Final Conclusion of Almost a Years Worth of Study

Well, after almost a full year of studying and digging and opening my eyes to the truth around us in the world today I can summarize my newfound understanding in these few short sentences by President J. Reuben Clark, Jr.:

“First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …

“Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow. 

“Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little. 

“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds; you of large means will think you know how to care for yourselves, but I may venture to suggest that you do not speculate. Let every head of every household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1937, p. 26.)

As quoted by President Benson multiple times, of which my personal favorite is "Prepare for the Days of Tribulation".

With all the energy of my soul I add my witness as to the wisdom and divinity of this inspired council. May we each take heed is my sincere prayer. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

(Date updated to place this entry first.)

Don't Take My Word for It

Please use any and all of my materials as motivation to follow the council of a prophet of God, Harold B. Lee, as stated in October conference 1972:

One more matter: There are among us many loose writings predicting the calamities which are about to overtake us. Some of these have been publicized as though they were necessary to wake up the world to the horrors about to overtake us. Many of these are from sources upon which there cannot be unquestioned reliance.

Are you priesthood bearers aware of the fact that we need no such publications to be forewarned, if we were only conversant with what the scriptures have already spoken to us in plainness?

Let me give you the sure word of prophecy on which you should rely for your guide instead of these strange sources which may have great political implications.

Read the 24th chapter of Matthew—particularly that inspired version as contained in the Pearl of Great Price. (JS—M 1.)

Then read the 45th section of the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord, not man, has documented the signs of the times. [D&C 45]

Now turn to section 101 and section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants and hear the step-by-step recounting of events leading up to the coming of the Savior. [D&C 101; D&C 133]

Finally, turn to the promises the Lord makes to those who keep the commandments when these judgments descend upon the wicked, as set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 38. [D&C 38]

Brethren, these are some of the writings with which you should concern yourselves, rather than commentaries that may come from those whose information may not be the most reliable and whose motives may be subject to question. And may I say, parenthetically, most of such writers are not handicapped by having any authentic information on their writings.

Some other scriptures that are also helpful are: 1 Nephi 13, 14, 22; 2 Nephi 1, 6, 26-30; Alma 10, 37; Helaman 11, 13; 3 Nephi 6, 16, 20, 21; Mormon 6, 8, 9; Ether 4, 9, 11; Articles of Faith 10;  D&C 29, 63, 64, 76, 77, 84, 88, 97, 105, 109,; Isaiah 11, 28, 29, 66; Ezekiel 28, 39, 48; Daniel 7; II Thessalonians 2; and Revelation 8, 9, 11-13, 16, 17, 20. (These are primarily from Duane S Crowther's books "Prophecy Key to the Future" and " Inspired Prophetic warnings," both excellent.


In addition, here are some talks, lessons, and videos:

1. "Stand Independent Above All Other Creatures" by Bruce R. McConkie.
2. "Prepare Ye" by Ezra Taft Benson.
3. "Prepare for the Days of Tribulation" by Ezra Taft Benson.
4. "If Ye are Prepared Ye Shall Not Fear" by L. Tom Perry.
5. "Lay Up in Store" by Keith B. McMullin.
6. "Family Home Storage and Finances" Lesson.
7. "Fruitful in the Land of My Affliction" Lesson from Old Testament.
8. "To Be Learned is Good If..." by Boyd K. Packer, October 1992 General Conference.

Here are some videos. 

Dallin H. Oaks:

A Member:



Love,
Ben

What I am Telling my Kin-A Voice of Warning

This is an email I sent to my family a bit ago. I now publish it to the world here.

Brothers and Sisters,

I love you. Because I love you, I am sending you this communication. 

I have come to a crossroads in my life. I am faced with the decision: "Do I believe what I have been learning, or not?" When posed in this manner, the answer to this question can only be YES! With this decision comes a call for action on my part. This is why you are receiving this email.  Let me back up and explain my position.

In August of last year, I decided to change my career from manufacturing engineering to personal financial coaching. This launched me into an educational phase to enable me to be able to perform in my newly chosen profession. Some of this training has been formal (BYU personal finance class and mentor/coaching programs) but much of it has been personal, self-study. I took this route because there does not exist a program that would prepare me to do what I want to do the way I want to do it. This opened my studies up to general literature, both secular and religious. Rather than try to regurgitate what I have learned, and come to believe, I will summarize some my findings:

Secular:

Upon attempting to understand how this economy and even society that we have created works, I come to the following conclusions:

1. We are heading for a collapse of our entire economy. It will likely be driven by a collapse of the US dollar, in part due to our national debt. I cannot predict the future and am not privy to the workings of the upper echelons (who are creating our future, to an extent). However, I believe the time between now and the entire collapse of the US economy will be measured in weeks or months, not years. It could happen any day, and could happen overnight. At least it could be set in motion over night. 
2. There will be blood running in the streets of America. This thing will get ugly. This is a black swan event unlike any other in the history of this nation.
3. There is no way to avoid what is coming.

It goes on and on. I can refer you to books and resources ad nauseam. Numerous people in the know are attempting to warn us, in spite of the general media seemingly overlooking reality. We need to heed their warnings. For a sampling of some of the web activity that I feel is applicable, please see my twitter profilehttp://twitter.com/#!/BenPack. 

Spiritual:

Let me start this one with a quote by President Benson from April conference 1980 (here is the whole talk: "Benson~Prepare for the Days of Tribulation"):

Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion.

Until a few weeks ago, I am afraid I would have to have classified myself squarely in the group who are "not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord." I had no idea what had been prophesied regarding the future of this great nation. My studies in this area have primarily been from "Prophecy, Key to the Future" and "Inspired Prophetic Warnings" both by Duane S. Crowther. I am in the midst of reading the latter now (both readily available on Amazon.com). The primary sources he uses are the Doctrine & Covenants, Book of Mormon, Journal of Discourses (JD), and History of the Church (HC). The Bible also finds its way in, both old and new testaments, but not as much as the others. I am now much more acquainted with the revelations of the Lord and I BELIEVE THEM. For brevity's sake here is my synopsis of some of the revelations:

1. We are heading for a collapse of our entire economy and political system.  Exact timing has not been prophesied other than repeated council in the early days of the church that "the time is nigh at hand." 
2. Tribulation: earthquakes, thunderings-great noise, lightnings, tempests, waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds, fire, pestilence, famine, bloodshed, cities sinking in the earth, desolating sickness or scourge, plagues, hail storm that destroys the crops of the earth.
3. There will be blood running in the streets of America. This thing will get ugly. This is worthy of a quotation. Upon rereading this quote in preparing this email, I wept in anticipation of what is to come of the people of this great nation. Per Joseph Smith:

I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of man has said that the mother shall be against the daughters, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the fig tree leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand.

HC 3:391 or JD 6:239-240. 

4. There is one way for us as a nation to avert or at least delay this disaster. It is for us, as a nation, to turn to the Lord and become righteous, including our government. Unfortunately, my faith in this happening is nonexistent.

It goes on and on. The Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon are laden with prophecies describing what WILL happen in the future. Is the future now? No, why not? I believe it is here and deserves our careful consideration. 

What does this mean to you and me?

We must turn to the only people on this earth that can help us navigate through this. Once again I quote from President Benson's talk "Prepare for the Days of Tribulation."

The counsel from Church authorities has been consistent over the years and is well summarized in these words:

“First, and above and beyond everything else, let us live righteously. …

“Let us avoid debt as we would avoid a plague; where we are now in debt, let us get out of debt; if not today, then tomorrow.

“Let us straitly and strictly live within our incomes, and save a little.

“Let every head of every household see to it that he has on hand enough food and clothing, and, where possible, fuel also, for at least a year ahead. You of small means put your money in foodstuffs and wearing apparel, not in stocks and bonds; you of large means will think you know how to care for yourselves, but I may venture to suggest that you do not speculate. Let every head of every household aim to own his own home, free from mortgage. Let every man who has a garden spot, garden it; every man who owns a farm, farm it.” (President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., in Conference Report, Apr. 1937, p. 26.)

 We must do everything in our power to heed this council. It starts with living righteously. I believe that regardless of our activity level (or even if we are not members), we can all turn to God. We must all start from where we now are and we can all do better than we are now doing.  

Some of the actions that I have taken in recent weeks and am taking now are:

1. Striving to repent, live righteously, and put my own house in order by:
2. Putting together a serious food/fuel/clothing storage. The counsel is for 'at least a year ahead' not 'up to a year ahead'.
3. Putting together a serious garden and home preservation capabilities.
4. Buying rabbits, bees, and goats (to provide meat, milk, and honey). Some of these I will keep at my parents farm.
5. Possibly buying a hunting rifle-deer frequently come down and leave evidence of having been on my lawn in the winter.
6. Pulling out all of my investment $$ and, as soon as I have enough, paying off my house. Until then I plan to put my savings into real assets and avoid the dollar (this includes avoiding bonds, most stocks, and even real estate aside from my own home). Probably this will be precious metals. I am still in the process of learning how, why, and where to do this.
7. I am warning my neighbors (starting with my family).
8. I am continuing to study and learn.
9. I am living it my way-no keeping up with the Joneses either in worldly pursuits or religious traditions.
10. Fervent and frequent prayer.

Do not follow my council on this because I am telling you this. I am not in a position to give investment advice. Everything in this document I present as my opinion. You must dig for yourself and seek to find out what is right for you and your family. It is possible that we will pull through this this time and put off the inevitable until a future collapse, or it is possible that the collapse will take years to play out. Certainly there is a lot to transpire per prophecies by the leaders of the Church, but I fear it will occur much more quickly than we imagine.

Hopefully you receive this in 'mildness and meekness,' but in all seriousness too. D&C 38:41 states: "And let your ^apreaching be the ^bwarning voice, every man to his neighbor, in mildness and in ^cmeekness."  I have great faith in all of you, my extended family. I know there is not a bad person in the bunch! If what I have presented elicits feelings of fear, perhaps preparations are in order.  We are warned that many within the Church will fall away during the persecutions and tribulations that are coming. May we all begin today to prepare for the days of tribulation that lie ahead. As we are prepared, may we look forward with anticipation to the events that will necessarily transpire prior to the coming of our Lord and Savior in glory and greatness is my prayer.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

P.S. 

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you feel may benefit from it.

Love,

Ben

Putting God First in Our Life

The best and only true and complete source of information on putting God first in our lives is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (online at www.lds.org or, geared more for non-members, mormon.org). 


In the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself:

 And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have ^apower to lay the foundation of this ^bchurch, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of ^cdarkness, the only true and living ^dchurch upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well ^epleased, ^fspeaking unto the church collectively and not individually— ~D&C 1:30

Below are some of my favorite talks on this subject. I hope they might change your life the way they have changed mine.

• "The Great Commandment-Love the Lord" by Ezra Taft Benson or (Ben's Google Doc version of "The Great Commandment-Love the Lord"). Here is a sampling:

The great test of life is obedience to God. “We will prove them herewith,” said the Lord, “to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abr. 3:25).

The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it.

The great commandment of life is to love the Lord. 

“Come unto Christ,” exhorts Moroni in his closing testimony, “… and love God with all your might, mind and strength” (Moro. 10:32). 

This, then, is the first and great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30; see also Matt. 22:37; Deut. 6:5; Luke 10:27; Moro. 10:32;D&C 59:5).

• "The Choice" by Boyd K. Packer or (Ben's Google Doc version of "The Choice").
• "The Education of Our Desires" by Neal A. Maxwell or (Ben's Google Doc version of "The Education of Our Desires").
• "The Abrahamic Test" by Larry E. Dahl, professor emeritus of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. Here are a couple of my favorite passages:

Consider the teachings of President Ezra Taft Benson, as he spoke to regional representatives of the Church in 1977, while he was President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

Every generation has its tests and its chance to stand and prove itself. Would you like to know of one of our toughest tests? Hear the warning words of President Brigham Young, “The worst fear I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and His people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty and all manner of persecution and be true. But my greatest fear is that they cannot stand wealth.”

Ours, then, seems to be the toughest test of all, for the evils are more subtle, more clever. It all seems less menacing and it is harder to detect. While every test of righteousness represents a struggle, this particular test seems like no test at all, no struggle and so could be the most deceiving of all tests.

Do you know what peace and prosperity can do to a people—It can put them to sleep. The Book of Mormon warned us of how the devil, in the last days, would lead us away carefully down to hell.

The Lord has on the earth some potential spiritual giants whom He saved for some six thousand years to help bear off the Kingdom triumphantly, and the devil is trying to put them to sleep. The devil knows that he probably won’t be too successful in getting them to commit many great and malignant sins of commission. So he puts them into a deep sleep, like Gulliver, while he strands them with little sins of omission. And what good is a sleepy, neutralized, lukewarm giant as a leader?

We have too many potential spiritual giants who should be more vigorously lifting their homes, the kingdom, and the country. We have many who feel they are good men, but they need to be good for something—stronger patriarchs, courageous missionaries, valiant genealogists and temple workers, dedicated patriots, devoted quorum members. In short, we must be shaken and awakened from a spiritual snooze.[7]

 President Harold B. Lee adds his testimony about our current collective test:

We are tested and we are tried, we are going through some of the severest tests today and we don’t realize perhaps the severity of the tests that we’re going through. In those days, there were murderings, there were mobbings, there were drivings. They were driven out into the desert, they were starving and they were unclad, they were cold. They came here to this favored land. We are the inheritors of what they gave to us. But what are we doing with it? Today we are basking in the lap of luxury, the like of which we’ve never seen before in the history of the world. It would seem that probably this is the most severe test of any test that we’ve ever had in the history of this Church.[8]

That is a rather astonishing notion: ease and affluence can be an Abrahamic test equal, in the sense of proving one’s faith, to the sufferings and deprivations of earlier generations. But that is the testimony of the prophets and the testimony of history. 

And...

Perhaps all these purposes just mentioned are encompassed in the following explanation given in the Lectures on Faith:

An actual knowledge to any person, that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God without which no person can obtain eternal life. . . .

Such was, as always will be, the situation of the saints of God, that unless they have an actual knowledge that the course they are pursuing is according to the will of God they will grow weary in their minds, and faint. . . .

Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things. It was through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life; and it is through the medium of the sacrifice of all earthly things that men do actually know that they are doing the things that are well pleasing in the sight of God.[15]

Simply put, choosing to do the will of God at all hazards brings a righteous and necessary self-awareness and self-confidence, a perfect faith in God and in our ability to do His will. We then know something about ourselves that God has known all along.

 

Love,

Ben


P.S. Please add your favorite resources via a comment.

Inspiring-to-Greatness quote by Marianne Williamson

Marianne Williamson

Someone used this quote in a speech I heard today and I loved it!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3)