Without Disclosing My True Identity
upon this earth actually is, and then we can rejoice and have the “faith and patience of the
[true] Saints“^151 as we watch our mutual, eternal siblings learn from their experiences.^152
The LDS people are caught in a quandary. Do they listen to their hearts and follow
their true humanity as they, and we, were all foundationalized to do by our creators; or do
they listen to their leaders—those who “sit in Moses’ seat”^153 and who command them and
receive “modern-day revelation” for them?^154 They might do well to consider the poignant
words of another man they honor as a “Founding Father” of their United States:
It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to
himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing or disbelieving; it consists in
professing to believe what he does not believe. It is impossible to calculate
the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in
society. When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his
mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he
has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.^155Put in simpler terms: To thine own self be true! (Which actually means: Do not
deny the “Holy Ghost”!)^156
NOTES
(^1) See 666 America, 114, 409. (Revelation 4:4 and 19:4 respectively.)
(^2) Dean C. Jesse, ed., The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 1: Autobiographical and Historical
Writings (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1989) 268.
(^3) “My dear friend, I was never allowed to disclose my true identity to you or any of the
saints.” (Joseph Smith to John Taylor Carthage Jail, as quoted from the introduction in this book.)
“I could explain a hundred fold more than I ever have of the glories of the kingdoms
manifested to me in the vision, were I permitted, and were the people prepared to receive them.”
(TPJS, 305. Emphasis added.)
(^4) BOM, Moroni 10:4.
(^5) BOM, Moroni 7:6.
(^6) See Psalms 90:2; Malachi 3:6; BOM, Moroni 10:19.
(^7) BOM, Moroni 10:5–7.
(^8) PGP, Articles of Faith 1:8.
(^9) Romans 2:11; Hebrews 13:8.
(^10) BOM, 2 Nephi 29:8.
(^11) BOM, 2 Nephi 26:33.
(^12) BOM, 2 Nephi 29:9–11.
(^13) Psalms 82:6; Romans 8:16.
(^14) Pun intended.
(^15) BOM, Moroni 10:5; Genesis 3:5.
(^16) BOM, 2 Nephi 2:27. See also HR, 15:32.
(^17) “Understanding the mysteries of life depends upon the innate human ability to reason that
is referred to as ‘common sense.’” (HR, 1:28); See also 1 John 2:27.