” wanted to permanently join spiritual beings to human bodies so that the Custodians would have a slave race. Maverick religions have argued that a spirit’s enmeshment in a human body is the primary cause of suffering. To counteract this maverick teaching and to promote Custodial aims, Mormonism falsely declares that a spiritual being can only achieve ultimate happiness and Godliness when it has been permanently joined to matter:

For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit
and element, inseparably connected, receive a fullness
of joy;
And when separated, man cannot receive a fullness
of joy.
DOCTRINES AND COVENANTS 93:33-34

Only where true spiritual understanding has been lost can such a teaching take hold, as it has on a widespread scale on Earth.

Mormonism teaches that everyone lived with the Heavenly Father (God) before coming to Earth. As part of God’s grand plan, people are sent to Earth in order to learn right from wrong, and to demonstrate to God that they prefer doing good over evil. However, something is done to all spiritual beings who are sent to Earth: they are induced with amnesia about their prebirth existences. According to a pamphlet published by the Mormon Church:

. . . though we might sometimes sense intimations of our premortal existence [spiritual existence before taking on a body] as “through a glass darkly” [vaguely], it would be effectively blocked from our memory.7

This is a remarkable claim, for it suggests that memory of pure spiritual existence is in some way deliberately blocked from human memories by the Custodial society as part of its effort to weld spiritual beings to human bodies. The Custodial society does seem to have effective methods for occluding memory, as demonstrated in modern UFO abduction cases where human victims are apparently caused to suffer almost complete amnesia regarding their abduction experiences.

The forced amnesia described in Mormon had several purported purposes, one of which was:

. . . to ensure that our choice of good or evil would reflect our earthly desires and will, rather than the remembered influence of our All-Good Heavenly Father.8

This is also an astonishing admission. It alleges that spiritual memory is dimmed so that people will base their actions on their concerns as material beings rather than upon their knowledge and remembrance of spiritual existence. This can only hamper the ability of individuals to attain a high level of ethics because true ethics must ultimately take into account a person’s spiritual nature when confronted with an ethical dilemma.

By reducing all questions of ethics to strictly earthly concerns, people are prevented from fully resolving those ethical questions that will start them on the road to full spiritual recovery. This restriction is precisely what the Custodians wanted, as revealed in the Old Testament:

“God ” did not want Adam and Eve to “eat” from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” because it would lead to knowledge of how to regain spiritual immortality.

The above passage further suggests that there exists a Custodial intention to block human remembrance of a Supreme Being. The implication is that people not only have buried memories of prior spiritual existence, but they also hold hidden recollections of contact with a Supreme Being. If such memory exists, we can at once understand why the Custodians would try to veil it. By blocking such memory, the Custodial society further deepens spiritual ignorance and is better able to promote its religious pretenses and fictions.

This is not to say that the Custodial society would alone be guilty of causing spiritual deterioration and amnesia. Such deterioration would have probably begun long before the formation of the Custodial civilization. Mormon writings would only suggest that Custodians took advantage of such deterioration and hastened it to suit their own ends.

We have noted the use of breeding war as a Custodial tool for maintaining control over the human population. According to the Book of Mormon, this tool was used in the ancient American civilizations where “God ” was held responsible for the outbreak of many wars:

And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was poured out upon the great and abominable church [Satan’s church], insomuch that there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and kindreds [families] of the earth.
1 NEPHI 14:15

Mormon states that wars would continue to be bred over the generations as “God’s” tool for maintaining control:

Yea, as one generation passeth to another there shall be bloodsheds, and great visitations [disasters] among them; wherefore, my sons, I would that ye would remember; yea, I would that ye would hearken to my words.
2 NEPHI 1:12-13

In light of the above, it is not surprising to discover that Mormonism is another branch of the Brotherhood network, even though the Mormon Church has traditionally been opposed to other secret societies, such as Freemasonry. Mormon opposition to Freemasonry is based upon passages in the Book of Mormon which seem to suggest that God opposes secret societies.

For example, we read in 2 Nephi 26:22-23:

And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the foundation of all these things . . .

Many people object to interpreting the above passage as being directed against societies like Freemasonry. After all, did not Joseph Smith himself create a multileveled priesthood patterned after Freemasonry, complete with secret ceremonies and a ceremonial apron?

The Mormon priesthood is divided into two sections:

the Priesthood of Aaron (named after Moses’ brother)
the High Priesthood, better known as the Priesthood of Melchizedek (named after the Biblical king Melchizedek)

According to Alma 13:1-14, the Mormon high priesthood is precisely the same one over which Melchizedek had reigned many centuries earlier.

The Mormon Priesthood today continues to follow the step-by-step initiation process of other Brotherhood organizations. Its highest ceremonies are performed in secret and initiates are required to take vows of silence. During such ceremonies, initiates often wear ceremonial aprons as various “mysteries” are revealed to them through the use of symbols and allegory.
Joseph Smith claimed that he patterned the Mormon priesthood according to the dictates of an angel. He did not rely entirely on his extraterrestrial friend, however. Smith also became a Freemason for a short period of time in order to borrow from the Craft.

According to Thomas F. O’Dea, writing in his book, The Mormons:

Joseph went to Masonry to borrow many elements of ceremony. These he reformed, explaining to his followers that the Masonic ritual was a corrupted form of an ancient priesthood ceremonial that was now being restored.9

Joseph Smith was made a Master Mason on March 16, 1842 at a lodge in Illinois. That same lodge was joined by other top Mormons. Perhaps the most famous Mormon Freemason was Brigham Young—the man who led the Mormon exodus across America to Utah and established the headquarters of the Church in that state, where it remains today.

The above facts do not mean that Mormonism was a branch of Freemasonry. Organizational ties between the Mormon Church and Freemasonry were severed quite early on. Smith and the early Mormons went to Freemasonry to borrow, not truly to join. The Mormon Church was but another faction at war with other Brotherhood factions. Mormons were told that their religion was,

“the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased. ...”

(Doctrines and Covenants 1:30.)

This proclamation naturally conflicts with every other Custodial religion which declares the same thing, thereby setting in motion more senseless “religious” disputes to keep people fighting and disunited. Some people are still fighting the Mormons now. Joseph Smith suffered for it when he was murdered by an angry mob in 1844.

Throughout the Church’s embattled history, Mormons have found solace in the future Judgment Day promised by Smith’s angel. Smith’s writings clearly indicated that the Judgment Day was to arrive during his own generation. Perhaps the predicted Great Conflagration did arrive: the American Civil War broke out in 1861. Many of Smith’s personal followers were still alive to witness that brutal conflict which must have seemed like an Armageddon to many Americans.*

* Interestingly, the Southern secessionist and pro-slavery movements which had caused the Confederacy to split from the Union, and thereby set the stage for the Civil War, were greatly influenced by the Brotherhood network. We see this, for instance, in two of the many proposed flag designs for the new Confederacy: the designs prominently feature the Brotherhood’s “All-Seeing Eye” of God. Before the outbreak of the War, a group of Southerners had created an influential pro-slavery secret society called the Knights of the Golden Circle.

Those fraternal Knights were committed to the preservation of slavery in the lands bordering the Caribbean Sea—the so-called “Golden Circle.” The seal of the Knights featured a cross similar to the Maltese cross used by the old Knights of Malta. The Knights of the Golden Circle eventually vanished and were replaced by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan was a crude Brotherhood-style secret society which arose in the turbulence of the postwar South. Reportedly founded as a joke, the Klan quickly grew and became a powerful social and political force in the South. Klan teachings are deeply racist and rooted in Aryanism.

As always, the promised millennium of peace and spiritual salvation did not follow that Armageddon, so Mormons did what so many other apocalyptic religions have done: they reinterpreted their Judgment Day prophecy to keep it alive even though it had clearly failed.

One great project of the Mormon Church today is the maintenance of a vast genealogical library—the world’s largest. “Genealogy” is the study of family lineage and ancestry. It tells who gave birth to whom, as well as the racial and social characteristics of a person’s family tree.

The Mormon genealogical vaults are housed in a mountain in the Rocky Mountains about twenty miles south of Salt Lake City. The vaults are protected by 700-foot thick mountain granite and a 14-ton steel door. The library is clearly meant to survive almost anything. According to a Mormon pamphlet, ongoing record collection produces more than 60,000 rolls of microfilm each year containing data from deeds, marriage licenses, family Bibles, registers, cemetery lists, and other sources.

This remarkable activity began during the first half of the twentieth century. It is ostensibly carried out because Mormons believe that families go on forever. Mormons are taught that they need to trace family lines so that all those who lived and died in the past can be blessed in ceremonies performed in the present by modern Mormons. The Mormons, however, do not limit their genealogical research to just Mormon families. Their goal is to “perform the necessary genealogical research so that all those now or ever in the spirit world can be vicariously baptized.”10 Since every human being who has ever lived fits the above category, we must conclude that the Mormon objective is a complete genealogical record of the entire human race!

According to the Mormon Church, that is precisely the goal of the project, to the degree that it can be accomplished.
This activity understandably concerns some people. Many individuals living today witnessed the racial madness of the German Nazis and might shudder at the devastating impact that the Mormon genealogical collection could have in the hands of racists. This unease is increased by early Mormon doctrines which had placed dark-skinned people in a greatly inferior position to whites. Aryanism was an important element of early Mormon philosophy.

In 2 Nephi 5:21-24, we read that dark skin was created by “God ” as a punishment for sin:

. . . wherefore, as they (those being punished) were white, and exceeding fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.
And thus saiih the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto my people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.
And cursed shall be the seed [sperm] of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.
And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.

Much to their credit, Mormons have recently dropped these racist beliefs and now admit black people to the priesthood. Mormons must nevertheless be alert to ensuring that their genealogical records are never permitted to fall into the hands of those who might desire them for racial ”purification” purposes.

Modern Mormon activities do exhibit many humanitarian leanings. The Church, for example, encourages strong family units. In 1982,1 was gratified to see a television advertisement produced by the Mormon Church that expresses the importance of not ignoring a child’s accomplishments.

This brings up a very important point: No individual or organization is purely good or purely bad.

In our crazy universe, “absolute” good and “absolute” evil just do not appear to exist. In the worst of people one will always find a tiny ember of good {e.g., the psychopath Adolph Hitler was kind to children), and in the best of individuals there is always at least one thing that should change.

The majority of people who join a group or follow a leader do so for the right reasons: they have heard an element of truth or they seek the solution to a genuine problem. The real trick in judging a person or group is to determine whether more good is being done than bad, and how the bad may be corrected without destroying whatever good there might be.

The task is not usually an easy one. Mormon writings declare that “God ” (i.e., Earth’s Custodial management) intends to eventually eliminate the “spiritworld” entirely as part of “God’s” great Utopian plan for mankind. In other words, nothing but the material universe is to ever exist as far as the people of Earth are concerned. This can be translated to mean total spiritual entrapment in physical matter.

Such intentions would require that philosophies of strict materialism be created and imposed upon the human race so that humans do not look beyond the material universe. Such philosophies would teach that there is no spiritual reality and that all life, thought, and creation arise solely out of physical processes. Such ideas have become very fashionable and they are, sadly, helping to push the human race into an ever-deepening spiritual sleep.

Leading this trend for many years was a political philosophy which had gained its initial momentum in 19th-century Germany. I am speaking, of course, of “communism”— that ever-so-curious mix of apocalypticism, materialism, and Protestant work ethic which was such a significant force in the 20th century.

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