Marvelous Work and a Wonder® Testimonials

It is with regret that I write this.

One does not want to admit failure.

I have tried to avoid this for years; but the way things have progressed, I just don’t think there’s any avoiding it, anymore.

I turned my back on the largest sect of Mormonism, which I call the orthodox Mormons, but they are actually the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.

My journey with them began in 1972, when I received a powerful manifestation of the truth of the Book of Mormon.

I had never received anything remotely like what I experienced at this time, and I have never thereafter received any manifestation that was like the one that I received when I prayed pursuant to that scripture, although several scriptures do refer to that particular type of manifestation.

I have heard people say that these things are all made up in one’s head, and I allow how that, in many cases this may be true; but this was entirely an independent thing that I was not in control of it at all, nor did I know in advance what the manifestation would actually be like.

After receiving this manifestation it seemed to me to be the proper course of action to join the LDS church.

If I knew then what I know now, I might not have done this (although, I wouldn’t have learned all the things that I now know that have made me the person I am today) but given the amazing manifestation I had received, it was natural given my understanding of the situation at the time.

Upon reflection, one of the things that the modern LDS church has done, IMO (and this is cunning) is to hijack the revelations of God pursuant to the promises given in the Book of Mormon, so that it is natural for someone who receives such a manifestation or other to think, well, the thing to do now is to join the LDS Church.

I was with them for 32 years.  Long story short, I tried to do the church programs, including, but not limited to 2-year mission and temple marriage.

As I say, I escaped from Utah (and that’s exactly what it was – an escape) after being stuck there (locked in a conundrum encased in a riddle) for 26 years, being unable or unwilling (actually it was a little bit of both) to give up on the situation and wanting to just see if I gave it a little bit more time if it could come around.

I turned my back on them at great personal sacrifice and did not do so until I was almost compelled, in my mind, based on the situation, to do so, as having no other choice.

(You who read this may have heard such stories from other persons)

At about the same time as I was in this condition that I just described, I became aware of the Sealed Portion (“SP”).

The consistency of the SP with the rest of the “Mormon” scriptures is a crucial aspect of this. For example: many detractors of Joseph Smith (and many there are) say that anyone could have written a book, and they give all sorts of reasoning and explanations as to why this could have happened.

I have read MANY of these explanations and reasonings of these detractors.  There seems to be no end to them.

But have been in my life a professional writer, and I also have written a book, and I can tell you that it is a hard thing to do.

But because I have had the experience, I know that for someone to fake something like this, one of the big problems they’re going to run into is in the consistency, and in the coherence.

Moreover, I know that these scriptures – ALL of them – are CODED – i.e., they have things in them that occur over and over again and you study them, you can see the consistency but in order to see the consistency you really, really, really, really, really have to know your topic.

You have to know your subject and it’s a sweeping knowledge – therefore, it is not just something that anybody can do. Otherwise, there are a million ways to fall flat on their face.

This is NOT something you’re going to get in Sunday School or PHQ lesson plans.  Not even.

These things I have just said are part of the self-effacing and self-proving nature of the BoM and the other scriptures, and also the SP.

In my opinion it would be impossible, or next to impossible, for ANYONE to try to fake something like this if they didn’t understand first the basic facts about the coherence and the consistency that I’ve been talking about, the standard that you would have to be able to RISE to in order to make a credible attempt.

In other words in order to write a good fake of this you would have to know these things that you would NEVER understand unless you had studied and delved deeply into the meaning of these things beforehand; and that is just not something that, in my experience, people do.

The typical person that is going to write a fake like this, no way, no how has that ability.  However, the SP lives up to that standard.

There are key words, and key phrases (or just “keys”, if you will) that keep coming up (if you study the scriptures and you read them thoughtfully) again and again and again, and gradually, it begins to become impressed upon you that these things mean something and once you realize this, this realization is one of the things that spurs on your individual study.

But I tell you that in my opinion this is something that has never lighted upon the minds of the latter-day Saints, nor has it ever dawned upon their members.

Maybe there is one here, and maybe another there; there is always that – but in a broader sense, they don’t seem to have this in-depth understanding of the scriptures.

Not at all.

And their leaders are the same. Their leaders don’t understand these things in my opinion.

Again, you may find one here, or one there that has some sort of insight and who seems to know a thing or two (and usually, you see this more from the 19^th cent. Authorities – it REALLY tails off after that); but generally? No.

Also, and again, I have a certain insight into this because I am a professional writer, and among other things I myself have undertaken to write a book and I know the thought that goes into it and how difficult the process really is, that I know that the sheer volume of material that has been put out is in my opinion highly problematic if these things were faked. It’s just too hard to keep at it. It’s too hard to keep consistent.

And this is to say nothing of the fact that the person who’s doing this doesn’t sell these books; they aren’t making any money from them.

The cares of the world would intrude to distract such a person from what they are doing, and there just wouldn’t be the ability.

When I received a copy of the SP in either late 2004 or early 2005, was immediately impressed with it.  I could see almost immediately, as in from the very first page, that the insights that it had on gospel topics was like nothing that I had really ever encountered before among the Mormons, or really, anyone else.

I also know that the Mormons, to the extent that they study their scriptures, do not understand this. I feel that they do not understand that these things are in their scriptures.

I also know that they are stunted, at least in my opinion, in ever doing any proper scripture study because they are continually overseen in their study by the directives that come from temple square, in other words, they seem to tend to only study the things and focus on the things that their leaders tell them to. There isn’t really that much independent study going on, and when somebody does break out and start studying some of these other things it doesn’t go well for them as far as their relationship with the orthodox Mormon church is concerned.

More could obviously be said – probably much more.  However, that is my testimony, as far as I have gone.

Jake