FLDS Priesthood History For 3rd – 8th Grade Students

Taught by Warren Jeffs

Tape # 16 – December 26, 1995

Subject: Children of Israel
We are here to fulfill the promises to our ancient fathers, that we would be blessed, and through
our blessings, we would bless all the people of the earth. The Lord is trying to teach you. We have been
studying of the rebellion of our forefathers, how they would not obey the prophets. Many times, the
Lord wanted to curse them to complete destruction. We have come through a line of Ephraim, many of
us even through the blood of the Savior, for we have the believing blood and we have the right to
become that people the Lord can use. That right will only stay with us if we obey our prophet.
You saw how the children of Israel quickly followed the Egyptians when Moses was gone for
forty days. In their partying, they took off their clothes, which greatly offended the prophet. Many of the
people were killed. Keeping clean means, boys don't touch girls and girls don't touch boys. It means,
even in your mind, you think good thoughts and you stay away from the nakedness. You stay away from
the pictures and the things that you can look at that would turn you to great evils. We've taught you that
you should not get dressed in front of people. Consider your body as a sacred and important thing.
Today, I yearn that you will listen, to see what a terrible thing it is to go against the prophet in this thing
of morals.
The descendants of Esau had a great battle against Israel, and Israel won the battles. As the
people traveled north to Moab, they won those battles. They went further north and had other battles,
and the Israelites won the fight. As they traveled north, some of the men went out and started finding
girls. They committed adultery and wanted to marry some of them. The Lord told Moses, Israel has
sinned greatly. The men not only went after these girls. As often happens, when a boy chases a girl, he
falls in to the same ways as the girl. These men actually bowed down to the idols and the false gods
these girls worshipped. They quickly turned away from the Lord and His prophet, all because the boys
and girls, the men and women got together wrong.
The Lord told Moses He was going to destroy the people. Once a people becomes immoral, once the
people start marrying the gentiles, they will no longer be his (the prophets) people. Moses commanded
that every man who touched those gentile girls, to be brought before him and right there, in front of all
the people, every man who touched a girl, was killed. It caused the families of Israel to weep and cry for
their relatives who had been killed. A man named Zimri, had also done wrong, and dared to bring one of
these girls to the Lords tabernacle. The Lord commanded that no evil person can ever approach His
house (tent) and because this man dared to do it, the Lord immediately sent a great disease upon all the
people of Israel. Thousands were suddenly dying. The priest Eleazar's Son, Phineas picked up a spear
and he ran fast and he threw that spear so hard, it went right through the belly of Zimri, and through the
belly of Cosby, the girl, and they both died. The instant those two wicked people were killed, the plague
stopped. The Lord blessed Phineas, who respected His house and would not let evil come near it - He
blessed Phineas with the priesthood.
Will you please believe, dear young people? To be immoral – for boys and girls to join
together, you are worthy of death in the eyes of the Lord. You will earn the second death if you
commit that sin. You can be forgiven and allowed to live your life out, but what will you get if you can't
be trusted, and being immoral, going uncovered, and desiring the boy or girl to touch you, whoever it is
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- that will be to your own destruction. Will you please believe this story because it did happen.
These people were living under a very strict law. This law was so strict, that if they even worked
on Sunday, they would get stoned to death. That's how rebellious the people were and Moses was
commanded to be very strict with them. We should consider any disobedience to the prophet as
though it was death. That's the lesson we learn here.
There were men in other lands who held the priesthood, but Moses was the prophet. The Lord
told Moses to fight the Midianites then He would remove Moses from the people. The Israelites fought
and in certain cities, they killed all the men, but they didn't obey the Lord. They were supposed to wipe
the people out. They took captive the women and children, all the animals, and brought them to Moses
and Eleazar, the priest in the Aaronic priesthood. Moses said they had done a great evil. Remember,
twenty four thousand people had died because a Midianite woman was brought near the Lord's
tabernacle. Moses reminded them of the curse when gentile girls were around. He ordered the men to
kill every boy baby and any girl that has had a child – any mother, and to keep alive only those girls
who had never been with men. Those, Moses gave to the men, to marry. They had to be innocent
girls to become wives. The Israelites did this so the Lord would not destroy them.
Before Moses left, he appointed each tribe to decide where they would live. Because Moses took
glory to himself at the waters of Maribah, he was not allowed across the Jordan river. He took Moses up
to a mountain and let him see where the resting place of Israel would be. Before he left, Moses
organized all the tribes of Israel.
Today, we have the united order and celestial, plural marriage offered to us. The people in that
day didn't have it because they turned against Moses so many times. When Moses was finally taken
away, they lost the blessing of having these higher laws. All they were left with was the lesser law, the
Law of Moses. It was a law where they were guided in what to eat, what to wear, when to celebrate,
what not to do. They were guided in every detail of life. The Law of Moses was a law that only had to
do with this life.
Before Moses left, two of the tribes, came to him and said they didn't want to cross the Jordan
river, but wanted to live on the west side of the river. It was Reuben's, Gad's and half of Manasa's tribe
that didn't want to go. Moses rebuked them and said the Lord would destroy them all if they were not
united. They told Moses they would go and help conquer the land and then after the other tribes were
settled, would return to the west side. Moses said yes.
Moses was not allowed to go across the river with the people. Anybody who had been
disobedient was not allowed to go into the Promised Land. We have a story in history where in the last
year or so of Moses' life, the devil appeared and tried to take over the prophet. Father Michael came
down from heaven and rebuked the devil and told him to leave the prophet alone for Moses had the
right for eternal life.
The priesthood has taught us more than what the Bible says. Moses was translated, and he has
not died yet. He appeared later on a mountain with the Savior, to Peter, James and John. He also
appeared to Joseph Smith in 1836, as a translated being. Moses was a great prophet, strong in body,
until he was 120 years old. Moses said, "One day, there will be a prophet like unto me, come among the
people, and when he comes, you will obey him as you were supposed to obey me." That prophet would
be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Moses told the people how they should live and he promised them
if they were obedient, they would be blessed - but if they were disobedient, one day they would become
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slaves in Egypt again.
So Moses left curses upon then if they turned against the Lord. I 'rejoice in the stories and the
faith and obedience of Moses, our great prophet. Now young people, don't let these stories be forgotten.
We have a Moses in President Jeffs. We have an Enoch in President Jeffs. We have the same privilege to
obey a living prophet. Don't throw it away. The people of Israel went quickly after the ways of the
gentiles around them. We are to come out of the world and obey our prophet today.

December 27, 1995

Subject: Israel Conquers Canaan

Each Prophet stands as God to the people. When he speaks, it is the Lord speaking. The Lord
told Joshua to go across the Jordan River with the people and conquer all the people in the land. The
Lord's intention was that every people would be smitten, driven and killed so that only the children of
Israel would live in the land.
When a man becomes the prophet, the Lord Himself puts in that man what are called keys of
priesthood. A key is a power the Lord gives to a man. Heavenly Father's spirit is in the one prophet - the
one man, so powerful that the spirit of God whispers to him all the time. This is what it means by the
keys of revelation. It's not like the car keys you hold in your hand. The Lord puts something inside the
prophet - enough of His spirit so that prophet can talk with Heavenly Father, even while he thinks. If
you were to go to President Jeffs today and sat in his presence, you would see a man that Heavenly
Father's spirit is in so strong, that when he thinks, he's talking to Heavenly Father. Just the thoughts of
his mind - the Lord is speaking to him.
The peoples of the land felt like certain destruction was coming. The Lord had given this land to
Abraham 500 years before, yet the people were not ripened in iniquity and evil. It wasn't time in
Abraham's day, to destroy those people. After becoming worse and worse, then it was time for the
people to be destroyed. The wicked always fear.
You see, when the Lord commands something to happen, how He will take care of the people.
He caused their clothes to not wear out for 40 years while they traveled in the wilderness. Whenever the
Lord's people are called to go forth as an army, the Lord fights their battles. He sends heavenly armies
to fight the battles. We're told in our day, one of us will chase a thousand of our enemy. Two of us will
chase ten thousand. It will be because the fear of the Lord in the wicked and because the armies of the
Lord will also be there.
The Lord blessed Israel at the battle of Jericho. After the city was destroyed of it's people, the
soldiers burned the city. Now the Israelites had great confidence that they could win their battles. Joshua
sent spies to the city of Ai, and then sent three thousand men to destroy that city, but the soldiers of Ai
won the battle. Joshua and the elders asked the Lord why... the Lord said Israel has sinned because they
took of the money and the good things in Jericho, when the Lord said all of it belonged to Him. The evil
person who did this was Achan, from the tribe of Judah. He confessed before the Lord. What does that
mean? When you confess your sins to the prophet, you're confessing them before the Lord. Achan was
caught and the items were brought to Joshua. The Israelites took Achan, his family, his animals, his tent
and everything; to the valley of Achor and all the people stood around and picked up stones arid threw
the stones at this family until they Were killed and the stones made a great mound,
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covering them up - and then the Lord turned away His anger.
Young people, one day president Jeffs had me read this to his family in Sunday School. He said,
"There is a great lesson in this story. One or two covenant breakers can cause the Lord to stop blessing
this people. As long as we have evil doers among us, the Lord's blessings will be withheld." Zion must
be pure. We can't have evil people among the priesthood for the Lord to appear and bless us like He
would like to. Be this a warning. We cannot think the Lord will let us do evil and be called faithful. The
Law of Moses was a very strict law. The Ten Commandments were enforced with death.
Uncle Roy told us, all it takes is one or two covenant breakers, in order for the Lord to curse this
people. In the midst of the court case where the apostates have tried to destroy the United Effort
Plan, one or two years into the lawsuit, President Jeffs called on this people to fast and pray. We
were so completely defeated at that certain court hearing. The spirit of the Lord told President Jeffs
why... there were many immoral people among us. He stood up in meeting and said, “I am calling for
this people to confess their evils. If you've been immoral, come and confess and let us clean up this
people.” Within about three years time, there were over sixty cases of immorality that were confessed to
him.
Because of the sins among this people, we have not triumphed in the courts. I hope and
pray that we are cleaning up now, and our prophet will have a people the Lord will protect. By the
lifting up process, this people will finally be cleaned up. Those who are not pure will be left behind
to be destroyed.
Those who have cleaned up their lives and come out of the world - those who keep sweet - they
will be lifted up and protected. We need to be clean and pure and not think the Lord will let our secret
evils be overlooked. We must repent of them.

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