How? Satan no longer hiding his attacks...


NeedleinA
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Hi All -
In general conference, President Nelson said the following in his talk, Let God Prevail :

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During these perilous times of which the Apostle Paul prophesied,20 Satan is no longer even trying to hide his attacks on God’s plan. Emboldened evil abounds.

I'm preparing a lesson for Church and hoping to hear from you with some concise examples... "how have you see Satan no longer hiding his attacks on God's plan"?
I'm hoping for one sentence or less answers if possible. Specific examples are even better? Thanks in advance!

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A few include:

  • Elective abortion
  • Acceptance of homosexual activities
  • Push toward delegitimizing religion and religious activities
  • Encouragement of hateful and illegal activities as legitimate self-expression
  • Vulgar, distasteful, and evil actions promoted as harmless entertainment for adults and even children
  • Every idea, proposal, or thought immediately turned into a battleground for the evil philosophies of political correctness and political expediency
  • The very idea of patriarchy openly mocked and vilified, and men intentionally brought down in the eyes of their wives and children
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1.  Breaking the Law of Chastity (fornication, homosexuality) is now seen as the good and right choice and following or promoting the Law of Chastity is seen as evil by our society around us.

2.  Posterity Gospel seems to be the favorite gospel of many people today.

3.  Violence is craved for entertainment and we see violence promoted in almost all our media from TV to Movies to music and literature. 

4.  Christianity is taught to be reviled and hated today and many openly speak or even act to quell or destroy the ability for Christians to worship freely or openly.

5.  The Bible and scriptures are tossed down as evil and called all sorts of names to convince others to believe it is merely a myth rather than the word of the Lord.

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7 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

Hi All -
In general conference, President Nelson said the following in his talk, Let God Prevail :

I'm preparing a lesson for Church and hoping to hear from you with some concise examples... "how have you see Satan no longer hiding his attacks on God's plan"?
I'm hoping for one sentence or less answers if possible. Specific examples are even better? Thanks in advance!

All those things that are touted as virtuous but which run contrary to God's plan that have gained momentum, and in many cases victory, in the political processes among the nations. Vort listed a number of them.

The Church is very keen on protecting religious freedom which is under attack both politically and attitudinally among the people.

2 Timothy 3:1-7 sums it up for me.

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The answer can be found in the footnote that you quoted (20).

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1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
from such turn away.
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

 -- 2 Timothy 3:1-8

  • Lovers of their own selves: Society owes me something, snowflakes.
  • Covetous: Reparations.
  • Boasters/Proud: "I can do all the evil in the world, but you can't because "protected class" and stuff."
  • Blasphemers: Taking the Lord's name in vain.  Making vulgar jokes/comments about God in general and Christianity specifically.
  • Disobedient to parents: duh.
  • Unthankful: We lived in the best economy in history, but they still want more freebies.
  • Unholy: Hollywood, Clinton, Creepy Joe...
  • Without natural affection: People choosing homosexuality, parents and children not having natural love and proper respect for one another.  No such thing as common decency.
  • Trucebreakers... traitors: duh.  False accusers: Fake media.
  • Heady = rash, without thinking, ungovernable. : ANTIFA, BLM, other rioters.
  • High-minded =  proud.
  • Lovers of pleasures more than God: No one wants to get married anymore. They just want to "play the field" for as long as they can.
  • Having a form of Godliness... :  I know we normally attribute this to the sectarians.  But in our current climate, it refers to the fact that SJWs will use "Jesus Loves everyone" as a justification for ungodly ideology and acts.
  • Creep into houses... : Internet predators as well as literal intruders creeping into bedrooms.
  • Ever learning, never come to a knowledge of the truth: Academics, professional students, SJW degrees and authors of such.

Then we're given a promise of the Lord's power to overcome:

Quote

9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

 -- 2 Timothy 3:9-13 

However, this comes only through a show of faith from the Saints of God.  Pres Nelson tells us exactly what we need to do to invite the Lord to Prevail.

Quote

Therefore, the only way to survive spiritually is to

1. Be determined to let God prevail in our lives.
2. Learn to hear His voice
3. Use our energy to help gather Israel.

  -- Let God Prevail, Nelson.

For me, in my situation, I can't really do any proselyting.  And the temples are closed.  So, the only thing I can do to gather Israel is to do indexing.  I plan on having it be a rule to have all my family do indexing a lot over the next little while.

Edited by Carborendum
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If you want to risk generating some controversy, you can mention Netflix showing Cuties.   A movie that presses real children into the sexually explicit movie trade, in order to tell a story about how horrible it is to press children into the sexually explicit movie trade. 

The astounding number of people willing to argue with this obvious reality is a sign of how Lucifer isn't exactly losing the battle.

Edited by NeuroTypical
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16 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

I'm preparing a lesson for Church and hoping to hear from you with some concise examples.

Needle,

I got into this topic quite a bit today.  When my wife told me it was my turn to give the FHE lesson tonight, I thought, "Gee, I have just the topic."  So, I've been spending a lot more time pondering this speech, and...

I don't think this is what the Prophet was wanting to focus on throughout his talk.  Instead, I was called to remember the story about being myopic.  Focusing so much on the bad right now, that we can't look forward to the good in the long term.

The wicked cannot continue in sin and be happy.  If we cross-thread with @Still_Small_Voice's thread about marriage:

And we begin to see the foundations of the great and spacious building beginning to crumble already.  So, why focus on all that?  Maybe you weren't planning on focusing on it, but only bringing it up as a launching point.  OK. 

My thoughts are that when referencing this talk, it may be better to focus on what we should do about the situation rather than going into any detail about what the problem is.  We all know what the problem is. 

What do we do about it?  That is the question he was really answering in this talk.  He gave several examples of trials, persecution, general bad stuff that we would really rather do without.  But throughout it all is the title of the talk: Let God Prevail.  Throughout all of the trials, failures, challenges, griefs, complaints, evils, etc.  We must choose to let God prevail.

And he both began and ended his talk with the gathering of Israel (both the living and the dead) to bookend the topic with clear instruction on what we are to do in our current state to Let God Prevail.

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1) The simple reality that we are drawing ever closer to a non-gender society -- no male, no female, and that we have a prominent individual beginning to address that children should all be given gender inhibiting drugs while we are young. Talk about pure discretion toward the our divine nature and eternal destiny.

Edited by Anddenex
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1 hour ago, Anddenex said:

1) The simple reality that we are drawing ever closer to a non-gender society -- no male, no female, and that we have a prominent individual beginning to address that children should all be given gender inhibiting drugs while we are young. Talk about pure discretion toward the our divine nature and eternal destiny.

 

Talk about pure discretion toward the our divine nature and eternal destiny. Discretion?

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3 hours ago, Jersey Boy said:

Talk about pure discretion toward the our divine nature and eternal destiny. Discretion?

Yes, it depends on how one is using the term discretion. In this sentence it is an individual act against divine nature and eternal destiny. This sums up the use of the term discretion nicely -- I think: Wiki

Discretion can be both positive and negative. An easy example is Satan's discretion (his freedom to act or to be acted upon) regarding the Father's plan.

Edited by Anddenex
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8 hours ago, Anddenex said:

Yes, it depends on how one is using the term discretion. In this sentence it is an individual act against divine nature and eternal destiny. This sums up the use of the term discretion nicely -- I think: Wiki

Discretion can be both positive and negative. An easy example is Satan's discretion (his freedom to act or to be acted upon) regarding the Father's plan.

"Discretion" means to act upon one's own personal choice or judgment: "I prefer chocolate to strawberry, but I leave the choice of ice cream flavor to your discretion." "At the judge's discretion, the accused was assigned $100,000 bail." "You want to leave late and drive all night? I guess that is at your discretion."

"Pure discretion" would mean, in effect, "pure choice". In the context of this discussion, in LDS terms it would mean something like "pure agency". Since agency, or the ability to choose whom one follows, is central to God and to his plan for us, I don't think "discretion" is exactly the word you were going for. I sense a very negative connotation in what you wrote; this was no mere choice, it was a very bad choice, a damnable choice, a choice that ignored the fundamental realities of our very creation. If the negative thing is Satan putting his unmitigated pride before God's judgment, then "hubris" would work well. If the negative thing is Satan brazenly choosing his own will over God's, then perhaps "blindness". I believe I understand the overall point you were going for, but I also see why @Jersey Boy was confused at the wording.

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In line with what I had posted earlier, I read the talk by Elder Uchtdorf:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/28uchtdorf?lang=eng

At the beginning he mentions the US Army coming to SLC to forcibly install a governor.  He spends only two more sentences discussing the thoughts of the people at the time.  Then he says, "Eventually the danger passed and..." 

The bulk of his talk is about how trials end up benefiting us in unforeseen  ways.  Worse things would have happened if the danger were not allowed to come and affect us.

I wonder how many talks this past conference had this underlying message:  Trials now = long term benefits.

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On 1/5/2021 at 12:12 AM, Anddenex said:

Yes, it depends on how one is using the term discretion. In this sentence it is an individual act against divine nature and eternal destiny. This sums up the use of the term discretion nicely -- I think: Wiki

Discretion can be both positive and negative. An easy example is Satan's discretion (his freedom to act or to be acted upon) regarding the Father's plan.

From an online dictionary: 

Discretion: “the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information: "she knew she could rely on his discretion2.the freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation:”

I thought you might have been going for the word ‘desecration?’ “Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual.”

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6 hours ago, Jersey Boy said:

From an online dictionary: 

Discretion: “the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information: "she knew she could rely on his discretion2.the freedom to decide what should be done in a particular situation:”

I thought you might have been going for the word ‘desecration?’ “Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive treatment of that which is held to be sacred or holy by a group or individual.”

You know, you might be right. Desecration might have been the word I was going for. They are close phonetically (yes, yes, I know not perfectly). The more I think about what I was saying desecration is probably the word I was meaning to use.

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1 hour ago, Anddenex said:

You know, you might be right. Desecration might have been the word I was going for. They are close phonetically (yes, yes, I know not perfectly). The more I think about what I was saying desecration is probably the word I was meaning to use.

You know I normally wouldn’t want to play the role of a grammar or spelling Nazi, especially in light of the fact that I make similar mistakes as well, but you seem like the kind of decent person who would appreciate some friendly input.

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