This talk was delivered at a conference in Provo, Utah, on April 13, 2025.

I appreciated the earlier talk. I don’t know how many people, either remotely viewing or joining us later, heard the first talk, but I think Micah made a number of really important points. 

I appreciate the invitation from the conference organizers to speak today. I’ve been working on this talk since the Winter Solstice. The Lord’s work is vast. And this talk is gonna shed light on more of the Lord’s great plan. This is a message specifically intended for our group and not something to be taught to others who lack the necessary background to understand it. Without the necessary background in our Scriptures and prior teachings, a novice would have difficulty putting this talk into a correct perspective.

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This talk results from my discouragement at what I have observed of us. We’re not like other religious groups. We have no public relations or marketing resources to conceal our infighting. That’s a good thing, in my opinion. Our disagreements and infighting are conducted publicly, and nothing about them is hidden from others. This gives us a much more realistic view of ourselves than any institution that conceals its internal conflicts or misrepresents the cracks within its membership. We are far more transparent than institutional denominations. Because of this, we should have no illusions about our weaknesses and disagreements. I do not. 

We have problems. Our group clearly includes people with severe personality disorders. Some people have trauma from their past, making it difficult to develop healthy relationships with others. There are people who lack self-awareness and are puzzled when they offend others with their inappropriate conduct. Additionally, many of us refuse to ever accept responsibility for our own dreadful behavior. Our infighting suggests we’re not true followers of Jesus as He describes it: I give a new commandment, That you love one another. Love [one an]other as I have loved you. If you have love [to one an]other, it will be a sign that will identify you to all mankind as my followers (TSJ 10:7).

There are narcissists, egomaniacs, and aspiring souls who crave recognition because they’re hollow inside. There are sexual deviants. At least two men are in prison for sex crimes. I have heard allegations of at least one other man who may also represent a sexual threat to children. Our ranks include many who cannot be gathered into a community of peace of one heart and one mind. 

We have people in our community who are marred by sin and unrepentant. There are foolish people led astray by their egos and ambitions who assert they’re entitled to lead others. They ask to be supported by tithes and be given offices and positions of authority. These people are evil, inspired by an adversary who seeks to destroy souls. 

On the other hand, many men and women have great intellect, knowledge, skills, education, and wisdom. They’re willing to help and do things that lift others. The contributions of these people have made possible the many things have been accomplished. These include recovering, compiling, and publishing the Restoration Edition of the Scriptures, organizing nineteen general conferences and over fifty regional conferences, organizing fellowships, and distributing tithing to those in need. It has required a body of faithful believers to accomplish what has been done. However, these accomplishments do not hide what we lack. Clearly, there remain obstacles for us to overcome to be gathered into a community and live in peace with one another. 

We received instructions 11 years ago and have been given more than a decade to learn new skills and practice them in order to work out our conflicts, but we failed to do the required work. Without the desire and the effort to learn, we cannot gain the necessary skills. The system of fellowships we were instructed to use was one way to prepare for gathering. We were to gather our tithes and work together to decide how to distribute them to those in need. We have largely neglected to do that and many more things. Additionally, we still have numerous interpersonal conflicts that we lack the desire or skills to resolve. 

As I’ve considered our few successes and many failures, I’ve been despairing and quite pessimistic. We still have far too many shortcomings despite all the guidance the Lord has provided. When I learned that there was rancor and hard feelings still lingering over the Guide and Standard, it surprised me. When I saw that women are no more wise, fair, or just than men have been and saw the rancor they showed one another, I was discouraged and doubted we could ever gather together and live in peace with one another. We have the same social upheavals in our group as modern Babylon has. A lot of our disputes resemble the political campaigns of modern Babylon, and it suggests that we are far more influenced by the social winds of a larger, corrupt society than by the Lord’s instructions. 

I have felt responsible for our widespread quarreling, frequent backbiting, grudges, gossip, petty jealousies, inability to support one another, selfishness, reactivity, unwillingness to sacrifice for the sake of building a community, and general unfitness to gather into a cohesive body. I have been dismayed by our inability to remain silent when we should not speak, our failure to speak when we should, and our inability to recognize the care and respect that must be taken with each other and with God. I have taken into account the earlier failures in Kirtland, Missouri, Illinois, and Salt Lake and have concluded that we share the same weaknesses and faults among us as history records about them. This has left me with little hope for our chances of success. 

Because of my discouragement, I went to the Lord in prayer with my hopelessness. I learned a great deal from that prayer, and that experience with the Lord has led to this talk. I was wrong in my understanding of the mechanics the Lord will use to accomplish the prophesied “gathering” of His people. My understanding was different from what the Lord had in mind. I learned that the Lord CAN and WILL do some significant pruning, even of those who will be gathered. There will be experiences that will humble and refine His people. 

In answer to my despairing prayer, my mind was flooded with scriptures that helped me understand how the Lord had dealt with His people in the past. This is how He will also deal with us. 

The complete records of God’s people from the days of Adam through the present do not exist. However, we have enough evidence to understand that He both blesses and curses His followers. Being “chosen” by God does not mean there is no accountability. On the contrary, when God chooses and covenants with people, He actively involves Himself in their history. 

The Lord explained through Moses how He would deal with the Children of Israel if they obeyed or if they disobeyed. He blesses, but He also humbles and corrects. From Deuteronomy:  

But it shall come to pass [that] if you will not listen unto the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your store. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, [and] the increase of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep. Cursed shall [be you] when you come in, and cursed shall [be you] when you go out. The Lord shall send upon you cursing, vexation, and rebuke in all that you set your hand unto in order to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings whereby you have forsaken me. The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto you until he has consumed you from off the land to which you go to possess it. The Lord shall smite you with a wasting disease, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with [the] blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish. And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven [it shall] come down upon you until you are destroyed. 

The Lord shall cause you to be smitten before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And your carcass[es] shall be food unto [the] fowls of the air, and [to] the beasts of the earth, and no man shall frighten them away. The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt, and with…tumors, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof you cannot be healed. The Lord shall smite you with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart. (Deuteronomy 8:6-8)

The Lord was always willing to bless Israel. But the Lord is not limited to blessing the rebellious and unrepentant. He can, has, and will discipline His people when they require it. The account in Deuteronomy continues in the next chapter: 

And it shall come to pass, when all these things have come upon you — the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and shall return unto the Lord your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul — that then the Lord…God will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will return