Collusion, Coup, or Secret Combination

            I was studying the Book of Mormon – Another Testament of Jesus Christ this morning, and I felt like I was reading current events. The book of Helaman begins with a simple principle: “Murder, intrigue, contention, and divisiveness weaken a nation and make it vulnerable to destruction.” It tells of a secret combination that sought to destroy the government.

            A man by the name of Kishkumen goes into the judgment hall and murders Pahoran, the chief judge, “as he sat upon the judgment-seat” (Helaman 1:9). The murderer cannot be found because he and his band “did mingle themselves among the people” (Helaman 1:12).

The chief judge is the ruler of the society. It must have had the same effect on that society as having a U.S. President assassinated is in ours.

            Pacumeni is appointed to the judgment seat but does not rule long. There is so much contention among the people and so much difficulty in the government that there are insufficient guards around the capital city of Zarahemla. The Lamanites march right into the center of the land, take possession of the capital city, and kill Pacumeni (Helaman 1:18-21).

            Helaman is appointed to the judgment seat, and Kishkumen goes forth to kill him. However, one of Helaman’s associates recognizes Kishkumen and stabs him before he can kill Helaman. Kishkumen’s associate named Gadianton becomes worried when Kishkumen does not return from his murderous mission and leads the band of robbers and murderers into the wilderness (Helaman 1:11).

            Helaman 2 reports that there is “continual peace” in the land except the band of robbers and murderers, now known as Gadianton robbers, has become “established in the more settled parts of the land” (Helaman 2:23). This means that the robbers are operating in much the same way that organized gangs operate in our cities.

            We do not hear any more about the Gadianton robbers until Helaman 6:22 where we learn that the gang has developed “secret signs” and “secret words” in order to “distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant” and to protect each other.

            Later in this same chapter we read that the Gadianton robbers have established themselves among both the Nephites and the Lamanites. The Lamanites are wiser than the Nephites because the Lamanites “did hunt the band of robbers of Gadianton; and they did preach the word of God among the more wicked part of them, insomuch that this band of robbers was utterly destroyed from among the Lamanites” (Helaman 6:37).

            However, the “Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites.” In time the Gadianton robbers “did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God” (Helaman 6:39). Soon, the people are in such a state of wickedness that the robbers have become the judges “having usurped the power and authority of the land” (Helaman 7:4). A little later, we read that the robbers are fighting among themselves with a chief judge being killed by his brother and both belong to the Gadianton robbers (Helaman 8:28).

            The Nephites and the Lamanites fight the robbers off and on, sometimes winning and most of the time losing, for the next 400 years until the Nephites are completely destroyed. Mormon, the ancient American prophet who compiled the Book of Mormon, makes this statement about the Gadianton robbers.

And behold, in the end of this book ye shall see that this Gadianton did prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi.

Behold I do not mean the end of the book of Helaman, but I mean the end of the book of Nephi, from which I have taken all the account which I have written (Helaman 2:13-14).

            Mormon warns that any society that supports secret combinations will be destroyed by them. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, makes the following statement while raising a warning voice about our day: “Bands of Gadianton robbers will infest every nation, immorality and murder and crime will increase, and it will seem as though every man’s hand is against his brother” (“Stand Independent above All Other Creatures,” Ensign, May 1979). 

            All of the above information is a prelude to an article written by Greg Hunter titled “Trump is Doing What Kennedy Tried to Do – Kevin Shipp” and dated April 29, 2018. The first three paragraphs of the article are as follow.

Former CIA Officer and whistleblower Kevin Shipp says what is going on with Donald J. Trump “is an ongoing coup to remove a duly elected President.” Shipp contends, “This is a huge constitutional crisis like the country has never seen before. This makes Watergate look like a Sunday school class.”

On Friday, Shipp and other retired top officials at the CIA, FBI, DOJ and NSA held a press conference and demanded Attorney General Jeff Sessions prosecute top Obama era officials for obvious crimes against the incoming Trump Administration. Shipp says, “We have a coup within our government right now at the senior levels at the CIA, DOJ and the FBI attempting to unseat a duly elected President who was elected by the American people and remove him from office…. This is, at worst, treason with senior officials in the shadow government or Deep State… to attack Donald Trump and remove him from office…. We have not seen anything like this since the Presidency of John F. Kennedy (JFK), when CIA Director Allen Dulles attacked him, and we saw what happened there…. There is crystal clear evidence that the CIA was, at least, involved with the cover-up of the JFK assassination. Now, we have the same thing happening again…. Remember what Chuck Schumer said, and it was chilling. He said, `If you cross the intelligence community, they can hit back at you six ways from Sunday.’ That’s what we are seeing now. It’s collusion or a coup with senior officials at the FBI, DOJ and CIA along with Robert Mueller to unseat an elected president.”

Shipp goes on to explain, “There is essentially a civil war involving parts of senior management and upper parts of our government that is occurring in the United States. It’s between the `Dark’ side and the `Constitutional’ side. There has never been anything like this in history. It is extremely serious, and this is an extremely serious hour for our government and especially for our constitutional freedoms…. This essentially is a global criminal cabal that has penetrated into our government and now has senior level officials colluding and, I would argue, conspiring to unseat this president.”

            It appears that Gadianton robbers have infected our federal government and intelligence agencies. Will we be able to root them out and destroy their power before they destroy our constitutional government? Will we heed Mormon’s warning, or will we follow in a similar path to destruction as did the Nephites?