Posts
A Treatise On How To Know All Reality
(In 21 Parts)
By Brent S.
“Deception is deceptive”- Douglas Hatten.
Stray from this system long and you will quickly find yourself in errors and heresies.
“I never hear of a man damned for believing too much, but they are damned for their unbelief” –Joseph Smith, Jr., 1844.
“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets”- Paul, Acts 24:14
“…and in the New Testament and True Books of the Pseudepigrapha and Deuterocanonical works, and in fine all true Holy Books inspired by God, and all true principles, in short all light and truth, whatever the source” –Brent S.
“Here I stand. I can do none else. God help me.” –Martin Luther.
Introduction: There are at least 21 Ways to know what is true, and what is false. I propose these after long years of deliberation and thought since the germ of these things was planted in me by an insufficient article I read called “How To Escape Deception” by Douglas Hatten on the Hope of Zion yuku boards. But the principles this article taught did not keep me from deception. I have been deceived by many things since, and am prone to delusion. I went through a process akin to Rene Descartes in his “Meditations On First Philosophy”, only I started with the basis of a knowledge and testimony that the Scriptures are true, therefore God is real and history and humanity is real rather than doubting everything as Descartes did. For I doubted everything not expressly confirmed by the Scriptures I knew, insofar as I had discovered yet at that time at least.
I filled nearly an entire notebook with these processes and deliberations, making many mistakes as well as discoveries in the acquisition of truth. One thing I later learned is that although you can receive the Divine Witness of the Holy Spirit for all things, you can receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. (Book of Mormon, Ether 5:7 1908, RCE; 12:6 LDS)
The 21 Ways To Discern Reality:
Way # 1) The best Way, and the most Sure, is the Divine Witness of the Holy Ghost, or knowledge from any personal experience of any kind, in agreement with the Scriptures and Ways 2, 4,5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 below, and the first one given in DIARY XVI, above.
By the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things (Moroni 10:5). But, as stated earlier, and I must emphasize, one cannot receive this Witness until his/her faith has been tested in this thing. As far as personal experience goes, if it contradicts the Scriptures inspired by God that experience must be thrown out and Scriptures must take precedence.
The reason I say the witness of the Holy Spirit has to be in agreement with those other Ways is because Satan can give you a false feeling that masquerades as the Holy Spirit and imitates Him enough to fool those who do not know the difference.
Way #2) By the testimony of others, or law of two or three witnesses,
“In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. (II Corinthians 13:1)
This does not have to be two or three people necessarily testifying to the same thing, but can
be two or three records or sources, or objects, etc.
A caution here. You can easily find a conspiracy of liars, or a group of people who will testify
to a lie they believe in. To paraphrase Douglas Hattten, it is harder to find three Hindis and a
Buddhist who will testify to the truth of Christianity than it would be to find three Hindis and two
Buddhists who will testify to the truth of their own religions.
The testimony of others covers a wide-range of sciences, humanities, arts, technological
advancements, mathematical knowledge, etc., as well as a vast knowledge base of common
Scriptural, philosophical and Theological acumen, as well as knowledge gained from true
testimonies of the Afterlife from Near Death Experiences, and all this shared knowledge of
both the physical and spiritual and mental worlds can all be generally assumed to be true
with some exceptions. Not all established “fact” is actually reality but this must be reasoned
out and tested out and studied and have a general consensus reached on it by the common
pool of humanity, and other things must be revealed to us by God, and will, in time, reach a
point when everyone believes the truth about everything, but men being as full of opinions
as they are, this is still a long way off yet. But for personal knowledge of concepts that may
or may not be true, I refer you to all the other Ways.
Way #3) By the Scriptures that are inspired by God.
Scripture means “something written”
“And whoso treasureth up my Words shall not be
deceived"
- Matthew 24:39 (Inspired Version Only (Joseph Smith Translation)) Joseph Smith 1:37,
Pearl of Great Price, LDS)
“All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice”
-Thomas Aquinas quoting his copy of I Timothy 3:16 in Summa Theologica: God, Part One
The Nature And Domain of Sacred Doctrine Article 1 Contrary after Objection 2, which agrees
with I Timothy 3:16 in the Inspired Version (Joseph Smith Translation)
In order to escape deception one must stay grounded in the Scriptures, and nothing
one allows him/herself to believe may contradict them, for where Scriptures and tradition
contradict, the Scriptures have primacy always, in all cases. One must eat, breathe and
drink them, know them, meditate on them, contemplate them, and it would also be helpful
to read them out loud, for faith cometh by hearing the Word of God. In order to get the
most benefit from the Word, pray that the Holy Spirit will be your Teacher before reading,
pray that He will help you to lay down the things that you think you know and allow Him
to teach you the things you ought to know. Also pray for Wisdom, Understanding,
knowledge and discernment.
Way #4) By giving credence to the testimony of our fathers.
“Remember the former things of old”-Isaiah 46:9
This includes the Scriptures, the antient historians, the Church Fathers
(primarily Ante-Nicene) and so much more (Josephus, Philo of Alexandria,
Tacitus, Herodotus, Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, Howard Pyle’s Arthurian compilations, etc.)
If it doesn’t contradict Ways 2 or 3 or 6 or 7, or 8-10, then it can be included.
Way # 5) By the magisterium, or teaching authority of the True Church from the
Beginning of the World ‘til now. This includes the Book of Enoch, II Enoch (Secrets),
the Torah, the Elder’s Journal, the Rules and Resolutions for RLDS, some True
traditions of Roman Catholics such as the perpetual virginity of Mary, and many
other things, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and some other writings of the Post Nicene
Fathers, the JCRB, Remnant and Jubyite Conference Resolutions, and more.
Way#6) By the Multitude of Counsellors, or the Multitude of Council.
“Blessed is the man who walketh not after the counsel of the ungodly”-Psalms 1:1
“For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.”
-Proverbs 24:6
This can include:
*The magisterium, which is not infallible.
*The Scriptures, which are not infallible.
“The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets” –I Corinthians 14:32
“For behold, they have taken away from the Gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain
and most precious.” –I Nephi 3:168 (RCE, 1908); 13:26( LDS)
“Wherefore let me intreat you to read it with favour and attention, and to pardon us, wherein
we may seem to come short of some words, which we have labored to interpret.”
-From Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus, or Wisdom of Jesus, or Wisdom of Sirach), Introduction.
“And now if there be fault, it be the mistake of men; wherefore condemn not the things of God,
that ye may be found spotless at the judgment seat of Christ.”
– Book of Mormon, Title Page 1:8 (RCE)
*The leadership of the Church, which is not infallible.
These are checks and balances, and we must listen to the Voice of the Spirit, the Good Shepherd.
The Scriptures, what is written, is the plumb line. It, what is written in the in the Scriptures inspired
of God must be relied upon. (RLDS Doctrine and Covenants 16:1C;LDS Doctrine and Covenants
18:3)
The leadership of the Church interprets the law and brings the Church into order.
Also Godly parents, friends ,teachers, Priesthood, Nuns, Monks, books, spouses, and Prophets
and Leaders and other Authorities ought to be hearkened unto if indeed their counsel is Godly,
for God can and does use some or all of these as prophets to speak into our lives. These all
listed above, inasmuch as they don’t contradict Ways 2, 3, 4, or Ways 7-10, must be acceded
to to ensure that we do not become heretics, who choose for ourselves what to believe.
Way # 7) By Special Conferences And Councils:
As both Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, Nestorian Catholic, Koptic Catholic, Mormons
and RLDS well know (though their interpretation of things may vary widely), sometimes one
cannot know whether a thing is true or not alone. Sometimes that must be done corporately.
It can be done in a way akin to the Scientific Method also, such as in the School of the Prophets.
Also, that is one of the reasons God is restructuring His Church, so that corporately we can
as a body of people have a consensus as to whether words put forth as the Word of the Lord
are actually from the Lord. All things pertaining to Zion shall be judged. There will be a School
of the Prophets (actually it already began, with the Jubyites) which will minister and lead to the
Endowment of the Holy Spirit, where we can use methods to test knowledge, and theory and
principle ,and doctrine, etc., pertaining to truth and the Kingdom. As the years of
the Millennium roll forth, it must go on and on and on.
Way # 8) By the Law of Non-contradiction
Nothing one allows him/herself to believe can truly contradict anything else that he or
she knows to be true, not supposes to be true, but knows to be true by Ways 1-6, and
also by Ways 9-12.
Way #9) By the Law of Paradoxes, or Seeming Contradictions, that are not really
contradictions at all, but only seem to be so, such as Zeno’s’ infinite division of
distance Paradox, which is solved by the fact that infinite integers all add up to a
finite number. (True in at least two ways, by filling up a box, and adding up
all integers from - infinity-+infinity, of which the sum is -1/12.)
Way # 10) By reason and logic, and common sense, and Intuition.
Reason and logic can take you to the existence of God, and even to the distinction
of the soul from the body, (Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy) but it cannot
take you to Altruism or self-denial for the sake of a Savior, nor to the Cross of Calvary,
which is why it is weak. Common Sense, if one has it, is wiser than Reason and Logic Alone.
Intuition is yet wiser. Yet only a direct revelation from God or the preaching of the Word,
or a belief in another’s testimony can bring a man to the Jesus of the Bible .
Way #11) By nature.
After a revelation of God it is impossible for a believer not to see God in the vast
wonders of nature. Nature reveals God in multitudinous ways, and will reveal
many scientific truths, and mathematical, and metaphysical and astronomical
ones as well, but it, again, is weak, for it does not have the power to bring the
unbeliever even to God on its own.
Way #12) By evidence, or proof.
The weakest of all, for all the proof in the world will not convince an unbeliever
to trust in Christ as his Savior, only the Preaching of the Word of God can do so, or
as stated before, testimony or revelation, for the power is in the Word, not in the evidence.
RLDS Doctrine And Covenants 5:2C;LDS Doctrine And Covenants 5:7 Behold, if they
will not believe my words, they would not believe you, my servant Joseph, if it were
possible that you should show them all these things which I have committed unto you.
Wherefore, Ways 10, 11 and 12 will do nothing for the unbeliever.
Way #13) By going to the source. I thought there was some truth in the
teachings of Hermes Trismegistus but I found that when I went to the source
(the Corpus Trismegistus) I thought I found that it was contradictory to the truth, for it described a false vision (Although it was lofty, I know from experience that it is very possible to have a very realistic and vivid false vision)
that told him nature was evil and darkness and all wet things had the nature of darkness
and only God was good. God said in His Word that all things he had created were very good. But then I went to the Corpus Hermeticum and found the Corpus Trismegistus to be a counterfeit of that, as the Crystal plates of Thoth were a counterfeit of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. I believe men added to Hermes Teachings with those counterfeits such as the teaching about opening your chakras and third eye, which is evil and opens you to the Kundalini spirit (As Youtube videos of people writhing and contorting show). This was never a teaching of Hermes.
Sometimes you don’t know something is wrong (or even right unless you go right to the source.
There is much water in heaven as many people who have recorded true Near Death
Experiences and as even the Bible itself will tell you. And water is life, and the nature
of life is not evil, and it is apparent that water is very wet indeed. Also, God is composed of
matter and spirit as are all things in existence, and they added to Hermes' teachings that all matter was evil which is
why the Gnostics and all who came from them from the Manichaeans to the Cathari called
matter evil, and Tatian erroneously taught that God was distinguished from
matter. Augustine may have taught that Hermes’ teachings were compatible with
Christianity, and he was right. He searched as I did.
Way #14) By Faith.
Faith cometh by hearing the Word of God-Joseph Smith, Jr.
God requires faith of all who desire to come unto him and of all who do
come unto him. This has been the basic requirement since before the
beginning of time. Augustine and Isaiah both said, If you believe not,
neither shall you understand. Hebrews says that "Without faith it is
impossible to please him [God]." Belief and faith come before one can
understand the things of God. The things of God can no man understand
save he has the Holy Spirit of God in him, just as the things of man cannot
be understood but by the spirit of man. Granted, that is a paraphrase,
but it is basically what the Bible says.
Way 15) By revelation.
Revelation is the Rock upon which Christ's Church is built, which is also
known as Jesus Christ. He reveals (or uncovers) ALL things to the faithful,
both things past, things present and things to come, which is what Truth is,
for God is Truth and Christ is the Spirit of Truth. Revelation is the uncovering
or revealment of ALL THINGS.
However, satan can give revelation too, and does, of false things mixed with true
things, because it is his job to deceive, as he is the deceiver.
Wherefore, all revelation given MUST be tested by the other WAYS, (Scriptures,
evidence, etc. ). II Timothy 3:16 And all scripture given by inspiration of
God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness;
That is the true test of all revelation.
Way #16) By trying the spirits
There are 3 Grand Keys to trying the spirits.
LDS Doctrine and Covenants 129:1-9
1 There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels,
who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and
bones—
2 For instance, Jesus said: Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not
flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
3 Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not
resurrected, but inherit the same glory.
4 When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God,
offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you.
5 If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand.
6 If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his
glory; for that is the only way he can appear—
7 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move,
because it is contrary to the order of heaven for a just man to
deceive; but he will still deliver his message.
8 If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake
hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything;
you may therefore detect him.
9 These are three grand keys whereby you may know whether any
administration is from God.
Also, according to Joseph Smith, Jr, in one of his sermons, no angel of
God has wings (at least, I add importantly, as as it appertains to the
visitations to this earth.)
No angel of God, as Smith has also said, in a pamphlet he wrote has sandy
hair.
Although demons can say "Jesus is come in the flesh" (and they certainly
can say that) and a false Scripture can give a falsified account of
Jesus coming in the flesh (such as the Urantia Book, or Edgar Caycee's false
prophecies), confession is not, is not just merely saying or giving an account
of Jesus in the flesh, but will any demon, fallen angel, devil or unclean spirit
confess that Jesus is their Crucified Lord? I think not. Jehovah's Witnesses
believe that He was impaled on a torture stake, and think they can prove this
(and if they tell you to do research on Google their side of the story will be the
top result but if you dig deeper on the results page, you will find the truth, that
he was Crucified on the Glorious Cross!), and they endeavor to prove it to
others. Some believe He never existed. Some believe he existed but was not
crucified, while yet other believe he existed, was just a prophet, and was taken
from the cross to heaven and replaced by someone made to look like him,
who did die. Some believe it was murder. Some believe suicide, or some
Deicide. But will any unclean spirit, devil, demon or fallen angel confess
that not only was he Crucified (the REASON He came in the flesh), but that he
is Lord of All? I don't believe so. And they certainly wouldn't say he doesn't
need to come in the flesh again as a baby and be literally born again on this earth
or that His Atonement is both eternal and necessary for the expiation and
redemption of all men, even if they do stoop so low as to admit he was crucified
and lie and say he is their Lord. And even if they say these things, you can always
know what they say is false by the 3 Grand keys mentioned above, or by sandy
hair and wings or gold dust, silver dust or angel feathers(those too are never of God-Smith) alone. Also, in a Church service (if it be of God) the ones in charge of it can
discern whether a good or bad spirit is manifested in the service or whether
a spiritual gift is exercised properly. However with this, a caution. In some
good churches, spiritual gifts and operations are suppressed. Even a good
Spirit-filled ministry like Jimmy Swaggart Ministries cautions wrongly against
being open to the ministry of angels while at the same time encouraging
the exercising of spiritual gifts, and discouraging, again, wrongly,
any continuing revelation, as many, many good and well meaning discernment
ministries also do, even though Jimmy Swaggart himself received a personal
Revelation, his first of the power of the Cross, in 1997. Jan Markell
of Olive Tree Views has decried the true visions and prophecies of the true
prophet Rick Joyner, and there are many such incidents because the time
has not yet come when "they shall all see eye to eye". Be careful to whom
you go to for spiritual advice. Don't ask a man or woman about a topic he or
she would talk bad about or decry if you already know that topic to be the truth.
This is trusting in the arm of flesh. Do not even trust what I say more than you
trust God, but test everything I say by the Spirit of God and the Scriptures, and
if that proves me right, than by the other Ways I believe God has shown me.
If you know a righteous spirit has manifested himself to you, whatever he
says you can believe without testing it by the other Ways. But be cautious.
The enemy can think of new ways to deceive you. He is clever, but God is
wiser, infinitely and eternally more wise than the Devil or all his armies
combined. And any time you feel you are deceived, you can go to God in earnest
prayer for His Guidance and direction and to pull you out of any
deception of Lucifer, or satan, who definitely are one and the same being.
And satan and his angels can appear as angels of light, and his ministers can
appear as ministers of righteousness and preach a sermon that appears to
come from heaven, but personally and below board (or sometimes even right
out in the open, but the Saints of God are blind to it because they admire
them for all the good they have said or done in the past, and even
continue to do) live like the devil. The marks of a false prophet are outward symbols and pomp. The mark of a true servant of God is inward holiness. A servant of Satan can feed the hungry, clothe the naked and
yet preach a false Gospel that deceives millions, while fleecing the flock.
Beware of the prosperity gospel, and beware of Pope Francis, and any leader
or former president or pope that supports the false religion of Islam or says
that Muslims and Christians serve and worship the same god. They do not.
Way #17)By prayer, contemplation (, or pondering truth out loud), true (not Transcendental) meditation, pondering (in your heart) considering, and
thought (the lowest).
All thought is prayer. Christianity is not brainless, or thoughtless. Truth must be contemplated out loud, meditated upon in the heart and weighed carefully in the mind and heart.
Way #18) By the results, or fruits.
Ye shall know them by their fruits- Matthew 7:25 IV(JST)
Not by the perceived fruits, and this is important, for perception is not
always reality. When you are alone by yourself you can make the best
decisions because when you are alone you know yourself the best and
your mind can be free from distractions. In this way and mode, you
must properly judge the fruitage of people, movements or other matters,
books, or Scriptures.
A good way to test truth or movements or a person or book is by taking an
unbiased look at their results.
Way #19) By fulfilled prophecy.
This, for example, proves the Messiahship of Jesus Christ, as well as
the fact that we are now living in the latter times.
Time vindicates the prophet, however, a caution with this:
Deuteronomy 13:1-3
1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Way #20) By simple Trust.
Faith is at its root trust in the object of your faith.
If you sit in a chair, you have trust that that chair will not collapse from under you. If send a letter in the mail, or if you plant a seed, you have faith that the seed will grow, or the letter will get to its destination. As one musician has said in a song of faith, "I found reality in simple trust." (Echo, My Faith Still Holds)
Way #21) By asking good, learned questions (the Socratic Method)
I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. To open an intelligent dialogue with a man or woman and to be able to arrive at the truth of a matter thereby takes experience, sometimes years of it. But Inquiry, both of God and of men, I would recommend to all. As stated earlier, be careful at whose hand you inquire of, because you must always seek counsel about the right things from the right people. This does not mean a trustworthy person that you inquire of cannot correct you if you are in error about something. You must let him or her do so. This is related to seeking an abundance of Godly counsel, (Way #6)
James 1:5-7
5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering; for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.
Verses 6-7 are related to Ether 5:7 RLDS;12:6 LDS, mentioned at the beginning of this little work.
APPENDIX:
More ways that I come up with from time to time.
1)It should make sense, or it may not be true.
2) Don't make easy assumptions, such as 'The Book of Mormon is the Book of the Devil' or 'the earth is flat' or 'there couldn't have been Gravity or space or NASA has not been to the moon or traveled in space ever and there is no ISS so this can't be true' or 'all aliens come form hell so there is no life outside of this planet and no friendly aliens ever visit us' and there are probably hundreds of thousands of other wrong assumptions people start their research out with.
3)In research, you usually find what you want to find, so be careful when what you want to find is not the truth.
4) A good journalist is not just after facts, but digs for the truth.
5) Much truth is suppressed by industry, religions, government and intelligentsia.
I have much more to say on this subject, and there will be a major sequel to this little book, a much thicker book covering much more ground and many more topics. Happy digging!
Completed 3-28-2019 @2:10 AM CST
Revised 3-28-2019 3:21 AM CST
Revised again 4-22-2019 5:50 PM CST
Revised again 4-22-2019 6:10 PM CST
Revised again 9-12-2019 8:20 PM CST
Final Draft typed 3-28-2019 12:42 PM CST
Updated Twice 8-23-2019 6:53 PM and 7:21 PM CST
Updated again 11/06-2021 @3:24 PM CDT, and at 3:26 PM CDT, same day.
Brent S.
How to use this system: This system can't tell you anything, it takes a lifetime of work on your own part and is a test for all truth. With everything you learn or think you know, run it through each of the twenty-one parts of the test.
This may take considerable time and prayer and thought and meditation, and pondering, and
contemplation, and effort, and deep study, and not all twenty-one parts may be necessary for
every fact and theory, and principle and philosophy or doctrine (teaching).
However anything that is truth should not fail any of the 21 tests, though
some truth can seem counter-intuitive and paradoxical, but a paradox is the
opposite of a contradiction, for all paradoxes have either already been or
will be resolved.
Also learn to think cubically, for the truth has many sides. Updated and
republished by
Brent L Sohlden on 4/19/2019 at 4:44:40 AM CST--(/end document)
From the book, Bubbles of The Foam, I learned that Fortune is a she. That's about all I got out of it.
Next, reading Thinking As A Science by Henry Hazlitt (1894-1993) Released by Project Gutenberg May 31, 2018 Ebook #57243) (c)1916 by E.P. Dutton & company.
Real thinking, Independent Thinking, hard thinking.
"...Most people, When confronted with a problem, immediately acquire an inordinate desire to "read up" on it. When they get stuck mentally, the first thing such people do is to run to a book."-Ibid (At 5:21:42 AM CDT Star Wars: The Complete Canon Timeline (2020) posted by YouTuber Star Wars Explained is on)
In other words, instead of thinking, we turn to a book.
I say, there can be times when this is perfect! Ok, but constant reliance on books to do all your thinking for you is not ok for a true thinker. But the True books you HAVE READ, or have read from, MUST ground all your thinking!!! (At 5:31 AM CDT I turned Pluto TV to Star Trek: The Next Generation) If your thinker works properly, you will be grounded enough in the proper Books or books to keep your Independent Thinking in alignment with God's way of thinking, with the need to consult books from time to time still existing, but shouldn't be too heavily relied upon.
"But when I use the word thinking, I mean thinking with a purpose, with an end in view, thinking to solve a problem."-Ibid.
Love is sacrifice.
No comments:
Post a Comment