Member training from February 17th 2025. In our recent training, we focused on the principles of liberty and the importance of standing firm against influences that threaten our freedoms. I shared exciting news about an upcoming talk at the Constitution Party’s state convention in Utah, encouraging everyone to attend and invite others. We also discussed the creation of new resources, including monthly newsletters and booklets that will outline our agenda and action items, making it easier for everyone to engage in our mission. Throughout our training, we reflected on historical examples of faith and courage, emphasizing the need to understand what is right and to act on it, even in the face of adversity. We concluded with a reminder that true integrity lies in doing the right thing, regardless of the risks involved, drawing inspiration from the sacrifices made by those who came before us.
Another interesting book on the subject is “Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization” By Brad Wilcox. You can get your copy by clicking on the title of the book.
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TRANSCRIPT
Dear Father in Heaven, we thy servants come before thee at this hour of the evening
to be instructed from one of thy servants on the principles of liberty and the
processes that are working against us and to learn new ways to overcome those
influences and to stand up for the truth and to be witnesses worthy of thy holy
name. We pray for Thy blessings upon Ben and his crew tonight, that they will
present a good message that will sink into our hearts and minds and inspire us to
do more research and to be more vigilant in the defense and the call of liberty.
Brother, we ask that blessings of peace be upon our hearts and souls tonight and
that we can be strengthened in the hour of our age. According to Thy will, we pray
in the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Bobby.
Carmen, I hope you’re ready to give us our minutes from last week, the 10th of
February.
So we’ve got some folks that couldn’t make it tonight. So hopefully they’ll be able
to watch the recording of this, but just make some announcements.
We have coming up in April, I’ve been invited to give a talk at the Constitution
Party state for the state of Utah, their state convention coming up in April.
They were going to send me the date, the finalized date, but it’s either going to
be the 19th or the 26th, and so if you’re able to come up,
it’d be great to have you come and check that out. Invite some folks to come hear
what we’re all about. Yes, Mark.
You got your hand raised, Mark? Yeah, where did we need to come up to? Oh,
it’ll be in Orem. It’ll be at the
Sarah SCERA Theatre in Orem, Utah.
Thank you That’s a good clarification. Just just to start heading north wherever
you’re at. Just come on up
In Provo, Orem? Orem,
I mean Orem.
So if you came to my elections talk in September It’s that same building.
If you didn’t not gonna matter, but that’ll hopefully be helpful.
And I am really excited about a couple of things we’ve got working on right now.
There’s some new data that’s come out on part of the conspiracy that I’m just gonna
tease you on that I’m pretty excited about to let you know that some things coming
down the pike on that. We’ve also, I’m also putting together some, a couple of
different PDF books, booklets for you to have, that’ll be available. I’ll email it
to you as well as it’ll be on the member portal that will, a lot of the stuff
that’s in the, what’s it called, the, in the boot camps,
it’ll be in there, but one of the booklets is going to be our agenda. Basically,
every month I’m going to start coming out with an email newsletter where we’ll recap
the months trainings and we’ll get into agenda items of things that we should all
be working on and it’ll just, it’ll be nice to, there’ll be an overall,
one of the booklets is on the agenda, it’ll show, these are the things, these are
the principles we’re working on every single month, and then each month’s newsletter
will get into more specifics specifics on each, you know, what can be done on that
topic for that month. And so I hope that that encouragement and that delineation
will be make it easier for everyone to be able to be engaged and I really
appreciated everybody’s that has done and if you haven’t done so I hope you’ll do
so every week is to fill out that Google form of the different action items that
you’ve been able to engage in every week. And I’ve seen, it’s been great.
I’ve seen individuals increase their activity. And, and it’s been, it’s been
wonderful. So I appreciate everybody doing that. And so this will be something to
help you out with that. Another thing that another book PDF ebook that we’ll have
on the member portal that we’ll be sending out to everybody is on distractions.
And it’s principles that I’ve, you know, different things that we’ve covered in class
number six and seven of the boot camp, but it’ll be in book form. So you can kind
of access it easier. You can do word searches. And you can just kind of just look,
you’re like, okay, why is the sovereign citizen movement? Why is that a distraction?
And we’ll go through and it’ll give examples and principles on why. And, and so
that’ll be something that will be helpful for us all to make sure, “Hey, am I
doing something that’s been proven throughout time to be ineffective or worse actually
helpful for the conspiracies?” Anybody have any questions on any of that?
Okay, wonderful. Appreciate it.
Yep, I do rod. I’ll be I didn’t I wasn’t sure if you were on yet. So Okay
There we go Alrighty, let’s go ahead and get started if nobody has any questions or
anything on all of that that I’ve just shared but
For the last several weeks for training, covering topics right in the past.
And well, just in general, we cover a lot of principles, things that are true,
getting into in depth on aspects of the conspiracy, the things that they do, how
they get us off track, principles of natural law. But the past several weeks, I’ve
been getting into what are the way, what are the characters, what are the character
traits that we need to have as members of Tree of Liberty Society, what are the
character traits that we as, you know, just what that society needs and its people
to have to be free. And so I’m going to continue that tonight.
And that theme of what, what, what is it that we need to become to be free,
right? Not just not not not what are the the founding fathers saying oh government’s
got to be limited oh things along those lines right oh what is the conspiracy doing
no what is it that I need to be doing how can I improve myself so I can be a
benefit to liberty as opposed to a you know a detraction to it and so one of
those uh the thing I’m going to be covering tonight is making sure you know we
have integrity that we’re doing what’s right even if it’s unpopular so I’m going to
get into some examples of that but it starts off with this
this is from a song I think from the 60s late 60s early 70s maybe from Janice
Joplin she says that freedom freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose
And I say that’s that’s a morally bankrupt statement. And what it’s saying is that
you only have freedom, you know, if you’ve if you’ve got nothing else to lose,
you’ve got no friends, you’ve got no home. Basically, if everything’s been taken away
from you, then you can then you can have freedom, then you can do what’s right,
because you’re not risking thing to be able to get it. But that mindset is
dangerous to liberty because every one of us will always have something left to
lose. And so if we’re waiting for that before we do anything, it’s that classic
line of, “I’ll use my guns when crap really hits the fan.” I was like, “If you
don’t realize that crap hits the fan already, then you’re never going to use your
gun so it’s it’s it’s baloney and so this is a morally bankrupt mentality to have
and so I want to go through and explain why it is a morally bankrupt attitude to
have that we must avoid if we are going to actually you know go on the offense
and actually start to regain lost ground and maintain what we already have so So we
go out in the scriptures, right? We have the story of Moses and he goes up into
the mountain and he is talking to God and while he’s up there talking to God,
the Israelites are down at the base of the mountain and they say,
“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people
gathered around Aaron and said to him, come, make gods for us, who shall go before
us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do
not know what has become of him. So, you know, this guy that freed us, he’s up in
the mountain, we don’t know what is he dead. And since he’s gone, let’s just start
doing our own thing and make our own gods. And so Aaron said to them, “Take off
the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters,
and bring them to me.” All the people took off the gold rings from their ears and
brought them to Aaron. He took these from them, formed them in a mold,
and cast an image of a calf. They said, “These are your gods,
O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. So they’ve rejected the God
that protected them through all of the plagues, they rejected the God that led them
across the Red Sea, and of course they’re rejecting the God that is speaking to
Moses at this point, and they’re saying here is your God that you can see. Here is
this golden calf in front of you for you to
And and it’s replacing it. This is the real God that saved you in these things And
so Moses is up in the mountain and God is like, hey, you know is is essentially
I’m gonna go destroy these people because they’re they’re wicked and I’m going to
And so Moses says, you know, hold on let me go down there and Moses goes down
there It’s like holy crap. You are wicked. He didn’t really understand what God was
saying. Yes, Alan, go ahead. Unmute.
Since we’re talking about that, that bunch, Edward G.
Robinson was the bad guy in that movie, 10 Commandments. And the thing that I’ve
learned through these training things is it’s usually only one or two people,
one or two people that’s on the evil side that’s willing to come out and holler.
But on the righteous side, nobody hollered back. Nobody said no, don’t do it.
I don’t even think Joshua said no. That tells you that they weren’t all there was
a weakness, even though Joshua repented later on at that point, he was weak. And
just like mo just like Aaron was weak and and gave in to them and
so we can learn from these lessons and so when Aaron saw this he built an altar
before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said tomorrow shall be a festival to
the Lord so the calf is their Lord now and so Moses comes back down they said to
me and Aaron’s like he’s explaining himself to Moses because Moses now was like yeah
we got to kill these guys just like God said and he’s like make God’s for us who
shall go before us this is what they said to me so israelite said to me make
God’s for us who shall go before us as for this moses the man who brought us up
out of the land of egypt we do not know what has become of him so like all of a
sudden we don’t know where our profit is and so now we got a because if we don’t
know where our profit is we got to worship these golden cows so i said to them
whoever has gold take of it take it off so they gave it to me and I threw it
into the fire and out came this calf
so he’s basically like hey they started it they told me to is this mindset that we
we have presented here to us that you know i’m not responsible for it because they
they’re the ones that asked for it and so um uh moses you know he He tells them
that they have to melt down all the gold and he mixes it with water and then he
has them drink that and so he’s like It’s not like you can have your your gold
back. He’s like nuts We’re done with it.
And so now we go to another story of Saul and Samuel and Samuel said to Saul the
Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel now therefore listen to the
words of the Lord So it’s you know, it’s interesting just right before Samuel was
like hey, you don’t want a king the Israelites all the people go to Samuel and say
we want a king like everybody else and Samuel says no, it’s not a good idea. God
says no They still want it and they beg for it. So God says they’ve rejected me,
not you Samuel, given the king, so Saul is anointed king. And thus says the Lord
of hosts, I will punish the Amalekites for what they did in opposing the Israelites
when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all
that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant
ox and sheep camel and donkey so God commands Israel to kill all of the people at
Amalek women children infants all the animals everything so Saul said to Samuel oh
go ahead yes mark
yes okay there you go uh it It appears that God said,
“Democracy rejected me.” The mob rejected me. – Yeah. – So those who advocate
democracy should take God more serious and just be rejection,
and that it was a rejection of him. – Exactly, absolutely, thank you. So God,
you know, and I admit, this would be a very hard thing. God tells me to do this.
I’m not getting excited about it. I’m gonna tell you that right now, right? But you
we can learn lessons from the past of what happens when you don’t listen to God
He says so Saul said to Samuel I have sinned for I have transgressed the
commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the People and obeyed their
voice. So that democracy thing that Mark just talked about, right? Everybody was, you
know, he was afraid of the people. The people didn’t want them to, they wanted to
save certain things. They didn’t want to do everything that God had said to the
letter. And so Samuel, instead of doing what, I mean, Saul, I’m sorry, Saul, instead
of doing what God said, he says he feared the people and obeyed them instead of
God. And so what happens to Saul? Because he feared the people more than God.
Now therefore I pray pardon my sin and return with me so that I may worship the
Lord and Samuel said to Saul I will not return with you for you have rejected the
word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel and So
this you know this great calling that he that Saul had Was very simple,
you know, and wasn’t easy, but it was simple for him to keep, he simply had to
obey God. And so but because he feared what man would do instead of what God would
do, he lost his position. He was, he lost his position as king,
and he was rejected by God. And so that should help us to be able to say,
“Oh, what am I losing? What blessing am I losing from God when I choose you reject
his commandments and don’t follow through with what God says for me to do, even
when it’s difficult, even when it’s something, A, we’ve got this commandment,
it would be very difficult mentally to be able to execute.
And then plus, on top of that, you have everybody saying, hey, let us save the
animals, let us save this and that. And So he decided to go against God and that
was the result of listening to the crowd resulted in that loss for Samuel.
And then we have here the Lehi’s vision that he had of the tree of life.
And in all these cases, they feared of losing something and they lost something
greater. So Lehi says as I partook of the fruit of it,
the tree of the tree, it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy. Wherefore,
I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also, for I knew that
it was desirable above all other fruit. And I beheld a rod of iron, and it
extended along the bank of the river and led to the tree by which I stood. And I
also beheld a straight and narrow path, which came along by the rod of iron, even
to the tree by which I stood. And it also led by the head of the fountain, unto
a large and spacious field as if it had been a world. And I saw numberless
concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, but they might obtain the
path which led unto the tree by which I stood. And they came to pass that I
beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of
the rod of iron, And they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging
to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of
the tree. So these people they held on to the word of God, and they were able to
make it to the tree, which, you know, the fruits of the tree was exaltation and
being saved. But then after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree, they did
cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed. So they were able to witness the,
you know, accept the gospel. But then after they accepted the gospel, they were
ashamed. And I also cast my eyes round about and behold on the other side of the
river of water, a great and spacious building. And it stood as it were in the air
high above the earth. And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male
and female. And their manner of dress was exceedingly fine, and they were in the
attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and
were partaking of the fruit. And after they had tasted of the fruit, they were
ashamed because of those that were scoffing at them, and they fell away into
forbidden paths and were lost. So they feared to lose, right?
They were afraid of being embarrassed. Everybody was making fun of them saying that
they were stupid and they they didn’t want to lose the you know The friendship or
they didn’t want to lose their influence and and so they were ashamed because
everybody that they looked up to or Maybe they didn’t looked up to him, but they
didn’t want to be made fun of they didn’t like Being name called and so they were
ashamed of the gospel and they turned away from it because of the mocking they
feared to use the respect of those around them that would not accept the gospel.
And then I want to kind of give you some examples of some other applications, maybe
in modern times of people being afraid to do or say the right thing, because they
were afraid of, you know, losing different things that we’ll talk about Later on
there’s lots of reasons that we don’t that we’re scared to do the right thing I’m
gonna play this this is a short video everybody I’ll do this I’m not a conspiracy
theorist, but And then we launch into our newest conspiracy Well as humans,
we are also very prone to believing and listening to conspiracies. Well, we’re trying
to figure stuff out It’s a figure out the world. Yeah, it’s totally natural But I
just like how everybody has to preface their new theory with this disclaimer first
like I’m not a conspiracy theorist I don’t normally dabble in conspiracy
Okay, so we see here right nobody wants to Be accused of being a conspiracy
theorist and so we want to say hell I’m not usually this way when what we should
be saying is yeah, the conspiracy is real We should not be ashamed to call it a
conspiracy. You have some people that are afraid to do the right thing, right?
They just don’t want to be controversial. There’s like no politics, no religion,
right? We’re only going to be talking about the fluff, the weather, the latest TV
show, you know, the latest Hollywood gossip. We don’t want to talk about things that
are actually going to affect us, right? Because, you know, somebody might disagree
with me. I might not be thought of as, you know, as acceptable in my community.
Mark, go ahead, yes. – Yeah, so they’re saying a conspiracy, anybody believes in a
conspiracy, a realist, that’s implied here is crazy.
– Right. – So that’s saying that we can’t identify a huge, major crime, the
conspiracy is crime in the world right now in terms of its power and its goals and
so forth. And we’re crazy and only ill if we identify it.
That’s the level of intellectual discussion, the level of intellectual integrity that
we are facing today. – Exactly, yep. Thank you. Okay, hopefully we can solve that.
It’s muted. Hopefully that solved that problem right there. So I was just saying
that, you know, people are afraid to do the right thing because they feel like that
they have to just vote for one of these two people, otherwise something bad that
they’re afraid of, something bad will happen that they’re scared will happen. And
then we have here during the fake pandemic, right? I just read the math ’cause I
wanna go shopping. I wear it just ’cause I wanna be left alone ’cause I wanna go
visit family, I wanna go to church. But really what you’re saying is you’re a
coward. You’re not gonna, you’re doing the wrong thing because you’re a coward and
you’re not willing to stand up for what’s right. And that’s really what all of
these things break down to. You’re a coward to admit that we face a conspiracy.
You’re a coward to stand up ’cause you’re afraid to go to jail. You’re a coward to
do the right thing because you’re afraid of something, you’re a coward of something
else happening. You’re a coward because you don’t want to be looked down upon by
others. And so really what this whole thing comes down to, being
Doing the right thing is is out of fear and that that idea that I start off in
the beginning of freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose is Meaning
that you’re afraid to do the right thing and tell you’ve lost everything which will
never happen. Yes. Go ahead mark
Yeah, I think even more important than the fear if I could contribute to it Is And
enabling injustice, you’re a part of the evil agenda by not standing up to it.
And so I think that’s extremely important to realize that you’re allowing evil to
occur. You’re not resisting it. And what you described, there’s a lot of Jews in
Germany were saying the same thing. I just want to go on the grocery store. I want
to go to my church and so or by a synagogue or whatever and they ended up being
executed because the smart the ones that realized what was coming over the hill they
they escaped to you know England to the American so forth but so many of them said
the same thing this this will pass and it didn’t pass yep
yes Alan
Okay, there I am.
I feel like you have almost done this class since I’ve watched Mark LeVan because I
was just concerned about the notifications the way people
Yeah, I thank you. Thank you. I’m going to correct a couple things.
Well, Jenis Joplin didn’t, she’s saying that, but Chris Kirstolpersen wrote that in
the lines from me and Bobby McGee. Yeah. Yeah. But now a term that I hope you can
link them together.
Witherall, Wilford Woodruff didn’t want the manifesto signed, but the church acted
like the children of Israel, but the calf. Why wasn’t there,
I didn’t, Wilfred Woodruff,
say something? Why wasn’t there any general authorities saying something about it,
or are they as outwardly as we are today, and I’ll get off. Well,
yeah, that’s good.
Rod, did you have a comment for that, or do you want me to answer it and then go
to you?
Oh, no, I was going to address that. I’ll let you address it first. Go ahead.
Yeah, I mean, I was just going to say that One of the things that a lot of
people don’t understand is that leading up to the manifesto there had been that law
presented to the people for decades. And John Taylor actually had estimated at one
point when he was profit that only 2 % of the church was actually obeying.
And so you had 98 % of the membership that were fighting him and he was receiving
letters from members who were telling them, “Hey man, we’ll all live all the laws
of the gospel if you’ll just take that one out. We don’t want to follow it.” So
there were a lot of other things going on that led up to the Manifesto But that’s
a big one right there was that the people were very very Resistant and they had
been for decades Yeah, well as an Allen nut you said you read you know invasions
several times So that’s probably why someone’s brought up and you and you knew you
know that that letter is referenced in the book and there were Four or five
different revelations on the matter There were dozens, if not more talks on the
matter, warning the saints, if you know, this is what will happen if you guys don’t
get into shape, you guys don’t get in the line, this is what’s going to happen.
And, and so the members just like with Samuel, you know, and the Lord gave the
people what they wanted. And so that’s, you know, did they warn? Yes,
they warned did in many different ways and talks and revelations and different things
that were dispersed amongst the people that are now not very well known amongst the
people, but were available at the time. And they were warned, and they rejected the
warning, and they received the consequences for it. Yeah, Alan, go ahead. I’m not
used to seeing a hand up with more than one
that How I got it is it didn’t make sense with the DNC when it was introduced
Pearl marriage is introduced to Joseph It if you inquired about it,
this is it now you got to live it. I Just couldn’t see
How all of a sudden it could be kicked out for political purposes And I just,
I have a real hard time seeing it going within the church without the church belly
aching about can’t live, can’t live according to our religion.
Instead, it’s, “Oh boy, now we’re like the world.” Yeah, they were excited about it.
Just like, kind of like those other examples that we just shared is Israel was
wanted not to pay the price to do what God said,
and so God releases them from it, but then lets them suffer the consequences for
it. Go ahead, Mark.
Yes, of course, God was being very direct, but a major precursor to doing the right
thing, no matter what, is knowing what the right thing is. And you know, Most
Americans have a very poor understanding of the Constitution.
They have a very poor understanding of the political philosophy of a free society
that our country was founded upon. So you’ve got to first know what’s right before
you have the courage to do the right thing.
So yeah, we get we get the warning and then we get to suffer the consequences So
but so we don’t wait first because you know, we you have to do the right thing
Even when there’s something to lose right Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. They had
their lives to lose Daniel he had his life to lose They they were sacrificing
everything to do the right thing. They weren’t like, oh, you know, I just I’ve got
a family or I’ve you know I’ve got this or I’ve got that I can’t do the right
thing because then I’ll lose X Y and Z and that’s not fair to put my family in
that position they they and because they were the only examples that we see they
they were brought forward as the example because the rest of Israel was capitulating
and they were worshipping the false idol they were they were they were not praying
to God and so we have these these four individuals as examples To follow because
they were going against the mold they and they were willing to sacrifice even their
lives to do what God had told them to do and
What’s that good? Yeah, go ahead in the second book of the Maccabees and the
apocrypha there’s story of these seven brothers that wouldn’t eat pork and so they
were tortured by the king and they had their limbs cut off and they were cooked in
giant frying pans one by one so that’s an example of them someone not being saved
for living the law but even after they saw their brother being tortured they still
said we’re not going to do that thank you yeah So, you don’t have the guarantee of
doing the right thing and being saved, right? We have to do the right thing
anyways, and so we know that they feared God more than man, and so their eternal
reward is, is massive. And so it’s, yeah, important for us to learn those examples
as well. Thank you, Moses.
So, Samuel Pufendorf gets into some, you know, not modern, but you know, not extra
biblical examples of the natural law of integrity and doing the right thing,
even under immense pressure. He says, “For those who consult only the practices of
men do commonly learn more vices than virtues.” And it is often a great mistake to
think a thing is therefore just and lawful, because many are observed to practice it
so just because everyone else is doing it right you it’s that common thing that you
hear a kid say will be like well you know Bobby down the streets doing it so why
can’t I and and as adults you know people do that same thing of you know everybody
else is doing it so there’s you know I’m not doing something and they’ll pick
something that’s you know worse or more extreme than than what they are making an
excuse to do. But what he says here is that when we are, when we are putting what
people others think of us, or what others are doing, or what others see of us,
above doing the right thing, becomes like that boiling frog, where one step at a
time, we accept more and more evil behavior, where all of a sudden now because we
didn’t have integrity the first time we have none because we always found an excuse
of why we couldn’t do the right thing and so we we are opening ourselves up for
more and more vices to enter into our daily activities and
then another occasion later on in the book he says he who does not keep his
conscience pure but He accommodates himself to the wicked customs of the world, loses
the principle rule of human actions and subjects himself to perpetual inconsistency.
So just another way to put the same idea that when we do not stick to our
conscience when we when we make an excuse of why we don’t have to do the right
thing, we are going to subject ourselves to perpetual we’re just inconsistency we’re
going to violate it. And I think that that’s what we see right now where there was
a couple of different studies that were done in the state of Utah because of an
increasing rate of suicides, especially amongst teenagers. And one of the studies said
that the suicides were increasing because of the altitude. And that just seemed
ridiculous on its face because the altitude of Utah didn’t change. There weren’t some
massive earthquakes that raised the elevation of Utah, you know, a thousand feet and
all of a sudden everybody started killing themselves because they had, you know, less
oxygen in their brains. But the other study that came out claims something else that
was ridiculous was that it’s because of Utah being so religious that you know if
you if you just weren’t religious then you wouldn’t commit suicide you know you
wouldn’t have so many suicides and it’s just what what’s really going on here is
people were they grew up knowing what was right and they made excuses for themselves
they saw what other people were doing and all of their friends that maybe they went
to church with weren’t living up to those standards and so they made excuses of why
they didn’t have to live up to them and and because they were inconsistent in what
they knew was right, that’s what leads to wickedness, never was happiness. And so
when you know you’re violating the laws of God, that’s what really leads to those
types of feelings. And so of course, the conspiracy wants to come out with these
fake studies that want to take us away from God and blame God for the ills of the
world. It’s the opposite, right? It’s actually suicides have increased as Utah became
less religious, not when it was more religious. And so we need to understand that
principle rule that we have to be consistent in our integrity so that we can
maintain that feeling of ourselves. Mark, go ahead.
Yes. Yes, I want to give a definition Addiction or a definition here of a integrity
that goes right along the lines of what he’s saying what you’re saying Excuse me. I
need to drop down here. There we go There’s two definitions actually one is from
Ein Rans lexicon her definition and then the other one is from no Webster Considered
the last founding father to live and This first one I think is right along the
lines what you’re saying the definition of integrity is loyalty to one’s convictions
and values So if you say you’re loyal to God and then you suddenly change it
because Moses isn’t around for a few days or something like that That shows a lack
of integrity. The rest of the definition is it is the policy of acting in
accordance with one’s values expressing and upholding and Translation and translating
them but now as for the no Webster dictionary and definition. He broadens it to
include righteousness He says the entire this is again a definition technique the
entire Unimpaired state of anything particularly of the mind moral soundness or purity
incorruptness on Righteousness
Honesty so it goes on but it’s so for him it’s honesty, but it’s so the first one
as well with the ran ran It’s honest to your Stated convictions.
It’s not being inconsistent. It’s not Loyal to what what you claim are your values
Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Okay, so now we look at the Apostle Paul and his example of you know He didn’t
wait till he had nothing else to lose to do the right thing So when the when the
Jews brought them the Apostles that they had them stand before the council The high
priest questioned them saying we gave you strict orders not to teach in this name
Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to
bring this man’s blood on us. So they were like, you are not allowed to talk about
Jesus, not just because we don’t like him and we don’t want you talking about him,
but because they were afraid if the apostles were allowed to talk about Jesus that
that would bring the wrath of Rome on them. And so they were afraid to let other
people do the right thing because they were rate of what would happen to them if
others did it. And so, you know, he was giving them a hard time saying, Hey,
you’re giving us, you’re putting us in danger. How dare you? But Peter and the
apostles answered, we must obey God rather than any human authority.
So this idea of Romans 13 12th article of faith, we have to do whatever the
government says no matter what that that false interpretation of those two things. I
mean, Paul debunks that I mean, yeah Paul debunks that no Peter.
Sorry debunks that right here God is above any human authority.
We don’t care if doing what God says puts you in danger We don’t care if we’re
doing what God says puts me in danger. I’m doing what God says no matter what
happens to me My family my neighbor. I’m doing what God says end of the story.
And he was willing to put, you know, his money where his mouth is. And Puthendorf
will go back to him. He says that no man is born for himself alone, but the
public good must be his chief aim, and he must account himself born to promote the
welfare of human society. So this might seem as a contradiction to what Paul was
saying, but it is not. And he’s touching the imagination because As we see in
civilization, as we turn against God, that that society leads to destruction.
And so it’s important that we remain, we keep our integrity, that we do what God
says more than or any earthly authority, because that is what is the best interest
of human welfare and society in the long run. And so we have to think of that,
we have to think of the long Term effects of what we do not the short -term
effects not just you know, it’s that you know the idea of you know We don’t want
to clean our room because it’s you know It’s much easier to make a mess the idea
that you know We’re just focused on what’s you know What’s advantageous short -term
as opposed to what the long -term effect on leaving a mess is and so when when we
Maybe our family in danger because we are standing up for what’s right,
we are actually doing the public good. And so we can’t be fooled into thinking that
we’re not doing good because we are in the long term. And so we,
again, look at the scriptures for what this integrity is. And Proverbs says that the
fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. So if we are
fearful of man more than God, that is an ever -moving target,
the whole, the argument or the logical fallacy of the moving the goalpost,
being afraid of what others will think of you is an ever -moving goalpost because
everybody is gonna think something different. And so if you’re afraid of what
everybody thinks, then you’re going to be changing your position the neck every
single person you’re in front of. But when you’re consistent to what trusting in
God, you are safe because A, you’re going to make sure and have, you know,
his blessings, whether, you know, here or in eternity. But you’re not going to just
fall for every different thing that comes along. And then in James, he says that so
whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.
So it is a sin for you to know what is right and then to not do it. Now,
are we all sinners? I will say I failed to do things I know are right. And so I
need to do better. But it is a sin. And so we need to call out sin. and as the
scripture say we need to preach nothing but repentance and so we need to do better
we need to improve ourselves and to make sure that we are full of integrity and
doing the right thing no matter the cost. In Cato’s letters in Cato’s letters number
six it says a public spirit is so necessary to the being and continuance of society
that by the laws of nature which are the laws of God every man is oblige to
prefer the public good before his own. So again,
putting the long term public good above your own comfort of,
you know, being popular for the moment is long term going to be better for the
public good. And we have to keep that mindset in mind when we have these choices
before us if we are going to do the right thing or not we have to say what is
the long -term effects of doing this popular thing as opposed to the right thing.
And then of course the Savior himself is a great example for us and what we put
forward as our biggest priority. The Lord says, “If any man come to me and hate
not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters or husband,
yea, in his own life also. Or in other words, as afraid to lay down his life for
my sake, he cannot be my disciple. So if we’re not willing to put him above
everyone else, there is nobody that we can put in front of him.
And if we put anybody in front of him, we are not his disciple. And whosoever doth
not bear his cross and come after me cannot be to my disciple. If you’re not
willing to sacrifice and and follow his example then you can’t be his disciple.
Therefore settle this in your hearts that you do ye will do the things which I
shall teach and command you. So we are charged to keep his commandments and do what
he says Even no matter what anybody else does whether your your children one of
your spouse whether your parents Brothers and sisters your job your boss doesn’t
matter Our job is to you To do everything that we can to do what God has
commanded us to do no matter the consequence And we can see the consequences that
when we don’t long term. So if we want to be free, we have to act.
Even if we might lose our job, we might lose our clients, we might have to pay a
fine, we might have to go to jail, we might lose friends, we might lose family
members even, we might lose influence, we might lose access to those, you know,
the of our that an influence that we think we should get access to, We might even
lose our lives by doing the right thing. But we have to act, even if we do those
things, because there really is no virtue. You’re not virtuous if you only take
action and you only do the right thing when you’re not risking anything. You’re
like, “Oh, I’m not gonna lose my job. “I’m not gonna lose my clients. “I’m not
gonna pay a fine. “I’m not gonna go jail. “I’m not gonna lose my friends. “I’m not
gonna lose family members. “I’m not gonna lose influence. “I’m not gonna lose my
life. “Okay, I’ll do the right thing now.” There’s no blessing in that there’s no
virtue in that there’s no morality in that That is what a wicked person does and
so we need to look at all these and make sure that we are
Questioning where we are in these things and so that we can do better and improve
ourselves So that we are going to do the right thing no matter what because we are
ultimately accountable to God and and no one else and and and so we need to make
sure that we are in a position where we can stand in front of our maker and and
and not be afraid of him and because we did the wrong thing because we were afraid
of man first
and the founding fathers showed this true integrity right they sign the declaration
of independence with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we
mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor the
founding fathers didn’t wait until they had nothing to spare.
Most, if not all, of the founding fathers had spouses and children that they risked.
They had money. They had jobs. They had positions of power and influence that if
they lost, they would have sacrificed. And even if they had the loss,
these people gave up family members and their own lives during the war for
independence. They gave up their fortunes, their riches, their lands. They were
willing to sacrifice all of these things. They weren’t waiting for there to be
nothing to sacrifice before they moved forward. They had all of those things, and
they were up for grabs. They were risked to be killed, kidnapped, tortured. All of
those things did happen and were at risk of happening and they did it anyways and
that’s where virtue and integrity lies is doing the right thing in front of risk
and even as horrible things do happen too you know because we did the right thing
and and and so we need to have that instilled in us and be willing and then show
our willingness by doing the right thing even when we risk all of those things.
So with that, that is training. We just closed just a couple of minutes early, but
we’ll go ahead and close with a prayer and then we can open it up to discussion
during open forum.
I’ll ask Brittany, would you say the closing prayer for us? And then we’ll get into
the questions or the comments on the side. – Okay, Our dear Heavenly Father, we are
grateful for this evening to all of us that have been able to take the time to be
able to come together and to discuss more about ways that we can truly invite
freedom into our lives and for us to be able to stand up for it, we ask that
that may be with the each of us, that we may be able to know the right time and
place to be able to act, so that we may be able to show our love for thee and
our love for freedom, and we ask that that may be with us during these times that
we may be able to have the bravery to stand up and the courage to do what is
right in all times and in all places. And we ask that that may be with us and
we’re grateful for the opportunity to be able to meet together. And we say these
things humbly in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you.
