“So, You Wanna Go Back to Egypt?” Part 10 – “Moses acts like a big shot. Who does he think he is?” – title and lyrics from Keith Green’s album, circa. 1980
Author’s Note: This series is autobiographical to provide background for the books and articles you will find on this website. When the series is finished, I will provide a summation in a bio-page. Links to previous installments are found at the bottom of the article. —JWS, website creator.
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The first decade in North Idaho was a heyday of opportunity.
My custom in church attendance had been for many years that of Sunday attendance for three weeks with the fourth week at home administering the sacraments to my family. The children were still young and at home for daily devotions and home schooling. I felt that they needed to be involved with a larger social group and that is why, when we moved to Idaho, I continued the practice. We attended the little community church near the land parcel which we purchased to start our homestead.
I never proselytized because I was never interested in starting a “church.” My view of church organization was changing from the institutional model to that of the familial model. Membership in a church should reflect true membership in a family, not a fake family. The extended family group grows from intermarriage, the biblical laws of adoption, and land tenure – not from recruitment.
I continued my writing ministry and invited people to read my material. Sometimes, I taught seminars at the town community center and held annual gatherings at my home for interested supporters.
One early seminar was on Robert Felix’s newly released book on the coming ice age: Not By Fire, But By Ice. I wrote a Pesher on the subject at the time. It can be found here:
The wisdom of my move to the Inland Northwest was questioned by some. There was a fear that the Yellowstone caldera was set to explode “any day.” The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was fresh on everybody’s minds and there were at least seven extinct volcanoes – such as the mighty Mt. Rainier – just 300 miles to the west of us.
However, I felt that we were upwind from Yellowstone and of sufficient distance from the dangers to the west that the only true risk would be from the “fallout” of the ash, which would be a manageable crisis. Also, we were surrounded by basalt, which suggested to me that past eruptions were the percolating kind and not the explosions like what occurred at Mount St. Helens.
As for the ice age, North Idaho benefits from the tempering influence of the Pacific Ocean. In the last ice age, the ice sheet came down as far as Spokane, Washington, while the region to its south experienced normal seasons much like the temperate zones of the Swiss Alps. Referencing Felix’s maps, I concluded that the mid-section of the U.S. was at far greater risk from arctic cold blasts and the ash clouds of erupting volcanoes, such as Yellowstone.
The Desposynic doctrine argues that the “Church” is an extension of the family of Jesus to form the covenant community. Many people have misunderstood the role of Desposynic bishops. It is not that of a high kingship over the people but rather the equipping of men in the role of the kinsman-redeemer, a discipling ministry. Early on, I wrote studies to that effect which can be found here:
https://2046ad.org/the-kinsman-redeemer/
https://2046ad.org/the-ministry-of-the-firstborn/
My on-line presence attracted global interest. I set up a virtual membership roll with a remote discipleship program and built a constituency. The membership role was and remains held in strictest confidence.
I also received honorary membership in chivalrous orders of which I know little, and should the reader ever encounter claims that I belong to them, you should know that their titles were unsolicited on my part.
I traveled to the West Coast to teach a seminar. One lecture can be found here:
The Five Sacraments of the Desposynic Church
This was for a gathering of family and friends of Guy Roberts, a well-known figure in Christian Patriot circles. He had once served with some prominence in the LDS Church, but became disillusioned and left. Until he died in 2010, he was a loyal and dedicated associate of my episcopate.
Many former Mormons benefited from my website and of the numerous encounters with Mormons over the years, a few have remained life-long friends. Winning them over from their church is a great difficulty and it took me many years to finally figure out why.
Mormons suffer from a “conventional disability” which has suspended their moral agency. They are not free to choose. From their youth, they are taught to enter vows and oaths and like the Freemasons, are ensnared by them. Vows are promises with temporal consequences which are eternal indirectly. Oaths are stronger with words of a self-malediction. Forcing such oaths upon members by such organizations is meant to instill fear and bondage. Jesus taught against entering into vows and oaths for this very reason (Matthew 5:33-37).
It can be argued that all churches are cults to some degree because they require an oath of membership to violate the 5th Commandment. They demand a share in the “honor” which is due only to our parents, including the tithe. Church discipline is enforced by withholding the sacraments. The family takes second place.
Consequently, oaths which solicit words of commitment, especially from young impressionable children, entrap the minds of the people to a competing loyalty.
In 2004, I hosted a Hierogamy seminar in my home to which the local pastor attended. My book was nearing completion. It provided the case for a married Jesus.
But storm clouds were gathering.
Did my claim to a sacred lineage represent crass self-promotion? Detractors snickered. A former friend and colleague dismissed the doctrine with the “milkman” argument: because of secret infidelities, genealogies are suspect.
But “the Lord knows them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19) and I insisted that a sovereign God can protect a lineage just as He can protect the Scriptures.
The first Desposyni had callouses on their hands. Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. Desposyni are meant to be true kinsmen-redeemers of their brethren, not high kings. The wake from Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code set the movement back 20 years because its heretical presentation caused a knee-jerk reaction among Evangelicals.
I was beginning to experience that push-back from church people, some who claimed that I was a “cult” (a tiresome term) or even worse, Illuminati. Every manifestation of my public profile would invite the attacks of these miscreants. . .
to be continued
