Open letter to LDSFF

About 2 years ago I was introduced to the LDSFF (LDS Freedom Forum) At the time there was alot of good stuff to learn and good people to discuss with. Now 2 years later the LDSFF is full of people who like to criticize the LDS leadership and slander them at the drop of a hat. Some on the LDSFF like to accuse the LDS leaders of leading us astray. Some like to accuse the LDS leaders of using tithing funds inappropriately. Some like to accuse the LDS leaders of not being inspired. The list goes on and on.

I will not sit idly by while these apostates or nay sayers spout their garbage. I will expose them for who they are. They say we shouldn't trust in the arm of flesh....which I agree. We should pray about everything we hear and or read. However that doesn't negate the fact that we should not speak evil of the Lord's anointed servants who are The Prophets and Apostles and other leaders who are called of God.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught:

"In our relations with all of our church leaders—local or general, male or female—we should follow the apostle Paul's direction: "Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father." (1 Tim. 5:1.)

These apostates claim that the Prophets and Apostles do not hold the keys of the kingdom. They also claim there is no need for physical ordinances. And these are supposed members of the LDS Church?

The Lord is quite clear:

"Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord, and cry they have sinned when they have not sinned before me, saith the Lord, but have done that which was meet in mine eyes, and which I commanded them.

"But those who cry transgression do it because they are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves. And those who swear falsely against my servants, that they might bring them into bondage and death—wo unto them; because they have offended my little ones they shall be severed from the ordinances of mine house.

"Their basket shall not be full, their houses and their barns shall perish, and they themselves shall be despised by those that flattered them. They shall not have right to the priesthood, nor their posterity after them from generation to generation. It had been better for them that a millstone had been hanged about their necks, and they drowned in the depth of the sea." (D&C 121:16-22.)

President George F. Richards of the Council of the Twelve said in a conference address in April 1947: "When we say anything bad about the leaders of the Church, whether true or false, we tend to impair their influence and their usefulness and are thus working against the Lord and his cause."

This is why the Holy Ghost will not guide or confirm criticism of the Lord's anointed or of church leaders, local or general. This is why we are commanded and counseled to refrain from criticism of church leaders. It is for our own spiritual well-being.

Some also do not understand that faultfinding is spiritually destructive to those who engage in it, and that members who engage in personal criticism of church leaders isolate themselves from the Spirit of the Lord. There are ways to differ with church leaders, but they are the Lord's ways, not the world's ways.

Elder Neal A Maxwell stated, A few in the Church today choose to meet their defining moments by separating themselves from the Church and its leaders. A few set themselves up in open rebellion as a substitute light (see 2 Ne. 26:29). (Lord, Increase Our Faith, p. 92.)

A few quotes from Elder Maxwell:

"The enemies and the critics of the Lord's work will not relent; they only regroup. Even among the flock, here and there and from time to time, are a few wolves, wearing various styles of sheep's clothing-ironically, just before the shearing season! A few defectors and "highminded" traitors (2 Tim. 3:4) even go directly to the "great and spacious building" to hire on (1 Ne. 8:26). There recruits are celebrated and feted until-like their predecessors-they have faded into the dark swamps of history." (Ensign, May 1988, p. 9.)

"Church members will live in this wheat-and-tares situation until the Millennium. Some real tares even masquerade as wheat, including the few eager individuals who lecture the rest of us about Church doctrines in which they no longer believe. They criticize the use of Church resources to which they no longer contribute. They condescendingly seek to counsel the Brethren whom they no longer sustain. Confrontive, except of themselves of course, they leave the Church but they cannot leave the Church alone." (Ensign, May 1996, p. 68.)

"Some murmurers seem to hope to reshape the Church to their liking by virtue of their murmuring. But why would one want to belong to a church that he could remake in his own image, when it is the Lord's image that we should come to have in our countenances? (See Alma 5:19.) The doctrines are His, brothers and sisters, not ours. The power is His to delegate, not ours to manipulate!" (Ensign, November 1989, p. 83.)

"Trying to run ahead of the leaders is, in effect, trying to preempt their role as shepherds of the flock. As with the shepherds in the Middle East, prophets are to lead the flock; they do not herd the flock, nor do they merely follow it.Â… To run ahead is to say in effect that we, and not the prophets, know best, especially if we try to take some of the flock with us." (All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, pp. 105, 106.)

These quotes apply to many on the LDSFF. I have seen some LDSFF members who have been silenced for supporting the brethren. I have seen some people get banned because they cast doubt on Denver Snuffer or Doug Mendenhall.

So the webmaster of LDSFF would chide me for "verbally attacking" others with different opinions but yet at the same time he and his mods silence those with differing opinions....hypocritical much?

I think so!

Many are on the slippery slope to Apostasy...beware it's to your own peril!