The liberty
principle for this Freedom Friday is the simple fact that righteousness leads
to prosperity and happiness while wickedness leads to misery and sorrow. Our nation is quickly sliding down a very
slippery slope because there is much wickedness in our nation, particularly
among those who are doing their best to destroy our God-inspired Constitution.
This week we watched videos of
Ferguson, Missouri, being trashed and burned because rioters did not agree with
the decision made by the grand jury investigating the death of Michael
Brown. For whatever reason the people apparently
thought they had the right to destroy private property belonging to other
people as well as public property belonging to the people as a whole. Why were they rioting and trashing their
community? They believe that a white
cop defending himself from assault shot a black man simply because he was
black. The cop feared for his life and
testified that he would have shot the man even if he were white. The rioters cry out for justice but will not
accept justice when looking right at it.
Justice was done – just not the kind the rioters thought should happen.
Glenn Beck believes that
the violence and unrest in Ferguson is “just the beginning of what will happen
to our cities if we don’t change course.
“The world is so screwed
up. You don’t know what up is and down
is. You have no idea what good and bad,
right and wrong is….”
After describing the rioting in
Ferguson, Beck urged Americans to do what President Abraham Lincoln did. He gave the Gettysburg Address
and turned
Americans to God. President Lincoln gave
this address at Thanksgiving time and “it turned the war.
“We were losing everything up to
that point, but it turned the world.
Because he said, `We need to humble ourselves.’ Are we not a nation that needs to be humbled? My gosh, I don’t even know what we stand for
anymore, except for money and power and greed and corruption. That’s not the America I know or love.”
Beck told his listeners the
“biggest problem with our nation right now” is that political parties divide
Americans to remain in power. He said
that radicals and revolutionaries are “trying to ignite an American spring.
“That’s all they’re trying to
do…. `If we can get the American people to riot, if we can just get them to
stop being who the American people truly are…’
Don’t you see? Everything about
what they’re trying to do to us is to rip us away from the good peaceful,
charitable, kind people we truly are.
That’s not how we always are, but historically, America always rights
itself. It always leans back towards
decency, courage, and kindness and charity.
We always right ourselves.”
Beck asked Americans to “look at
our history and see who we truly are.”
Look for the good things and reconnect with God. Beck knows and understands that civilizations
that turn from God are eventually destroyed if they do not “right”
themselves. He too sees America heading
down the slippery slope faster and faster, often with pushes by the President
of the United States and other progressives working with him.
The United States of America is
not the first nation to exist on this continent. At least two other civilizations lived here
and were destroyed when they “ripened in iniquity.” Will the USA follow the same path? We will not if we will listen to the voice of
prophets and be obedient to their counsel.
The following examples from modern scriptures exhort us to be obedient
to God’s commandments and receive the blessings of prosperity and happiness;
they also tell us that we cannot prosper or be happy in wickedness.
After the Savior Jesus Christ
visited the ancient inhabitants of the American continents, the people became
very righteous. “And the Lord did
prosper them exceedingly in the land; yea, insomuch that they did build cities
again where there had been cities burned.
“And now, behold, it came to
pass that the people of Nephi did wax strong, and did multiply exceedingly
fast, and became an exceedingly fair and delightsome people….
“And it came to pass that there
was no contention among all the people in all the land; but there were mighty
miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus….
“And it came to pass that there
was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in
the hearts of the people
“And there were no envyings, nor
strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of
lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the
people who had been created by the hand of God” (Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 4 Nephi 1:7,
10, 13, 16-17).
In King Benjamin’s speech to his
people before his death, he included, “And moreover, I would desire that ye
should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the
commandments of God. For behold, they
are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out
faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell
with God in a state of never-ending happiness.
O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath
spoken it” (Book of Mormon – Another Testament
of Jesus Christ, Mosiah 2:41).
While a prophet named Alma was
counseling his son, he taught about wickedness and happiness: “Do not suppose, because it has been spoken
concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was
happiness” (Book of Mormon – Another
Testament of Jesus Christ, Alma 41:10).
Even with all this counsel, the
Nephites became so wicked they were battling each other. They followed the Jaredites, a previous civilization,
into complete extinct because they turned from God and broke His
commandments. Without obedience to the
commandments, God cannot bless.
In the latter days the Prophet
Joseph Smith received a revelation including this information: “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in
heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are
predicated –
“And when we obtain any blessing
form God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21).
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