Prophesy and warnings in 1980 with observations of "I prepared you so..." in 2020

In 1980 President Ezra Taft Benson gave us prophesies and warnings.  In 2020 Boyd Matheson, Deseret News Opinion editor, showed how the prophets have "prepared us so...."  The following are some quotes from both respectively followed by a link to both articles.  For a better experience read both talks in their entirety.

•For over forty years, in a spirit of love, members of the Church have been counseled to be thrifty and self-reliant; to avoid debt; pay tithes and a generous fast offering; be industrious; and have sufficient food, clothing, and fuel on hand to last at least one year.

•More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a “back to basics” program for temporal and spiritual welfare.

•Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?

•An almost forgotten means of economic self-reliance is the home production of food. We are too accustomed to going to stores and purchasing what we need. By producing some of our food we reduce, to a great extent, the impact of inflation on our money. More importantly, we learn how to produce our own food and involve all family members in a beneficial project. No more timely counsel, I feel, has been given by President Kimball than his repeated emphasis to grow our own gardens. Here is one sample of his emphasis over the past seven years:

“We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard.” (Ensign, May 1976, p. 124).

•We encourage you to be more self-reliant so that, as the Lord has declared, “notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, … the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world” (D&C 78:14). The Lord wants us to be independent and self-reliant because these will be days of tribulation. He has warned and forewarned us of the eventuality.

•There are blessings in being close to the soil, in raising your own food even if it is only a garden in your yard and a fruit tree or two. Those families will be fortunate who, in the last days, have an adequate supply of food because of their foresight and ability to produce their own.

President Benson was one of the Lord's prophets.  The whole article is better.  Now let us look at how the prophets "have prepared us so..." according to Brother Matheson.

With the physical and financial suffering caused by the historic coronavirus pandemic, which has affected millions worldwide, many are wondering if they are ready to deal with such difficulty, challenge and change. Individuals, families and even the Church of Jesus Christ have had to adapt, adjust and endure.

•I can never imagine President Russell M. Nelson saying, “I told you so.” It isn’t in his nature or his pattern of nurturing. The current crisis conditions around the world could certainly cause a leader to validate their own wisdom and foresight. The prophet isn’t concerned about being right — he is obsessed with helping each of us to be ready.

•For the past several months, as global conditions have deteriorated and uncertainty increased, I have heard the echo of voices of prophets and apostles — past and present. In particular, I have regularly heard in my mind the gentle, firm and affirming voice of President Nelson say, “I prepared you so … .”

and then he lists the following ways the prophets have prepared us

• President Nelson pled with us, “Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses — yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will ‘grow into the principle of revelation.’ ”  ...During these difficult days, I can hear President Nelson say, “I prepared you so… you can receive your own revelation in the midst of the storm.”

•On March 25, the Church announced that all temples worldwide would be closed due to the coronavirus. For decades, we have been taught by prophets and apostles that our homes must be temples and holy places of refuge from the chaos of the world.  ...I can hear the voice of Wilford Woodruff say, “I prepared you so… you can bring the blessings of the temple, the power of the priesthood and the spirit of Elijah into your homes.”

•The Church has also closed all missionary training centers to help flatten the spread of the virus as responsible international citizens. Rather than wringing our hands, we can listen to an apostle, Elder David A. Bednar, who in order to say, “I prepared you so …,” declared this in April 2019 general conference:

“The ultimate missionary training center is in our homes; secondary missionary training centers are located in Provo, Manila, Mexico City, and in other locations.”  ...I can hear the voice of Elder Bednar say, “I prepared you so… missionary training would continue.” And I can hear Elder Uchtdorf say, “I prepared you so… you could preach and teach and share my gospel in a multitude of ways.”

•Some members thought adjustments to Sunday church meetings meant two-hour Church. Elder Quentin L. Cook looked beyond the horizon, as prophets and apostles do, to share a vision of a dynamic home-centered, Church-supported worship.  ...I can hear Elder Cook confidently encourage, “I prepared you so… that when home-centered church was the only church meeting available you could gather in His name and be blessed by His grace.”

•As the program of home teaching transformed into ministering in a higher, holier way, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland...knew that in a coming day it would be more needed and necessary than ever before for those who professed to be Latter-day Saints to be the Lord’s hands in lifting those that suffer, “motivated only by the pure love of Christ to do so.”

I can hear Elder Holland remind us, “I prepared you so… none of our Heavenly Father’s lambs will be lost or lonely.”

•The prophet could say, “I told you so” regarding saving money for a rainy day, preparing food storage and getting our temporal houses in order. Instead President Nelson encourages, “I prepared you so… in a time of economic upheaval you, your family and The Church of Jesus Christ could provide aid and assistance to those that are suffering.”

•Many members have been disappointed that general conference this April will not include an opportunity to gather in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Others have lamented that Church leaders are currently not able to travel to stake conferences and be with the Saints.

•Doctrine and Covenants 84:62 says: “Therefore, go ye into all the world; and unto whatsoever place ye cannot go ye shall send, that the testimony may go from you into all the world.”

For a season, prophets and apostles will not be able to travel as they have in the recent past, and general conference will be different. But where they cannot go, apostles and prophets will send God’s word abroad through many means.

I can hear the voice of the Lord say, “I have prepared you so… that My word and My Spirit can be sent throughout the world to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.”

•Despite our faults, follies and inability to follow counsel, prophets and apostles will not unleash flurries of condemning, “I told you so…” statements. Instead they will encouragingly say and compassionately invite with a personalized, “I prepared you so…” you can have peace in this time of trial while you continue to pursue the covenant path on your journey to discipleship.

The Lord through His prophets has been preparing us to meet Him when He comes.  We don't need to worry about that day.  We need to do our best to follow His prophets - and through them He will have us prepared to enter into the "marriage of the Lamb."

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1980/10/prepare-for-the-days-of-tribulation?lang=eng&fbclid=IwAR251iQAKoAhdiW-y-Pe3ulSWC-zpRwrtsY9bP154wOY6u85vY6u-2g2ZYk

https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2020-03-27/boyd-matheson-coronavirus-covid-19-nelson-prophets-preparation-church-jesus-christ-178510?fbclid=IwAR0X9iHYEkGM3em1xCwsdls7pTRD0vZdpKKQVb_6ctrjo49VeJbB8i0rqOM

Nazism and fascism are not far-right. They are rooted in communism.

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini walk in front of soldiers in Venice, Italy, in June 1934. (Istituto Nazionale Luce)

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Nazism, Fascism, and Socialism Are All Rooted in Communism

Joshua Philipp

 

June 4, 2018 Updated: June 18, 2018

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The concept of a “far left” that is opposed to a “far right” is false. The systems placed on the two ends of that spectrum, including socialism, fascism, and Nazism, are all rooted in communism. And all of them share beliefs in core communist concepts, including state collectivism, planned economies, and class struggle.

All of them were merely different interpretations of Marxism, and played heavily in global politics just after World War I, at a time when the ideas of Karl Marx failed to materialize and communists had gone back to the drawing board.

Before we get into the history of these divergent systems, however, we first need to understand the rift between socialism and communism.

Socialism was described in Marx’s theory of the five stages of civilization. After he helped frame the concept of “capitalism” as a society in which people are able to trade freely, he proposed that after capitalism would come the stage of “socialism,” followed by “communism.”

Socialism was the stage that Vladimir Lenin described as the “state-capitalist monopoly,” in which a dictatorship has seized control of all means of production.

The idea was that a communist regime would use the absolute power of the socialist “dictatorship of the proletariat” to destroy all values, all religion, all institutions, and all traditions—which would theoretically lead to the communist “utopia.”

In other words, socialism is the political system, and communism is the ideological goal. This is why followers of communism argue that “true communism” has never been achieved. The system has thus far failed to utterly destroy human morals and beliefs, although it has taken the lives of more than 100 million people over the last 100 years.

“Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ were synonyms,” Bryan Caplan, associate professor of economics at George Mason University, states in the chapter on communism in “The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.”

“Both referred to economic systems in which the government owns the means of production,” Caplan states. “The two terms diverged in meaning largely as a result of the political theory and practice of Vladimir Lenin.”

Of course, the failings of Marx’s predictions is also what gave rise to the many interpretations of communism that emerged following World War I. These included Leninism, fascism, and Nazism.

As the world boiled in the turmoil that led to World War I between 1914 and 1918, many communists looked to the words of Marx, who in the 1848 “Communist Manifesto” said, “Workers of the world, unite.”

Yet, the workers of the world did not unite—at least not how Marx envisioned. Instead of rallying behind communism, they largely rallied behind their respective kings and countries.

In addition, the livelihood of workers became better under capitalism, as opposed to Marx’s predictions that it would become worse. Then, when the communist revolution did happen, it did not happen in the “late-stage capitalist” societies which at the time were Britain and Germany, but instead in Russia.

And instead of the Bolshevik Revolution being the “proletariat” against the “bourgeoisie,” as Marx predicted, it was the military and intelligentsia against the feudal Russian tsarist system.

The series of events largely disproved Marx’s predictions, and it sent communists of the time back to the drawing board, as was noted by bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza in his book “The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left.”

After Lenin, the next communist revisionist to take the world stage was Benito Mussolini, who took from World War I the lesson that nationalism was more uniting than the idea of a worker’s revolution. He thus revised Marxism into his new system of fascism, using the collectivist principle of “fasci,” which refers to a bundle of sticks reinforcing the handle of an ax.

Mussolini explained his concept in his 1928 autobiography, in which he states, “The citizen in the Fascist State is no longer a selfish individual who has the anti-social right of rebelling against any law of the Collectivity.”

According to “Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime” by Richard Pipes, “No prominent European socialist before World War I resembled Lenin more closely than Benito Mussolini. Like Lenin, he headed the antirevisionist wing of the country’s Socialist Party; like him, he believed that the worker was not by nature a revolutionary and had to be prodded to radical action by an intellectual elite.”

Then soon after, Adolph Hitler emerged with his re-branded socialist system under the banner of “national socialism.”

Taking advantage of the fact that the German people had been divided by new national borders established by the armistice, Hitler used identity politics to rally his followers.

The policies of the Nazi Party followed the communist model, D’Souza notes, and the 25-point program included universal free health care and education, nationalization of large corporations and trusts, government control of banking and credit, the splitting of large landholdings into smaller units, and similar policies.

In addition, D’Souza states, “Mussolini and Hitler both identified socialism as the core of the fascist and Nazi Weltanschauung [way of life]. Mussolini was the leading figure of Italian revolutionary socialism and never relinquished his allegiance to it. Hitler’s party defined itself as championing ‘national socialism.'”

Like all other communist ideologues, Hitler was also viciously opposed to the traditional capitalist system. Just as Lenin blamed wealthy farmers, and Mao Zedong blamed landlords, Hitler transferred blame to a single group of people—the Jews.

As D’Souza states, “Nazi anti-Semitism grew out of Hitler’s hatred for capitalism. Hitler draws a crucial distinction between productive capitalism, which he can abide, and finance capitalism, which he associates with the Jews.”

The conflict that later took place between the various systems during World War II was not a battle of opposite ideologies, but instead a fight over which interpretation of communism would prevail.

According to “The Road to Serfdom” by F.A. Hayek, “The conflict between the fascist or national-socialist and the older socialist parties must indeed very largely be regarded as the kind of conflict which is bound to arise between rival socialist factions.”

We can thank historical revisionism and plenty of mental gymnastics for the current narrative that socialism is somehow separate from Nazism and fascism and, even more so, the belief that these concepts are somehow divorced from their communist origins.

D’Souza attributes this narrative shift to what Sigmund Freud called “transference,” based on his idea that people who commit terrible acts often transfer blame onto others, accusing others, including their victims, of being what they, themselves, are.