Role of God in Government

Good morning,

Our Bishop's Councilor asked us to speak last week granting that we should choose our own topics. The first thought that ran through my mind was “Brave”. My personality type thrives on captive audiences listening to me expounding on my favorite topics. So, I left the building last week floating on air.

My wife soon popped my bubble when she informed me that the part of the assignment I missed was that I should choose a talk from within the last two years of General Conference addresses. Now... that I've been reeled in, be assured that I have attempted to work at least 3 or 4 words from a resent General Conference talk (of my choosing) into this talk.

Bruce R McConkie... (Yes, I know Elder McConkie died in 1985 slightly before the last two years of Conference talks) anyway, Bruce R McConkie once said that for every talk he gave out loud there where 11 that never made it to the pulpit. I know well of this condition as I have suffered from it. By the time I get to present this talk I will have run the gambit of topics, reviewed my personal convictions, and prayed fervently to be worthy and proper in my address. 
 

One last thing before I get started. I have been of late bogged down with my civic obligations. Many of which trouble me, especially pertaining to our hard earned.. God given.. gift of liberty. 

Benjamin Franklin once said “ They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.” 

Currently our 4^th Amendment is under attack. It is just the most resent attack on one of the primary 15 and only amendments that where founded on Christianity and family.

Agency and family... this is what our country was founded to protect. This is what so many have died to prove and provide. Only half the puritans fleeing England ever made it to America. And, of them... another half died before God's laws of agency where invoked and proven. The pilgrims survived because after fasting and praying they arouse and furnished each family a plot of land even as God gave talents in the parable of the ten talents. If a family lived or died it was the family's agency to do so and not the community’s doing.

The largest free standing granite monument in the world overlooks Plymouth Bay. It is 81 feet tall and mostly forgotten behind a forest of trees. It is a testament to the Pilgrims. The monument attests to the 5 virtues that founded the United States. Faith, Morality, Law, Education, and Liberty adorn its four sides.

Later, yet, before developing the Constitution of the United States... our forefathers so removed ourselves from England as to change our language and it's spelling. They wanted nothing to do with England or English common law. Here again God provided “The Law of Nature and of Nature's God” penned by Emmerich de Vattel and proven by the French Revolution to be a sound framework on which to rest the Constitution. American common law was born.

When I stand before the unadorned banner of the United States known as “Old Glory” I stand before my God in reverence knowing the great cost of this gift to me given.

Shortly after the the reorganization of the church, the Constitution and our nation came under attack. Satan has pushed his pre-earth agenda on us once more. The 5 virtues esteemed by the pilgrims... have been twisted and forgotten. American common law has been once again replaced with English common law undermining the Constitution of this land. And... now even liberty, the ability to practice our agency, is in parole. So, I selected for my conference talk “Obedience to Law Is Liberty” by L Tom Perry.

From Elder Perry's talk I drew the following:

“Today we find ourselves in another war. This is not a war of armaments. It is a war of thoughts, words, and deeds. It is a war with sin, and more than ever we need to be reminded of the commandments. Secularism is becoming the norm, and many of its beliefs and practices are in direct conflict with those that were instituted by the Lord Himself for the benefit of His children.”

Elder Perry speaks of a quote from a little brown book he was given by the church as he entered WWII as a soldier. In the book we find this quote.

“In the universe, too, where God is in command, there is law—universal, eternal … law—with certain blessings and immutable penalties.”

In the Grand Council before we came to Earth Satan sought to aggrandize himself inadvertently or deliberately braking the eternal law of agency. If God were to allow the least degree of Satan’s plan to exist, He Himself would fall in judgment of the Eternal Law. Yet, Satan persists and temps us daily in an attempt to spread misery.

There is only one reason why these laws exist and that is to perpetuate life. When we hold fast to God's laws we reap Eternal Life and if we do so with our full agency and glad of heart we reap Exaltation and all in which God would bless us.

Joy, as of late, has taken on a new meaning for me. When I think of joy a flood of worlds full of people fill my mind and I know them all... they are mine. A tribute to my Fathers. A perpetuation of life.

On page 141 of (Elder Perry's) little brown book, it states, “Indeed our heaven is little more than a projection of our homes into eternity.”

Elder Perry continues:

“In a world where the moral compass of society is faltering, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ never wavers, nor should its stakes and wards, its families, or its individual members. We must not pick and choose which commandments we think are important to keep but acknowledge all of God’s commandments. We must stand firm and steadfast, having perfect confidence in the Lord’s consistency and perfect trust in His promises.”

I know my Eternal Father lives. I know that my Savior has performed a very great miracle for me as well as you... my extended spiritual family. Let us go out of here ready and willing to defend our families through the practice of Faith, Morality, Law, Education of the law, and let us practice and maintain our Liberty.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen