Epic Battles

We fight every day

As we wait for deliverance and the Second Coming of Jesus, some of us are preoccupied with Armageddon. We anxiously watch world events and we (perhaps) imagine we see things lining up for the epic battles that prophecy marks as the end of our age. Meanwhile, epic battles are taking place on personal level every single day.

Photo by Diana van Ormondt on Unsplash

I have the greatest admiration for my fellow saints and all others who believe in Christ and strive to serve him. We are engaged in spiritual war every day, from the moment we wake up until the time we lay our weary heads down at night. For the unconverted, they don’t feel this as keenly because they are already conquered. They are asleep regarding the battles against sin and corruption. If they begin to awaken to the war that rages around them, they feel those moral conflicts. Some of them sense the struggle and surrender to sin. They aren’t ready or willing to experience that kind of soul-strife. They tell themselves, like the Book of Mormon said they would say, that God will beat them with a few stripes and still let them into heaven.

For those who enter the covenant path, even we don’t often assess the magnitude of the opposition we face. Paul said:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)

This mortal Earth is under Satan’s dominion. Now is the great day of his power. Never before has the devil had more power and influence, even since Noah’s flood. There are ancient families with trillions of dollars worth of assets. There are secret societies that use money, extortion, and murder to shape the path of nations. There are armies, navies, popes, and priests who are corrupted and do the adversary’s bidding. There are billionaires and powerful corporate interests who shape what you see on television, movies, books, the Internet, and in the institutions of higher learning.

The wealth and resources of the entire planet are being leveraged to dissuade you to believe in and follow Jesus Christ. The devil rejoices when any of God’s saints succumbs to fear, doubt, complacency, or immorality. If it were not for the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind would be lost.

For all flesh is corrupted before me; and the powers of darkness prevail upon the earth, among the children of men, in the presence of all the hosts of heaven-

Which causeth silence to reign, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to reap down the earth, to gather the tares that they may be burned; and, behold, the enemy is combined

13 And now I show unto you a mystery, a thing which is had in secret chambers, to bring to pass even your destruction in process of time, and ye knew it not;

14 But now I tell it unto you, and ye are blessed, not because of your iniquity, neither your hearts of unbelief; for verily some of you are guilty before me, but I will be merciful unto your weakness.

15 Therefore, be ye strong from henceforth; fear not, for the kingdom is yours. (D&C 38:11-15)

Just think of what these passages tells us. Evil people are plotting in secret chambers to destroy the good. It’s not just random evil. It’s organized evil. Its efforts are orchestrated. Because of our faith, the Lord will be merciful to us. The angels are waiting for the word to act against the enemy, but like the parable said, the Lord is waiting for the wheat and the tares to be ready for the harvest.

You may not be conscious of it. You’re just trying to live your life, follow Jesus, be a good person, do you job, take care of your children, and serve in Church. You say your prayers, repent when you make mistakes, and you go to church on Sunday to partake of the sacrament and hopefully be refreshed spiritually so you can get through the next week. You have a boss that’s on your case. You have bills to pay. You deal with money problems, health problems, and relationship issues. You worry about your children and how to protect them in this world.

Meanwhile, there are a dozens of conspiratorial secret societies, transnational movements, non-governmental agencies, and social movements that impact your daily life in ways you never think about.

You get up in the morning and you eat a breakfast that has been tainted with pesticides and cancer-causing food additives. You brush your teeth with toothpaste that has fluoride in it, a dangerous neurotoxin. You put on clothes that were washed in detergents and fabric softeners that contain fragrance chemicals that are known to to promote dementia.

You drive to work in a car that uses fossil fuels and pollutes the environment. Perhaps you bought an electric vehicle so you could feel better about that, but the lithium in the battery was mined in Africa by children who are practically slaves. You listen to podcasts on a phone that was built in China by workers who live in the factories where they work, who are unable to leave the building. The clothing you wear is made in mills sweatshops that exploit poor workers in other countries.

Lest you feel too guilty for your part in oppressing the poor in foreign lands, you should realize that you too are a debt slave. From the moment you were born, you were assigned an asset tag (a Social Security number), allotted a certain amount of the national debt, and you are expected to work off your share of that debt. You are “human capital.” You are paid in a fake fiat currency that is worthless. Central bankers created that money out of nothing with a few keystrokes on a computer. They loaned this “Monopoly” game money to your government and you have to pay it back with the very real sweat of your brow. It’s a way of stealing your labor from you every day. They get something for nothing, literally.

In the few hours of leisure time you have to enjoy, this organized evil has provided forms of corrupting entertainment. Almost all of it contains immoral elements. Popular music, movies, and television appeal to the prurient side of the natural man. They tittilate and captivate, and in some cases, they form addictions. Social media is designed to get you addicted by giving you dopamine hits. This also occurs in computer games and in gambling casinos. These companies hire psychiatrists and psychologists to help them design games and entertainment that will get you addicted to them.

Of course, the oldest temptation in the world is sex. Advertising, videos, social media, music, and literature are filled with alluring smut. Authors, artists, musicians, and other creators who produce good, ennobling, and edifying content are passed over or ratioed out by algorithms. The lurid and sensational become trends in the various forms of media.

You send your kids to school, where they are taught values that directly conflict with the ones you try to teach them. Once upon a time, kids stayed home with mother while father went to work to support the family. Not anymore. The evil powers-that-be, these evil ones in the secret chambers, calculated that inflating currencies and preaching feminism would push women in to the work force. After a few short weeks of maternity leave, women have to drop their babies off with hireling day-care workers. They pay exorbitant fees for the privilege of abandoning their offspring for hours every day. When you calculate the expenses of transportation, lunches out, professional apparel, and child care, you start to realize that mother isn’t earning a living—she’s simply paying for the privilege to work outside the home.

This is not new. The adversary has always been at work to enslave man, to usurp Adam’s dominion. God gave this Earth and it’s resources to Adam’s children. For millennia, these riches have been under the control of a few dynasties. Approximately 400 families control 95 percent of all the world’s wealth. This is the organized evil. They create a false sense of scarcity, leaving all the rest of us to struggle against our neighbors to eke out a living.

This is the telestial world—the one God sends his children into to work out their eternal salvation. It is a miracle any of us make it through this fiery trial. How can we possibly expect to be successful? On our own, we can’t. We only can succeed through Jesus Christ. His atonement is our strength and deliverance. We will make mistakes, yet be forgiven if we repent and seek to correct our course. Jesus is our Way, our Truth, and our Light.

Think of what Jesus taught us by his actions. He came to world as helpless baby, like us. He was a subject of Rome, a great world empire, dominated corruption, greed, and immorality. He didn’t seek after wealth and property. He relied on God for his needs. He suffered hunger and deprivation rather than use his power to gratify his own desires. He showed us that God has greater power than the world. He turned water into wine, to show us that things that would take a long time can happen suddenly. He fed thousands with a few fish and loaves, showing us that the limitations of the practical world can be conquered by faith. He restored health and wholeness defying the scientific and medical knowledge of the time. When the disciples needed money to support their families before they went on preaching missions, Jesus caused their nets to overflow with fish. When a tax payment was due, Jesus sent Peter to catch a fish and that first fish had a coin in its mouth, sufficient to pay the obligation.

Jesus taught us that the power of the celestial world can prevail above the limitations of the telestial one. If we have faith in him, he can meet our needs.

When the various conspirators and their cabals will think they are about to achieve their ultimate success over the children of Adam and Eve, the children of Christ will form their own city and nation: Zion. This will come about just in time. The Lord will return and cleanse the world from those sinful ones. He will burn them as stubble and save the righteous by the fiery glory of his presence. The Earth and the redeemed ones will rest for a long season. We can only hope it comes soon.

For those of us watching and waiting daily, there is still much to endure. Realize that it’s just not you. There is a powerful, organized evil working against us every day. Appreciate that you and your faith in Jesus Christ is sufficient to overcome it. Pray, repent, and repeat. There is more power in that than you know.