The Mormon Church, the Constitution, America, and the Last Days
By Brannon S. Howse
Understanding the end-time beliefs of the Mormon Church, its view of America, and its beliefs about the Constitution may help you understand the ultimate goal of Beck’s “Divine Destiny” event. To give my radio listeners a grasp of the Mormon perspective on the United States, I played sound bites of a speech called “Our Divine Constitution,” delivered on October 3, 1987, by Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson. I’ve recounted below selections from that broadcast with my comments noted on each.
Benson: I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God, for God has placed His stamp of approval upon it.
My commentary: This claim is outright heresy. Deuteronomy 4:2 warns not to “add to the word which I commanded you, nor take from it.” Proclaiming the Constitution is “akin to the revelation of God” is not only adding to the Bible but is also lowering the supremacy of the Word of God. If the Constitution is akin to the Word of God, why has it been changed so many times?
Benson: I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith….It will be saved by enlightened members of this Church, among others, men and women who understand and abide by the principles of the Constitution.
My commentary: Will the Mormon Church and other “enlightened” Mormons save America? If America is to be saved, it will not be by the errant gospel and false Jesus of the Mormons following the principles of the Constitution that they have elevated to equality with the words of God. Second Chronicles 7:14 says that “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Part of the wickedness from which America needs to repent is following the Jesus of the cults or the Jesus of Oprah’s New Age Movement. The very thing Mormons are doing—and many Christian Americans are following—will not reclaim America but will actually bring God’s judgment.
Benson: Have we read The Federalist papers? Are we reading the Constitution and pondering it? Are we aware of its principles? Are we abiding by these principles and teaching them to others? Could we defend the Constitution? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound? Do we know what the prophets have said about the Constitution and the threats to it?
My commentary: The cross is higher than the flag, and the Word of God is above the Constitution. If we really want to defend a Constitutional Republic we must get back to the Word of God—not the Mormon Bible and related teachings on end-time beliefs and on building God’s Kingdom on earth or the New Jerusalem in Independence, Missouri (yes, they really believe that).
Benson: We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith when he said: “Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction” (19 July 1840, as recorded by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray; manuscript in Church Historian’s Office, Salt Lake City).
My commentary: This “prophecy” by Joseph Smith is known as the “White Horse Prophecy.” The Mormon Church, in recent years, has developed a public relations problem on this issue and has backed away from this belief. However, all Mormons know of this prophecy by Joseph Smith and believe the Mormon Church and its “enlightened members of this Church” will restore America’s honor. Sound familiar? Was this the goal of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring America’s Honor Rally”?
Benson: Only in this foreordained land, under its God-inspired Constitution and the resulting environment of freedom, was it possible to have established the restored Church. It is our responsibility to see that this freedom is perpetuated so that the Church may more easily flourish in the future. The Lord said, “Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land” (D&C 98:6).
My commentary: So in the end, the big push for returning to the founding principles of America is to support the flourishing of the Mormon Church. How many people are aware of this ultimate goal? How many Americans want to live in a Mormon theocracy? Before you say they are not for a theocracy, you had better read the “Law of Consecration” that Mormons swear to in the LDS temple ritual. Among other things, the officiator requires that Mormons swear to “consecrate yourselves, your time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion.”
Benson: Our Father in Heaven planned the coming forth of the Founding Fathers and their form of government as the necessary great prologue leading to the restoration of the gospel. Recall what our Savior Jesus Christ said nearly two thousand years ago when He visited this promised land: “For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth” (3 Ne. 21:4). America, the land of liberty, was to be the Lord’s latter-day base of operations for His restored church.
My commentary: The god of the Mormons (who was once a man of flesh and bone) planned America so the gospel of the Mormon Church could be restored. The Mormon Church proclaims that Jesus visited the promised land, which they call America, but you will only find that in the Mormon Bible. Notice Taft is quoting from the Mormon Bible, which claims that Jesus declared America would become the “Lord's latter-day base of operations for His restored church.”
If Glenn Beck had promoted his events as a way to learn more about the Constitution of the United States which is equal to the inspired Word of God, he would have had more difficulty attracting a conservative Christian market. Even so, I’m afraid many American Christians have precious little discernment, and even if Beck were to publicly position the Constitution as “akin to the revelations of God…” many would still follow simply because they are so hungry for a conservative leader and so eager to reclaim lost liberty and freedom. I believe some self-professing Christians are ready to betray God’s ordained Word in exchange for the promise of security and protection. This, though, will guarantee that we do not reclaim America and instead will insure that our destiny is divine judgment. Beck’s “Divine Destiny” was nothing more than a divine deception in which many Christians and Christian leaders took part.
Copyright 2012 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.
