Is there any other way to prove your loyalty to God than by following Him?

So, my dear people, I know if you follow the Son with all your heart — without being hypocritical or deceptive before God but acting with pure intent, repenting of your sins, showing to the Father you are willing to take upon yourselves the name of Christ by baptism, by following your Lord and Savior down into the water according to His word — then you will receive the Holy Ghost. Then the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost comes, and then you can speak the words of angels and shout praises to the Holy One of Israel (CoC 2 Nephi 13:2).

Here is what is required to follow Christ:

• Following with all of your heart
• Being without hypocrisy
• No deception before God
• Acting with pure intent
• Repenting of your sins
• Showing the Father that you are:
• Willing to take upon yourself the name of Christ

Denver, in writing about this verse, said:

But I began this process “acting no hypocrisy” and I will finish it remaining so. My “real intent” is before God, and the resistance, opposition and criticism of men will not alter that. Indeed, it cannot. As soon as I respect the opinions of men more than the “full purpose of heart” required of me, I cease to be “willing to take upon me the name of Christ (DS Blog).”

Through the process described above, Denver received “‘the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost;’ which has permitted me from time to time to “speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.” You cannot respect the opinions of people more than God’s will for you and expect to be able to still take His name upon you.

The tendency to seek our own will is evil. It is also evil to feign we cooperate with heaven, when our real desire is to get something from heaven. “Real intent” involves the authentic, complete submission to the will of Heaven because that has become your sole objective. Not to get a great reward. Not to negotiate some blessing here and now. Not to become great in the eyes of Heaven. Just to have no other object in mind than to glorify God. It is the intent to not be influenced by any other motive but building His kingdom. Service to God mustn’t be done for another desire or motive, or it is not “real intent” and is accounted as evil. God’s will should be good enough to justify seeking to do it (DS Blog).

And even in submitting to the will of Heaven, you cannot seek anything in return. You simply seek to do God’s will because it is commanded of you. Does that not require great faith to follow God’s path when you can’t see the end result of where it will take you?

Now, my dear people, after you’ve made your way onto this straightforward and narrow path, I want to ask if everything is done? I tell you: No. Because you’ve only come to this point by Christ’s word, with unshaken faith in Him, relying exclusively on the merits of Him who’s powerful to save. Therefore you must press on resolutely with constancy, purpose, and a firm belief in Christ, having a complete brightness of hope and a love for God and for all mankind. This is what the Father has said: If you press forward, feasting on Christ’s word, and persevere to the end, you will have eternal life. Now, my dear people, this is the way. And there’s no other way or name given under heaven by which mankind can be saved in God’s kingdom. This is Christ’s doctrine, and the only true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which are united as one God without end. Amen (CoC 2 Nephi 13:4-5).

This verse describes how I envision the citizens from the 9^th Parable proving their loyalty to the King. They entered the competition with a knowledge of His word and unshaken faith in Him. They understood that the King excelled in every area where they lacked. They were constant, purposeful, and firmly believed in Him. This allowed them to have a complete hope and love for Him, including their fellow brethren. This might be why they were not among those who complained that the dissenters were allowed to the feast. They were the charitable ones. Their eyes were only on the King. They had already accepted Him as theirs and were waiting for Him to accept them as His.

Therefore I told you: Feast on Christ’s words — because the words of Christ will tell you everything that you should do. After I’ve said these words, if you can’t understand them, it will be because you don’t ask or knock. Consequently, you aren’t brought into the light but are certain to perish in the dark. I tell you again, if you will enter through the way and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show you everything you should do. This is Christ’s doctrine. No more doctrine will be given until after He visits you here on earth. Once He shows Himself to you here on earth, you must obey what He tells you. Now I can’t say anything else. The Spirit keeps me from going on, and I’m left to mourn because of mankind’s unbelief, wickedness, ignorance, and stubbornness. They refuse to search for knowledge, or comprehend great knowledge when it’s given plainly to them, just as plain as words can be (CoC 2 Nephi 143:1-2).

Once again, we find it impossible to succeed without searching for and comprehending the knowledge given by God. This starts with feasting on Christ’s words, the scriptures. It is reiterated here that they will tell you everything that you should do. They are not lacking. They are not for another people more advanced, charitable, and civilized than you. In fact, it is unbelief, wickedness, ignorance, and stubbornness that keeps you from acknowledging that if the scriptures don’t answer your questions, it is because you don’t ask or knock. You can only prove your loyalty to the King by finding His will and plan for you through studying His words.

Starting in CoC 2 Nephi 12:1-4:

Then at that time, among churches that aren’t established by the Lord, one church will say to the other: I, I’m the Lord’s! And the other will reply: I, I’m the Lord’s! — this is how everyone will talk who’s built up churches that aren’t established by the Lord. They’ll argue with each other, and their priests will contradict each other.

There’s no mention of anger here that leads to violence. Just simply that those churches who are not established by the Lord argue with each other and their priests (or teachers) contradict each other. And yet, they all find themselves in the same boat.

They’ll teach according to what they’ve learned and deny the Holy Ghost, which inspires people to speak truth. And they’ll deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel. They’ll tell the people: Listen to us and follow our directions. God isn’t around today; the Lord and the Redeemer has done His work, and He’s given men His power. Believe what we teach: If they say that there’s a miracle performed by the hand of the Lord, don’t believe it! He’s not a God of miracles today; He’s finished His work. There will be many who will say: Eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves; because we’ll soon die and it will turn out fine for us. And there will also be many who will say: Eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves, but praise God. He’ll justify committing a little sin. Lie a little, take advantage of someone because of their mistakes, set a trap for your neighbor; there’s no harm in any of this. And do all these things, because we’ll soon die. But if it turns out we’re guilty, God will spank us with a few strokes, and in the end, we’ll be saved in God’s kingdom.

This all seems so benign. It’s as if they’re saying: Never mind a little arguing and contradiction. We can teach for we are learned. Even though we deny the Holy Ghost, listen to us and follow our directions.

What they taught was appealing to the natural man. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves. Take the easy path. And you can do both! You can follow the wisdom of the world and praise God. Just a little sin is justified – even necessary. Lie just a little. Don’t extend mercy to someone because of their mistakes. Don’t forgive. Hold your neighbors weaknesses against them. It’s no big deal because God will only spank us and then all will be well.

But is this real intent? Is this following Christ? Is this proving your loyalty to Him?

Many will teach in this way false, powerless, and foolish doctrines, and will be filled with pride to their very center and go to great lengths to hide their secret plans from the Lord. They’ll try to hide the things they do from public view. And the blood of the holy ones will cry out from the ground against them.

These doctrines of men mingled with scripture are false, powerless, and foolish. They create pride in the heart and as one sin leads to greater sins, it goes far enough that they hide the things they do from public view. At this point, there is so much pride that now we are seeing conceit, to the point that they hold themselves in higher regard than their fellow man. This resulted in persecution.

Indeed, they’ve all departed from the pathway and become corrupted because of pride. And because of false teachers and false doctrines, their churches will have become corrupted and prideful; because of pride they’re full of conceit. They rob the poor because of their fine places of worship and they rob the poor because of their expensive clothing. They persecute the humble and poor in heart because they’re inflated with pride. They’re unyielding and arrogant; and because of pride, wickedness, abominations, and whoredoms, they’ve all gone astray except for a few who are Christ’s humble followers. However, they’re led by false teachings, so that in many cases they go astray because they’re taught to obey man-made rules and principles.

Pride blinds you from comprehending the character traits that God commands us to embody. They could not tolerate the humble and poor in heart. They were unable to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that needed comfort. Instead they were arrogant and unyielding despite the pain and suffering of those they persecuted. Pride, wickedness, abominations, and whoredoms were the culmination of what started out as congregations that did not act with real intent. They did not prove themselves loyal to the King.

Even Christ’s humble followers were led by these false teachings. Some of them went astray because they accepted the teaching that they needed to obey man-made rules and principles.

False, vain and foolish doctrines are going to be taught in our day. Any of the teachers among the Saints who are puffed up in their hearts are unworthy of your discipleship. You should not buy their books, attend their lectures, or listen to their tapes. They offer you nothing, but charge you for doing so. Choose your teachers carefully. Some of them will poison your mind and retard your progress because they are not on higher ground and therefore cannot lead you to higher ground. They are like the Scribes and Pharisees about whom Christ warned they “neither go in [themselves], neither suffer them that are entering to go in.” (Matt. 23: 13.) You can’t follow a false teacher and find heaven at the end of the trail. You are accountable for measuring all teachings against the scriptures and against the voice of the Spirit. You cannot rely upon others and blame them for your own responsibilities. You cannot even push this responsibility onto the Prophet (The Second Comforter, Pg. 248).

Concluding 2 Nephi 12:1-4:

The Lord God Almighty has said: Woe, woe, woe to the wise, the well educated, and the rich who are prideful to their very center, and to all those who preach false doctrines, practice whoredoms, worship idols, and corrupt and pervert the Lord’s right way! They will be thrown down to hell. Woe to those who disregard the just for something of no value and loudly condemn what’s good and say it’s worthless, because the time is soon coming when the Lord God will visit the inhabitants of the earth in judgment.

The Lord pronounces three Woe’s upon the wise, well-educated, the rich who have pride in their hearts, and those who preach false doctrines (even the philosophies of men mingled with scripture) because ultimately they corrupt and pervert the Lord’s right way. And woe to those who loudly condemn what’s good as being worthless and ineffective.

God’s way is not worthless or ineffective. The process may be slow, but it is the only straight and narrow path that leads you back to God, to be partakers of the heavenly gift. God is with those who:

• Are poor in spirit and come to Him

Remember that the humble and poor in heart were persecuted. Instead of being led by false teachings to obey man-made rules and principles, they were to come to Him. Continuing:

• Mourn
• Are meek
• Hunger and thirst after righteousness
• Are merciful
• Are pure in heart
• Are peacemakers

In the 9^th Parable, only part of the test of loyalty was participating in the competition. The greater portion was how the citizens responded to the King’s will – whether they rejected or accepted His plan and hated or loved Him. In the end, “All the arguments were unavailing. The King expelled them all.”

Following Christ will lead you to living the Sermon on the Mount. And that is how you prove your loyalty to the King.

And God is beside all those who are persecuted for being called by My name, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. And God stands with all of you when people revile, persecute, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, because of following Me, for you should all have great joy and be very glad, because a great reward awaits you in heaven; the prophets who lived before you were persecuted in the same way. In truth I tell you: I guide you to be the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its useful flavor, what will the earth be salted with? The salt will from then on be good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled by people’s feet. In truth I tell you: I guide you to be the light of this people. A city that’s built on a hill can’t be hidden. Ask yourself: do people light a lamp and hide it under a basket? No, they put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Therefore let your light shine in the same way before this people, so they can see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven (CoC 3 Nephi 5:19-21).

Likewise, Denver petitioned of us:

Be charitable and patient and labor to reach others. They will judge you harshly, but nevertheless be kind to them. They’re going to grow to fear you, but that’s only part of how darkness responds to light. Give them no reason to fear you. The time will come for us to gather, but between now and then, be leaven. Preserve the world. Be salt. Preserve the world, even if it hates you… May God bless you and send to each of you a growing light and warmth. As the spirit withdraws from the world may it continually shine un-eclipsed upon each of you to enlighten your minds and to warm your hearts (Closing Remarks 2017.09.03).