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Sunday, February 12, 2023

Zion vs the Beast VIII: Order Out of Chaos

 Previously: The Holy Order

Modern Luciferians have a modus operandi, they create chaos in order to profit from it. But monetary gain is only the icing on the proverbial cake--their real goal is create order in the wake of havoc. To rebuild society in their own image from the ashes of war, economic disparity, racial inequality, social upheaval, and, as the last three years have proven, planned pandemics. They engineer the problems and then create the solutions. They are both the good guys and the bad guys, the terrorists and the heroes, the totalitarians and the champions of society, the dictators and the benevolent statesmen. Their motto is ordo ab chao, or "order out of chaos." This is how they control and enslave us, and it has worked for thousands of years. 

The conspirators behind the chaos and its ensuing order are participating in a system that is ancient. The first secret combination began with Cain, who established the first city. Cities were originally military centers, designed to keep people in close quarters under surveillance and control. In contrast, the righteous posterity of Adam lived an agrarian lifestyle in the more rural areas. According to the apocryphal Book of Enoch, it was the fallen angels who taught men the arts of war, blacksmithing, weapons manufacturing, alchemy, sorcery (using herbs for hallucination), and music, which they used to lure Adam's righteous posterity into their civilizations. I also believe that the Babylonian system we live under today originated with Cain and his posterity. That system includes the concept of monetary currency and central banking, market manipulation and crony capitalism, the deification of kings and governmental leaders, and our modern concept of totalitarianism. Hugh Nibley, in his book Enoch The Prophet, draws from the Zohar (the foundational work of the Jewish Kabbalah) to summarize the depth of knowledge the fallen angels had:

The Zohar states the general principle: whenever the Holy One has allowed the deep mysteries of wisdom to be brought down into the world of mankind, they have become corrupted, and men have attempted to declare war on God. The only redeeming feature of the thing was that the fallen angels who had perverted the human race had not learned all the mysteries in their heavenly condition (we're told in a Gizeh fragment), and so were not able to give away everything. As it was, their power for evil was almost unlimited. (Enoch The Prophet, p. 12, Kindle version)

These angel's knowledge fell short of revealing the full mysteries of God to the wicked, but they possessed enough to make themselves gods among men, and to introduce unlimited amounts of evil in this fallen world. Is this why the rites, ceremonies, rituals, and initiations of the Mystery Schools seem very similar to the true rituals introduced to Adam by God? Have you ever wondered why Masonic rituals are almost identical to the LDS Temple ceremony? The origin of this copy-cat-ism could be ancient, and go all the way back to the time of the First Patriarchs. Did the fallen angels introduce their version of these rituals to the posterity of Cain, which was perpetuated all the way up to the flood, through ancient Egypt, and down to the present day? I think they did, and in this post I'll be getting into some of the initiation ceremonies that are currently used by the Skull and Bones at Yale University, and how they seem to be a corrupted form of the Egyptian rites. 

But first, let's dive into this concept, introduced by Denver Snuffer, that Satan attempted to capture this creation through Cain's murder of his brother Able. The plot behind the murder was to gain control over the Holy Order by changing the seed lines through which it was passed down. In many Christian circles there is a lot of discussion about what they call the "serpent seed." They actually believe that part of Satan's beguilement of Eve in the garden involved sexual intercourse, through which Cain was conceived as the literal son of Satan. There is no scriptural evidence to support this hypothesis, and it seems a very unlikely scenario that God would allow such a debauchery to happen in the Garden of Eden. Furthermore, Cain and Able were not the first children of Adam and Eve, as they had many generations of sons and daughters beforehand who remain un-named. Remember that Eve rejoiced when they finally got Cain, saying that she had "gotten a man from the Lord," which according to Denver, meant that they finally had a righteous candidate for passing down the Holy Order. At one point during his life, Cain exercised faith and was on the path to be the righteous heir, but his ambitions for the Order were tainted with desires for power and authority. Denver explains the temptation that Cain faced and the threat it posed to the Plan of Salvation:

Satan put it into the heart of Cain to view the inheritance that he was going to receive of the Holy Order as an opportunity to gratify his pride, and to satisfy his ambition, and to exert control and compulsion, because if he were the one in the line then the Messiah would descend through him and he would have a patriarchal position superior to the Messiah himself. This was an important part of the plot of the adversary. If the adversary could gain control over the inheritor under Adam of the Holy Order, then... before the Savior returns, when dominion was given to Adam, it was by God's word and God cannot break his word. The right of dominion had been conferred. It has to be returned to Him. If Cain were the one in the position to exercise control then he could exert whatever conditions Satan put into his heart before he would return the right of dominion back to the Savior. Thus, if a disciple of Satan were to be in possession of that Holy Order in that line holding dominion, all of the conditions that Satan had demanded in the preexistence, which were rejected by the Father and created the war in heaven designed to destroy the agency of man, could become the condition for the redemption of this creation. Therefore, Cain's apostasy represented an enormous threat to the salvation of everyone who would live thereafter.

 As a consequence of that, the offering by the younger brother was approved and the older brother Cain was told, "You need to stop what you're doing, you need to repent and return, and if you do not, sine lieth at the door. The adversary is ready to enter into your house." This represented a serious frustration or threat to the second great conspiracy to destroy the souls of men and to capture this creation. Therefore, Satan put it into the heart of Cain to murder his brother and Abel was slain so that, the theory was, by controlling the position that necessarily meant that the Messiah would be a descendent of Cain's, the line would come through him, and he would have the authority, the control, the dominion, and the right to change the plan or the conditions for the salvation of the souls of men in this world. (The Holy Order Fireside, transcript, p. 5-6, emphasis added)

In Denver's other talk, The Religion of the Fathers, he also touched on the topic of Cain's murder of Abel:

Knowledge about the Holy Order can be misused. Even understanding its rights has inspired envy, jealousy, and anger. Cain murdered Abel because Cain understood the importance of standing at the head of the Holy Order. As he contemplated the possibility of it slipping away from him, Satan tempted him to usurp the right by murdering the more worthy heir...

[Denver quotes Genesis 3:9, RE, and then offers the following commentary]:

The "flocks of my brother" were not sheep; they were posterity. Abel was to become Adam's successor and stand as the Father of many nations. By displacing Abel, Cain hope to be the next in line of Patriarchal Fathers. (transcript, p. 31) 

Because God gave His word to Adam that the right of dominion had been conferred upon Adam's seed, He would've been bound to honor Cain's lineage and rights to the Holy Order. Denver expounds on this a little further in Eight Essays, He writes:

Desperate ambitions lead to desperate acts, and the solution Satan inspired was for Cain to murder his brother. This was an attempt to get control over the entire creation by overthrowing the government of God and confiscate the birthright and associated Holy Order that accompanied it. The "flocks of my brother" Cain wanted to control as his "gain" was the lineage through whom the Messiah would descend.

This is an important part of the plot of the adversary because if he can control any position under Adam involving the Holy Order, this creation can be compromised. God has a house of order. When the world was created it belonged to God. By His word He gave dominion over His creation to Adam and Eve. It become theirs and Adam holds the right to preside over it, as Joseph Smith explained. That right must be returned to Jesus Christ before His return. If anyone who has held a position in the Holy Order refuses to return dominion back to Christ, it can create a conflict that continues the same war that began in heaven. If Cain were to hold dominion over this creation, he could impose conditions Satan put into his heart before returning the right of dominion back to the Savior. By extension, if any disciple of Satan were ever to obtain the Holy Order with the right of dominion the conditions Satan demanded in the preexistence, which were designed to destroy the agency of man, could become the condition for redeeming this creation. Cain's apostasy was a continuation of the war in heaven and a threat to the salvation of everyone who would live thereafter. Threatening salvation of mankind has been the aim of our adversary since the beginning. There is still a great conspiracy to destroy the souls of men and to capture this creation. The Holy Order is guarded by carefully qualifying those who receive it. It is under God's control and supervised by Adam and Eve. (Eight Essays, pp. 209-

Denver's insights here are quite illuminating, however, this still brings up the question as to what is meant in Genesis by the seed of the serpent. It seems to me that the seed lines are adoptive and not literal (we all are, after all, the physical progeny of Adam and Eve). It makes more sense that one can be adopted into God's Family and become a Son or Daughter of God (i.e., be initiated into the Holy Order), or one could become adopted into Satan's organization (initiation into Mystery Babylon). Perhaps this is a deeper meaning of the church of the Lamb of God and the church of the Devil. At any rate, here is the verse:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you head, and you shall bruise his heel... (Genesis 2:18, RE, emphasis added)

The Book of Mormon seems to concur that it is possible for the wicked to become the sons of Satan. Again, it makes more sense that this process is adoptive, and not literal. Alma writes: 

And thus we see that the Devil will not support his children at the last day... (Alma 16:15, RE, emphasis added)

This begs the question: how does one become a child of the Devil? There seems to be a clue in Genesis 3:9 of the RE that Denver quoted in the talk referenced above. This involves the phrase Master Mahon. This phrase appears twice in the Restoration Edition of the scriptures in Genesis 3: once in reference to Cain, and once in reference to Lamech, and appears to be some sort of title. The etymology of the word master goes back to the Latin word magister, which means "chief, head, director, teacher." It also means, a "man eminently or perfectly skilled in something," or one who is "chief teacher of another (in philosophy or religion etc.), religious instructor, spiritual guide." It is also associated with one who is a "master craftsman," or "workman who is qualified to teach apprentices and carry on a trade on his own account." Also, it includes "one who has power to control, use, or dispose at will," and the "owner of a living creature," whether animal or human, as in slavery. 

In an academic sense, it is associated with a Master's Degree, an authoritative position to teach in a university, as "one who has received a specific degree." But also has reference to one who has been initiated into a specific degree of the mysteries, where a "master-key" could be given to unlock a number of doors that were previously unavailable to the aspiring adept. Do you see where this is going? When Cain lost his chance to seize the rights to the Holy Order it seems as though Satan granted him a new opportunity to begin another order, one that mimicked the true Order, replete with degrees of initiation that allowed one access to "hidden" or occult knowledge. These "secret plans" were passed down in ancient cultures from that time forward, and Mormon tells us that they are "had among all people." This is the great Satanic substitute for God's Order and His mysteries, as well as the substitute for God's government, as these societies desire to "reign with blood and horror" on this earth. 

But what of the word Mahon? What does it really mean? Curiously, if you change the to an than you get the word Mason. This is pure conjecture on my part, but is nevertheless intriguing. If you look up the word on a google search, you don't really get a definition, but rather the meaning of a name. The name Mahon means "bear," or one who has "the strength of a bear." Its numerological number is 6, signifying the male upward triangle and female downward triangle, which is occultic symbol for the "as above, so below" philosophy. I wrote about that here. Remember, St. John tells us that six is the number of a man (God created man on the sixth day), and the two triangles pointed up and down and merged into a six-pointed star is also the numerological symbol for 666. Interestingly, Mahon is spelled differently in the standard LDS Edition of the Book of Moses, with an a, not an o. I'm not sure why the group who put the Restoration Edition of the scriptures together chose to make this change, but I find it curious that their spelling renders it closer to the word Mason. Furthermore, the word "bear" is associated with an animal, or beast, and also means "to carry something," as in a burden, or a secret. When Lamech became the new Master Mahon, the text describes him as "master of that great secret." Hugh Nibley, in his book Approaching Zion, explains that the title of Master Mahan (LDS Edition spelling) is a kind of Satanic degree that teaches one how to convert life into property:

He [Satan] boasts just how he plans to put the world under his bloody and horrible misrule: He will control the world economy by claiming possession of the earth's resources; and by manipulation of its currency--gold and silver--he will buy up the political, military, and ecclesiastical complex and run everything his way. We see him putting his plan into operation when he lays legal claim to the whole earth as his estate, accusing others of trespass, but putting everything up for sale for anyone who has the money.

And how will they get the money? By going to work for him. He not only offers employment but a course of instruction in how the whole thing works, teaching the ultimate secret: "That great secret" (Moses 5:49-50) of converting life into property. Cain got the degree of Master Mahan, tried the system out on his brother, and gloried in its brilliant success, declaring that at last he could be free, as only property makes free, and that Abel had been a loser in a free competition. 

The discipline was handed down through Lamech and finally became the pattern of the world's economy (Moses 5:55-56)... Cain slew "his brother Abel for the sake of getting gain" (Moses 5:50)--not in a fit of pique but by careful business planning, "by the conspiracy (D&C 84:16). The great secret he learned from Satan was the art of converting life into property--all life, even eternal life! The exchange of eternal life for worldly success is in fact the essence of the classic Pact with the Devil... (Approaching Zion, Excerpted from There are Save Two Churches Only, Volume I, p. 34, emphasis added) 

Did you catch that last part? Satan desires to convert all life into property, even eternal life. According to Denver, the "flocks" of Cain's brother were his posterity. The exoteric meaning is that Cain wanted Abel's sheep, the esoteric meaning is that he wanted to control the seed line through which the Messiah would come, hence the meaning of converting "eternal life" into property. Secret societies today still employ this two-tiered system (as above, so below). You can see by their works that they steal and kill to get worldly gain, but they also want your soul. They want your adoration and emulation, they want your worship, just like their master Satan. They want you to believe that Lucifer is the good guy and Jesus is the bad guy. In fact, when they finally achieve their New World Order, they will force you to worship Lucifer or kill you, as John's sobering prophecies reveal. 

In the book I introduced in my last few posts, The Writings of Abraham, it is revealed that Nimrod himself held the title of Master Mahan, which begs the question: did this title get passed down to the present day? After explaining that his father Terah was the "Prime Minister" to Nimrod, Abraham reveals that Nimrod "reigned in Ur of the Chaldeans," and added the following:

Moreover, Nimrod, was a man of mighty power for he was Master Mahan and had in his hands the secrets of the ancients as they had come down from Cain wherein he knew the words of power and the signs for using them and he had the holy garments which had been given unto Adam in the garden in which was great power. 

All of this power did Nimrod use to get gain after the manner of the secret combination.  

With this power he had set out to build a tower which would reach to heaven, even the city of my father Enoch which had been taken up, that he, Nimrod, might depose God from his throne for God had taken up his abode among the people of Enoch.  

But God frustrated the plans of Nimrod by confounding the language of him and his people that they could no longer remember the sacred words and they scattered forth over the face of the earth. 

At that time Nimrod came and established the city of Ur which is the City of Light, for he yet retained his determination to build a city to rival the city of God that the light and power might center in him. 

And through the ministration of Satan he did receive again some of the words of power and did reorganize the secret combination among his people; but he had not power as at the first for the fullness of the pure language was not restored to him according to the decree of the Most High God. (Chapter 2:3-8, emphases added) 

There is power in language. The language of Adam was pure and undefiled, and apparently was used for both good and evil. Remember that Enoch's words were so powerful that mountains fled at his utterance:

And all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him. (Genesis 4:13, RE, emphasis added)

Cain also used this pure language for evil. He knew "words of power and the signs for using them,” which he could’ve learned during his candidacy for the Holy Order. When God confounded the languages at the tower of Babel, perhaps He did so to protect these sacred words from being used for evil. As the record of Abraham reveals, Nimrod received some of the sacred words back from Satan, but not all. Also recall that the Brother of Jared cried unto the Lord to not confound his people's language. What were they trying to preserve? When we think of the story of the tower of Babel we assume that God created all these different languages and made people forget the original one, but that was not the case. The word confound does not mean to change a language, it means to lose the original meanings of words, or to become "confused, perplexed," or to "mix up." We have confounded our own English language, to see that all you have to do is look at Webster's 1828 Dictionary. Languages change over time, and meanings of words are lost. This is also how we lose truth and light. Was the confounding of language at the tower of Babel an act of mercy on the Lord's part, to protect us from people like Nimrod and his secret combinations who would use that language for evil? I think this is definitely a possibility. I also believe that the restoration of all things to come in the future will include the return of the pure language of Adam. There was a talk given on the subject of language confounding that blew my mind when I listened to it last year. It was given by McKay Platt at a Restoration Conference. Click here to listen to the talk, or here to read it. 

Here is another question to ponder: did Satan attempt to copy God's power by using language and signs? Is this where the secret combinations got their rituals from, and is that why they seem very similar to God's rituals revealed in temples? Remember the Book of Mormon tells us that the secret plans of the Gadiatons are of ancient date, and those who adhere to them believe they are "good." Abraham tells us that Nimrod was jealous of Enoch's powers, and built ancient Babylon and the tower of Babel to rival Zion. We know that Satan is jealous of God's powers, and I believe he is trying to create an imitation of the Holy Order through the title of Master Mahon and the secret combinations formed under that leadership. Nimrod was also attempting to dethrone God, just as Satan attempted to do in the Council in Heaven. Satan wants to be God. God who also creates "order out of chaos," but does so for the salvation and immortality of His children. 

God takes unorganized matter and transforms it into creations that consist of order and harmony. The Book of Abraham tells us that the Gods ordered matter to organize, and they waited and watched until it obeyed Them. They began the creative process that inaugurated the natural events and cycles that were conducive to life on earth. Satan seeks to imitate this process, but he can't create anything. So he deliberately incites chaos into society through hatred and fear, and then offers the "solution" to the chaos by dressing up his post-mortal plan to destroy free agency in fancy words like communism, socialism, collectivism, social justice (now wokism), and the concept of the greater social good. These humanistic philosophies are taught to society by the highest initiates of the Satanic mysteries and degrees, i.e., the secret combinations and societies. One that has received considerable attention lately in conspiracy circles and independent news outlets (in Utah) is the Order of the Skull and Bones. This group uses language and ritual that is based on Egyptian ceremony, and is in my view a corrupted imitation of God's Holy Order, a perversion of Priesthood, government, and the true religion of the Fathers. 

America's Secret Establishment

Antony C. Sutton, former economics professor at California State University, and research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institute, was the author of twenty books. He was born in London in 1925 and emigrated to the United States in 1957, where he became a citizen in 1962. He died mysteriously in 2002, after the latest reprinting of the book that blew the lid off the Skull and Bones. Sutton laid the groundwork for the conspiratorial view that Wall Street and corporations operating within the United States were the financiers behind Communism in Russia and Nazism in Germany. He carefully catalogued how Lenin and Trotsky had received U.S. money to bolster the Bolshevik Revolution in 1919, and how Hitler's rise to power was bankrolled by American financial institutions and corporations like IBM, with its German subsidiary I.G. Farben. He wrote about the Federal Reserve, FDR's connection to Wall Street, and how the Cold War was manufactured by the U.S. government. In the three-volume treatise he wrote while at the Hoover Institute, Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, he details how the West not only aided the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease, built actually built it. 

By the early 1980s, Sutton thought he had "heard it all," but he never understood why the West engaged in what seem like counterintuitive economic behavior, i.e., building up of its enemies. It wasn't until he "received an eight-inch batch of documents--nothing less than the membership lists of an American secret society," that Sutton finally knew why the West did what it did. He discovered the Order of the Skull and Bones, the pejorative name given to the Brotherhood of Death, a secret cult with ancient roots, and many chapters, operating in different parts of the world. The English chapter of the cult was called the Group, and along with the American branch made up the Anglo-American Establishment that Carroll Quigley so proudly venerated in his book Tragedy and HopeSutton soon discovered what the Order wanted, a one-world government they called the New World Order, and the methodology they were using to eventually obtain it: managed conflict. This conflict is introduced into society through seemingly contradictory political philosophies emanating from members of the Order, who are buddies behind the scenes. Two examples are George W. Bush and John Kerry, who are cousins and both members of the Skull and Bones, who pretended to have divergent political views in the 2004 election campaign. 

Sutton discovered that the real goal of this political divisiveness is to bring about absolute Statism, i.e., the goals of the self-appointed elite who run the State. He explains it succinctly in his own words:
In the dialectical process a clash of opposites brings about a synthesis. For example, a clash of political left and political right brings about another political system, a synthesis of the two, neither left nor right. This conflict of opposites is essential to bring about change...

In the Hegelian system conflict is essential. Furthermore, for Hegel and systems based on Hegel, the State is absolute. The State requires complete obedience from the individual citizen. An individual does not exist for himself in these so-called organic systems but only to perform a role in the operation of the State...

Many of you will know by now what book I'm about to introduce, it's called, America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones, published for the first time in 1983.

Sutton declared in his Author's Preface that, "if I have a magnum opus, this is it." I totally agree, it is his best work, and probably what ultimately got him killed. Sutton, along with Murray Rothbard, is another one of my academic heroes, and has given us volumes of documented evidence that a massive conspiracy exists that "seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries." Like Sutton, Rothbard was also a professor of economics, and I'm not talking about Keynesian economics, I'm talking about free market (Laissez-Faire) economics as espoused by the Austrian School. It seems that those who understand real economics have a more fundamental grasp of human liberty and freedom... and history. Both Sutton and Rothbard were economists, and historians, and one could spend years just reading their works. Although Rothbard didn't venture as far as Sutton did into conspiracy, his writings inexorably lead the reader in the same direction--this piece especially. I recommend both scholars to get a firm grasp on conspiracy and the social conditions that have been created in this country as a result of these secret societies. 

The Skull and Bones is the American "chapter" of the world-wide conspiracy that Moroni relates in the Book of Ether--to Bonesmen it is known as chapter 322. Some believe the number has to do with the year of the Order's founding in 1832 by William H. Russel. Russel had spent some time at a university in Germany where he was in contact with the leading member of another chapter of the Order known as "Bones." Unsatisfied with the more benign fraternity called Phi Beta Kappa (founded in 1776), he thereafter founded the Brotherhood of Death at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, as the second chapter of the German Bones Order, in 32', with the other 2 signifying chapter two. Others opine that 322 has more do with an ancient order (an old Greek patriot society) founded by Demosthenes, in 322 BC. In all reality, the number was probably a combination of both. Each year 15 seniors are "tapped" or invited into the Order, where, if they accept, are initiated and become "Knights." They take blood oaths and swear solemnly to never divulge the secrets of the Order, upon pains of death. After they are "re-born" through the initiatory process, they face the prospect of eventually becoming "Patriarchs" in the Order, enjoying wealth, power, prestige, and careful insertion into political, corporate, and religious hierarchies. With their yes men strategically placed in these leadership positions, they can be sure that the interests of the Order are subtly foisted on society, with the long awaited goal of one-world government as a distant but attainable prospect. 

Sutton includes a copy of their yearly rosters in his book, from 1832-1985; many of the names are familiar: Robert A. Taft (Mr. Republican), W. Averell Harriman (secretary of commerce in the Truman Administration), Henry L. Stimson (secretory of war under FDR), Prescott Sheldon Bush, George H. W. Bush, G. W. Bush, and John Kerry. However, most of the names are relatively unknown men; a silent cadre of Luciferians clandestinely inserting their influence on all aspects of society. Sutton shows how the Order subtly influences its front groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, groups that he points out are NOT secret societies, simply because they have a public roster. He writes:

The order is represented in these organizations but does not always dominate... We can represent the relationship between the Order and the larger groups as a series of concentric circles. The CFR, etc. form an outer circle, i.e., a penumbra. They exist in a shadow cast by an inner organization... The Order is the inner circle and Chapter 322 is a part of this inner circle... (Sutton, America's Secret Establishment, p. 36)

Skull and Bones meets in secluded areas of the Yale campus. Many students and late-night passersby have reported strange sounds and eerie shrieks coming from within the hidden tombs where initiation takes place. The main Bones tomb door, made of iron and triple-padlocked, is never opened for outsiders. Author Ron Rosenbaum, a former student of Yale during the late sixties, published an article in the magazine Esquire in September of 1977, detailing his sleuthing escapades in investigating the Order. He claimed to have had in his "possession a set of annotated floor plans of the interior of the tomb, giving the exact location of the sanctum sanctorum, the room called 322." Sanctum sanctorum means "holy of holies," and signifies a temple. Yes, Skull and Bones has a sacred temple on the Yale campus where rituals are performed. Rosembaum, Sutton, and others have exposed some of the details of these rituals and they are imitative of rituals performed in the ancient Mystery Schools of Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome; in other words, they are nothing new. Remember the words of the late D. Christian MarkhamGod Creates, Satan Imitates.

Intertwined Initiation

The ceremonies that fledgling Bonesmen are made to endure are reminiscent of some ancient Egyptian ceremonies that we have records of. Although they are much easier and take less time, the esoteric concepts seemed to have survived over the centuries. In what follows I'll lay out the details of the Skull and Bones initiation, at least what has been leaked, and then compare them to the fuller account of the Egyptian rites. You'll find the similarities striking. 

The aspiring Bonesman must be "reborn," they must also become a "new man," a yes man if you will, one who can keep a secret. In the tombs that underlie the Yale campus, the neophyte is made to lye naked in a sarcophagus, or coffin. There he is made to confess his sexual encounters and darkest secrets to the "Patriarchs" and other aspiring "Knights." This is not an act of contrition as in the Christian concept of confession (confessing to God and those who you have wronged), but is meant to deliberately humiliate the aspirant, with the juicy details being used in the future for blackmail insurance to keep the new adept loyal to the Order. During "confession" the Patriarchs are dressed as skeletons, and prance around howling and making blood-curdling shrieking sounds at the new initiate. One of them is dressed like the devil, and others in robes. The aspirant hears the following chant: "the hangman equals death, the devil equals death, death equals death," as he dies symbolically.  

With the young man still inside the coffin, it is carried into a deeper area of the tomb where he will "rise again." Here he is "reborn" into society a new man (or woman; women are now permitted into the Order), as a member of the "elect." The aspirant is given a robe with symbols one it, and a bone with his name on it that is tossed into a bone heap. He is then made to plunge naked into a mud pile with other initiates. These rituals usually go on for hours, late into the night, and last for multiple sessions occurring on different days. Senior Bonesmen meet twice a week throughout the duration of the their senior year, and probably experience many other rituals as they progress further into the Order. One of these rituals is described as follows by an anonymous blogger (most likely Ron Rosenbaum) who attempted to catch parts of it on camera:
Two hours later, after all 15 initiates had burst out to be harangued and scared, I approached the rendezvous point with the night-vision camera team... The footage was ghostly--it was grainy--but from the angles of the night-vision cams, we were able to piece together a narrative of what happened when the initiates emerged one at a time from the preliminaries inside the Tomb.

First they were led forward by a figure in a devil costume. Not really a sinister, Satanic-looking figure but, as one of the team put it, "More like Satan's Little Helper." A shrill, menacing and sometimes blood-curdling chorus of cries and screams and imprecations accompanied the emergence:

"Hurry neophyte! Run neophyte!"

"Find the femur, neophyte!"...

The devil figure pulled them into a white tent in the courtyard where, we think, they found their femurs and emerged with that looked like a thigh bone, although it was impossible to tell whether it once belonged to a human or not. 

When they reemerged from the tent, they were led to the centerpiece of this part of the ritual. 

They were forced face-to-face with a shocking tableau: a guy holding what seemed like a butcher knife, wearing a kind of animal-skin "barbarian" look, stood over what seemed to be a woman covered in fake blood and not much else. The neophyte then approached a skull a few feet away from the knife-wielder-and-victim tableau. The neophyte knelt and kissed the skull, at which point the guy with the knife knelt and cut the throat of the prone figure. (Well, pretended to cut the throat). (Source

The skull used in this ritual is real. It is rumored to have been the skull of the famous Apache Indian Geronimo. In fact, his descendant's attempts to recover the remains, specifically his grandson, Harlyn Geronimo, have been in vain, even after requesting help from the White House. As far as we know, Bones still have this skull in their possession today. 

D. Christian Markham, in volume one of Two Churches Only, includes the initiation ceremonies of the Egyptian Mystery Schools from a book called A History of Secret Societies, published in 1961 by the pseudonym Arkon Daraul. There were seven grueling degrees. The neophyte was made to undergo a harrowing and arduous ordeal, often lasting months or years. The Skull and Bones initiation is much easier than what the ancients experienced, but we can see remnants of those ceremonies reenacted in the tombs at Yale. Space won't permit me to quote the entire initiation ritual, so I will summarize.

The source for this Egyptian initiation came from a German document published in 1785, called the Crata Repoa. Arkon Darual, who Markham suspects is really Idries Shah, summarizes the ritual in the book Markham is quoting from. Shah clarifies that the German document "was republished in a French translation thirty years later, purporting to be the ritual of the Master degree in Freemasonry. The French editor claims that it is a composite ritual, derived from the works of some fifteen Greek and Roman writers." The neophytes were sought out by the Pharaoh, and only the priestly class was offered the initiation. He was made to sit in a cave for several months in reflection and introspection, and at length would then pass through the "pillars of Hermes," where he would meet his handler/introducer, who blindfolded him and bound him with cords. He was led to the "Gate of Men," where he was touched on the shoulder, a signal for him to knock on the gate, which opened for him.

Similarly, Seniors at Yale are "tapped" on the shoulder as an invitation to be initiated, they are blindfolded and led to the iron door that leads to the tomb, where they knock and are let in. The Egyptian hierophant, once inside the Gate of Men, is made to pass through an artificial but torrential storm of wind and rain, thunder and lightening. If he shows no fear, he is taught the laws of the Crata Repoa, and is made to kneel and vow his allegiance as a sword is pressing against his throat. His oath is witnessed by the "sun, moon, and stars." The blindfolds are taken off his eyes, and he his shown a ladder with seven steps, signifying the seven degrees, "the work of Celestial investigation," and the "wanderings of the soul." He was given a password for this degree, which is the First Degree, "taught a grip," and "given a pyramidal cap and an apron called a Xylon." He was now ready to assume his duty of guarding the "Gate of Men." 

The neophyte prepares for the Second Degree with a prolonged fast, and when he begins, is fed "dainty food" from the wives of the Egyptian priests, who also try to seduce him. If he resists their advances, he is lectured to by the "Master of Ceremonies" and led to an assembly room, where water is poured over him and snakes are thrown at him. After this test of courage, he is "instructed in geometry and architecture... told the story of the fall of man," and given a rod entwined by two serpents (this is the caduceus, the staff of Hermes, used as a symbol in the Medical Industry today). He is now ready for the Third Degree. 

He is led to the "Gate of Death," a room full of "embalmed bodies and coffins," in the center of which was the coffin of Osiris. The aspirant is asked if he "had a hand in the assassination of his master," which he denies in the presence of the king/Pharaoh. The king pleads with him to accept a golden crown and cease the initiation ceremony, appealing to his lack of courage. To this the neophyte had been previously instructed to deny, and to "refuse the crown and tread it underfoot." The king, becoming angry and enacting his revenge on the neophyte, touches his head with a sword, symbolically killing him. He is thrown to the ground, wrapped in mummy bandages, and led to the gate of the "Sanctuary of Spirits." Once inside a boat takes him to the "judges of Hades," where he is questioned as to his former life and thrown into a prison deep within "subterranean vaults." Here he remained for months or even years as part of his initiation. These were called the "Days of Wrath," and "he was kept in these underground chambers until thought fit to proceed to a higher degree." 

We can see similarities in the Bonesmen being placed naked in coffins and confessing their sexual history. This is their symbolic death of the old "profane" man, and subsequent rebirth into the Order of the elite. Once the Bonesman is symbolically raised back to life and emerges out of the coffin, what follows next is akin to the Fourth Degree of the ancient Egyptians. The Bonesman is chased through the tombs by Patriarchs dressed up as ghostly and devilish figures, shrieking and howling at him as he rushes towards the iron door that opens to the outside. The Egyptian neophyte, symbolically resurrected as he begins the Fourth Degree, is handed a sword and a shield and "taking through dark passages." He is met by "persons... presenting frightful appearances, carrying torches and serpents." He is attacked and made to defend himself, but seized upon by his aggressors, with blindfolds being reapplied and a cord being placed around his neck (Nephi talked about how the Devil leads his victims by the neck with a flaxen cord, I wrote about that here, this is also part of the ceremony of the Masonic Blue Lodge). 

He is led to another room, where bandages are taken off, and the king was present again. He hears a speech, is given something to drink called "Cyce" (probably a hypnotic drug), puts on the "boots of Anubis," takes up "the shield of Isis," and "put on the cloak and cap of Orcus" (not unlike temple clothing). With sword in hand he is told to enter the next portion of the cave and cut off the head of the first person he meets. To his surprise he encounters a model of a beautiful woman, who he immediately seize by the hair and severs the head. After passing this test, he is brought back to the king, who, after congratulating him, reveals to him that he has just "won the head of the Gorgon, wife of Typhon, who had caused the death of Osiris." Similarly, and according to what Rosenbaum witnessed, the Bonesmens, after being chased through the tombs and emerging into the outside world, are led to a tent where they witness a woman (another model I assume) having her throat slit as they kiss Geronimo's skull. 

The "woman" is symbolic of something very significant to Christians. The "wife of Typhon" is none other than Nephthys, an Egyptian goddess associated with evil. Typhon is another name for Set, who is said to have killed Osiris, cut his body up into 14 pieces, and spread it out over the four corners of Egypt, i.e., the world. If you want the full details read this piece I wrote in 2021, but for now you should know that Nephthys represents the Lord's church. Recall that John saw two women in his vision, one travailing in the wilderness and the other dressed in scarlet and riding on the Beast. The woman in the wilderness is the bride of Christ, the church of His humble saints spread out all over the earth (not a corporation or earthly institution). The woman in scarlet represents the Mystery Schools. Remember they believe Jesus is the bad guy, and associate Him with Typhon or Set. In Greek mythology, Nephthys is the Gorgon (monster) Medusa, whose head was severed by Perseus, the demigod son of Poseidon. Through her powers, i.e., the Priesthood/Holy Order, the destruction of many wicked civilizations has been facilitated. Remember that in Sodom and Gomorrah it rained down fire and brimstone from heaven, and when Lot's wife turned back she "became a pillar of salt"? Likewise Medusa's victims turn into stone when they "turn back" to look at her, and salt and stone are essentially the same elements but in different forms. The Mystery Schools are terrified of this power, they fear the Holy Order and its Priesthood, insomuch that they have created myths to tell the stories of their battles with the Sons of God. 

As an interesting side note, there is a lecture from Hugh Nibley called "The Heavenly Prologue," uploaded by the Maxwell Institute on YouTube, that sheds some light on the meanings of the name Satan. 


Starting at the 18 minute-mark, Nibley explains that the name Satan means accuser. He is the accuser of his brethren, which is how the war in heaven began. One of the definitions of prologue is "a poem recited to introduce a play," and Nibley shows how multiple scriptural accounts of heavenly visitations and theophanies are introducing a play portraying the history of the war in heaven. God is telling us a story through ascension visitations and visions to prophets like Adam, Enoch, Moses, Job, Lehi, and others. Then Nibley really blows your mind, by showing this prologue in "pagan" poetry like Homer's Iliad and other works; it is the same story, told over and over again in slightly different versions. In addition to being the accuser, Nibley explains that Satan is also the destroyer, which in Greek is the name Apollyon. He is not an actor, but a reactor, and is "always against something." Beginning at the 30 minute-mark, Nibley talks about how the Greek Odyssey is also an account of the grand council in heaven. Homer begins by describing a meeting of the gods on Mount Olympus. All were in attendance except Poseidon, who "holds back." Nibley reveals that another meaning of the name Satan is "one who holds back," or "one who lies in ambush." At the 35 minute-mark, Nibley gives multiple meanings of the name Poseidon, they include: "the possessor of the underworld, ruler of the earth, and earth-shaker" (he is both the earth-shaker and the earth-holder). Remember that when Moses refused to worship Satan he ranted and made the earth shake? (see Genesis 1:4, RE)

Now let's make a few more connections. Poseidon, according to Plato, is also the god of the ancient Atlanteans. It was him and his demigod children who set up the government in Atlantis, a one-world socialistic totalitarian State. Of course, according to high-ranking Masons like Manly P. Hall and Francis Bacon, Atlantis was the ideal "democracy," ruled by ten kings. But trust me, it was no democracy, it was an oligarchy, and those kings had power over their subjects in all matters, including life and death. Earlier in this series I wrote about how John's Beast of Revelation is a description of ancient Atlantis, figuratively "rising out of the sea" (See The Atlantean Leviathan). In Greek mythology the demigod son of Poseidon who kills Medusa is Perseus, as I pointed out above. Consider this: a demigod is a half-human offspring of a god, or one who is conceived miraculously. Could Perseus be the mythological embodiment of the Anti-Christ/false prophet, who kills Medusa (the Lord's church, the humble followers of Christ), and becomes the last-days dictator of the New World Order? Could the story of the future, as well as the past, be told in ancient mythological lore? Ironically, the storytellers get it wrong, because as Nephi foretold, they will be unable to kill all the Saints, Zion will be protected from them, and their New World Order will collapse into an oblivion as the earth is cleansed and prepared for its True King. 

Returning back to the Egyptian initiations, the last three degrees are as follows: In the Fifth, the aspirant witnesses the death of Typhon (Christ Himself, probably in reference to the Crucifixion). In the Sixth, he becomes an "Astronomer at the Gate of the God" (the "gate of the gods" is the actual meaning of the word Babel, as in the tower of Babel). He is taught about "heavenly bodies" and shown a list of the members of the Order. In the Seventh Degree, he becomes a prophet, and learns all the secrets of the Order, is allowed to peruse all the books containing sacred knowledge and can cast his vote in the election of the king. 

Abraham in Egypt

As you can see, the Skull and Bones initiation ceremony is based upon something ancient--but where did the Egyptians get it? In all likelihood they got it from Abraham, that is the true temple ceremony, subsequently corrupted and morphed into something used by Satan and his Mystery Schools. This is what I believe anyway, and there are small traces of evidence in the Book of Abraham and some apocryphal writings ascribed to him that point to my hypothesis. According to High Nibley, the Egyptians had their own temple ordinances and endowment ceremony (he even wrote a whole other book about that), which at first were much like the original revealed to Adam (or Atum to the Egyptians). Nibley writes:

The Egyptian ordinances also always had one purpose--to go back to the sp tpy--the First time, the time of the first man, who was Adam. The Egyptians didn't have it, and they knew it. So they sought to imitate it. Interestingly, Pharaoh was worried sick about this problem. Pharaoh spent his days in the archives in the House of Life, searching through the genealogical records with the nobles of the court turning over the records, looking for some genealogical proof that he really had authority. He never found it, and it broke his heart... [Pharaoh] made a very good imitation, seeking very earnestly to imitate that order which went back to the beginning. (Temple and Cosmos, pp. 26-27) 

Pharaoh did not have the right to the Priesthood and the Holy Order, but made a claim to it anyway. The Book of Abraham tells us that Pharaoh was a "righteous" man, who sought "earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations." It is my opinion that the Egyptians were in possession of a form of the true Gospel, replete with temple rites and rituals. But through the centuries, as the dynastic Pharaohs dwindled in unbelief and began to revel in witchcraft, sorcery, mesmerism, etc., those ceremonies morphed into what became the initiation rites of the Egyptian Mystery Schools, reserved only for Pharaoh and his priestly class. The elites became the incarnations of the "gods" of antiquity: Thoth, Ra, Osiris, Isis, and Horus. They ruled Egypt with an iron first, cloaked in the pretentious garb of false divinity. Class distinctions arose, separating the initiated from the "profane," the ordinary peasants subject to their rulers. At times God sent messengers to reclaim the Egyptians (Joseph being enslaved by them and used for interpreting Pharaoh's dreams). But ultimately, God would overthrow their gods by using Moses and the Priesthood of the Holy Order to bring plagues upon Egypt. In addition to freeing the Israelites, perhaps this was to also show the Pharaonic dynasties that their pretended authority could not stand up to the true initiates of the Holy Order (Denver spoke about this overthrowing of Egyptian deities on page 59 of this talk). 

There is an entire story told about Abraham's time in Egypt that was left out of the Old Testament and the Book of Abraham. Both accounts of Abraham end just as he was entering Egypt, but some apocryphal writings pick up the story where these leave off. It is a fascinating tale to say the least, and it makes much more sense when read in conjunction with the Facsimiles taken from the Joseph Smith Papyri. Ancient Egypt is not just fascinating, it is a typology of the modern-day United States. This is an important key in helping us to understand the prophecies of Isaiah, which we have been commanded to "search" by the Savior. I believe the following prophecy was meant for us, not for the ancient Egyptians:

And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and they shall fight, every one against his brother and every one against his neighbor, city against city and kingdom against kingdom. And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the council thereof; and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hands of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts. (Isaiah 6:15, RE)

A coming civil war, the end of American Exceptionalism (the spirit of Egypt), the breaking down of civil society and government (destroy the council thereof), and invasion and subjugation from a foreign power (fierce king, or as Isaiah has also called him the "king of Assyria"). I believe all these things are coming to this land, as a consequence of us Gentiles rejecting Christ and serving other gods.

Getting back to Pharaoh, the order he was attempting to imitate was the Holy Order. But the problem for Pharaoh was that he was of the wrong lineage, therefore he did not have a right to it:

Now Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah through Ham... (Abraham 2:3, RE)

Ham was not the righteous heir, according to the Book of Jasher, he stole the sacred garments of Adam and Eve before he left Noah after the ark had landed and passed them down to Cush, who passed them to Nimrod. According to the Writings of Abraham, Ham had a different mother than Shem and Japeth. Her name was Naamah, and she was of the seed of Cain. Abraham tells us that although she was righteous, it was through her that God would preserve the seed of Cain through the flood. Naamah has an interesting story. She was the daughter of Zillah, one of the two wives of Lamech, who was a descendent of Cain and also held the title of Master Mahan. Zillah was barren into her old age but ended up having two children before she died: Tubal Cain and Naamah. When Lamech murdered Irad, the son of Enoch (not the righteous Enoch), for the oath's sake, Abraham tells us that Tubal Cain was an eye-witness to the crime. He immediately told his mother Zillah, and both Lamech's wives rebelled against him. Tubal Cain was the first whistleblower, and this is how the sons of Adam (the Patriarchs) learned of this murder and probably why it is in the scriptural record (both the Pearl of Great Price and the Writings of Abraham tell this story but the latter includes more details). Namaah and her mother fled the house of Lamech and came and lived with the righteous sons of Adam, but no one would have her because she was of the "forbidden race." No one until Noah that is (maybe this was one of those rare instances when God commanded polygamy to raise up seed, or perhaps Noah's first wife died and he married Namaah later, in the JST translation of Genesis we are told Noah only had one wife on the ark).

Even though Shem and Japeth had the same mother, only Shem received the birthright to the Holy Order. He became Melchizedek, the high priest to whom Abraham paid tithes. It was Shem who conferred the "blessings of the fathers" upon Abraham. In the Book of Jasher, the story of Abraham's youth is told.  Nimrod tried to kill him as a baby, but his father Terah switched children at the last minute and sent Abraham to live in a cave with his mother. After a decade or so, the Spirit led him to find Noah and Shem and he spent the next 39 years with them. When he returned to Ur, which I believe was Shinar, he was reunited with his parents and tried to convince them to give up their idolatry. His mother repented, but not his father Terah. He was so angry with Abraham (still known as Abram then) for destroying his gods made of wood and stone, that he turned him over to king Nimrod, who threw him into a fiery furnace. Abram was miraculously preserved and managed to escape Ur, but not until he had converted many of Nimrod's subjects to the Gospel, his wife Sarai was one of them. Terah softened his heart and went with Abram, along with his Abram's brother Haran, who died in the famine that followed (in the Book of Jasher Haran is burned to death in the furnace with Abraham, in the Book of Abraham he died in the famine). After he died they named the place in the desert after him, and it was there that Terah remained and returned to his idolatry. 

Another interesting sidenote is that both the Book of Abraham and the Writings of Abraham relate the account of the Egyptian priests attempting to sacrifice Abraham (in the Book of Jasher the account differs; instead of an altar Abram is thrown into a fiery furnace). Nimrod, (or Pharaoh depending on which account you read) turned Abraham over to the Egyptian priests in Ur of Chaldea, who attempted to sacrifice him on Potipher's Hill. This begs the question: did Nimrod and the Pharoah have some kind of alliance? Why were there Egyptian priests operating in Ur of Chaldea, which the Writings of Abraham tell us is the same place Nimrod ruled (Shinar)? Or were Nimrod and Pharaoh the same person? Hugh Nibley makes an interesting connection between the two kings:

Even in the Jewish accounts, Pharaoh and Nimrod are like identical twins: both call themselves a Great Magician, try to pass themselves off as God, order all the male children put to death, study the heavens, and pit the knowledge and skill of their wise men against the powers of the prophet. The palace in which Nimrod shuts up the expectant mothers has conspicuous parallels in Egyptian literature... When the young Moses refuses to worship Pharaoh as the young Abraham refuses Nimrod, the idolatrous priests accuse both heroes of magic and trickery, the converts of both are put to death by the king, the subjects of both rulers offer up their children to idols, and Pharaoh, like Nimrod, finally declares wars on God and builds a great tower, which falls. (Abraham In Egypt, p. 201, Kindle Edition)

It is almost as if Nimrod and Pharaoh are scriptural types representing false priesthood, false authority, and false kingship. Perhaps the deeper meaning of the Book of Abraham (which I believe is more inspired and correct than any other account of Abraham) is to show how God distributed divine authority and how others, through Satan, tried to emulate it. Coming under the disdain of whoever this king was, Abraham found himself on a sacrificial alter with three virgins. After witnessing their murders and praying for deliverance, an earthquake killed the priest and saved Abraham's life. Both the Book of Abraham and the Writings of Abraham are witnesses of this. The later includes a few more interesting details:

When the king [Nimrod] awoke from his sleep, he was angry and he caused that I, with these three virgins, Zeptah, Lilith, and Nefritiri, should be seized and bound and carried to Potipher's hill at the head of the plain of Olishem to be sacrificed unto the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 

And these three virgins did the priest of Pharaoh offer up upon the altar and they died singing praises to the Lord and bearing witness of the truth, wherefore, they shall be blessed forever for they have entered into the rest of the Lord.

And when these virgins were slain, the priests of Pharaoh took me also and laid me upon the altar to slay me. But I cried unto the Lord my God for I knew that my mission was not yet ended.

And the Lord heard my voice and sent His angel to loose the cords wherewith I was bound. And I saw the Lord seated upon His throne and He said to me, Abram, Abram, behold, my name is Jehovah, and I have heard thee and have come down to deliver to thee and to take thee away from thy father's house and from all they kindred into a land which is unknown to thee, a land which I have promised unto Noah should be an eternal inheritance unto the promised seed.

Behold, I will lead thee by mind hand and will put upon thee my name that thou shalt bear the priesthood of the fathers and the power thereof. 

As it was with Noah, so shall it be with thee that through thy ministry and the ministry of thy seed bearing this priesthood, my name shall be known in the earth forever, for I am thy God.

And the Lord broke down the altar of the idol gods by and earthquake and smote their priests that they were all destroyed. (51:3-4, 52:1-6, see also Abraham 1:2-5, RE) 

 After several years of wandering in the desert Abraham would eventually be called to go to Egypt as a missionary. During this time he had received visions and had talked to the Lord face to face. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, he has a theophany similar to what Moses experienced, and he saw the plagues that would come upon us in the last days. You can read that here. He had learned about the cosmos and the order of planets and stars, as well as the ordinances, rites, and rituals of the temple and of the Holy Order. He was prepared in all things to teach the Gospel to the Egyptians. This is where the story ends in the Old Testament and the Book of Abraham. Remember when the Lord told Abraham to lie to the Egyptians about Sarai being his sister? The Book of Abraham stops there (after Abraham determines to go to Egypt for relief from the famine) and the OT says that after Pharaoh found out that Sarai was his wife he sent them away out of Egypt. However, the Writings of Abraham fill in a lot of details here, and when studied in conjunction with the facsimiles in the Book of Abraham, things begin to make a lot more sense. 

The story continues with Pharaoh forcibly taking Sarai and finding out she was Abraham's wife. He took her to his bedchamber and was determined to sire a child with her but was stopped by an angel. He and all the males in Egypt would receive a plague that night rendering them impotent (Nibley points out in Abraham in Egypt that a similar myth about a princess and a king has circulated in many ancient cultures). Sarai told Pharaoh that Abraham could heal him and all his household on the condition that he return her back to her husband. Apparently, this was according to the design of God to open the way to preach the Gospel to the Egyptians. Abraham had a dream about this, the interpretation of which is as follows:

...for through the act of thy wife, thou shall be saved and the way will be opened for thee to preach the mysteries of godliness in the court of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, for these Egyptians are they kindred of the seed of Eber, and it is my will that the truths of the everlasting gospel should be brought to them. (Writings of Abraham 62:6)

Pharaoh was obedient to Sarai, and brought her back to Abraham (who had been locked up), and besought Abraham to heal him, which he immediately did by laying his hands upon him and blessing him. After that Pharaoh was baptized by Abraham, and he repented and praised the Lord. He told all of his people to "worship the Most High God who had healed them." According to Abraham, this is what happened afterward:

And the king clothed me in his own robes and seated me upon his throne, placing his own crown upon my head and his scepter in mine hand. And I did teach him and his people in all the mysteries of godliness from first to last.

For Pharaoh did introduce me into the temple which had been built by the fathers, commenced by Father Seth and completed by Father Shem after the great flood and therein I did officiate in the rites and ordinances of the house of the Lord. 

And Pharaoh made all matters right with Sarai, and blessed her with the outpouring of his spirit and she was blessed in his presence. And he gave unto her Hagar, his own daughter, also, to be her companion and to Hagar he gave many gifts. 

And I was seven years in the land of Egypt teaching the gospel and administering unto Pharaoh and his household and all the Egyptians the blessings, rites, and ordinances of the gospel with the power thereof. 

And I established among them the order of the Fathers and the priesthood thereof until the name of Jehovah was glorified throughout the land of Egypt. And I taught the people the nature of the heavens and of the earth and the plan of salvation and the blessings of the Lord unto those who serve him in purity of heart and to believe on the Son of God who should come to make an atonement for their sins. 

And so great was the power of God among us that in time all of the Egyptians had turned from their idolatry to the worship of the true God and I and my people had cause to rejoice in the fruits of labors. (Ibid, Chapter 76) 

Facsimile three of the Book of Abraham is an Egyptian depiction of Abraham in the Pharaoh's court, "reasoning upon the principles of astronomy." Doesn't this make a whole lot more sense in light of the story told in the Writings of Abraham? Of course he stayed in Egypt for a time, of course he taught them the Gospel. Consider the description of Figure 1:

Abraham sitting upon Pharaoh's throne, by the politeness of the king, with a crown upon his head representing the Priesthood, as emblematical of the grand presidency in Heaven with the scepter of justice and judgment in his hand. (RE Facsimile No. 3)

A Final Word on the Book of Abraham

Hugh Nibley has done some great work defending the Book of Abraham. In my opinion, Nibley is one of the only LDS scholars to continually seek out truth for the sake of truth, not just as an apologist for the corporate Church. His post-mortem reputation has been tainted by one of his daughters, who wrote a book indicting him as a sexually abusive father and a liar who fabricated the information in his books. But the daughter's story doesn't add up. Her "memories" came much later in life and she admitted that she had only heard about her father's conjecture in his writings from another professor, never actually verifying his sources herself (an arduous task that would take years of research). Furthermore, none of her three other sisters have memories of sexual abuse, making it highly suspect that her memories came from another source. There is a phenomenon called "projection," in which false memories of sexual abuse or Satanic Ritual Abuse can enter a persons mind until they actually believe they experienced it. I have witnessed this happening from people I know personally. Just like SRA is real and does happen to people (I wrote about SRA in this post), so is projection and FMS (False Memory Syndrome). 

You have to judge people by their works and not what others say about them (Joseph Smith being the ultimate example). And if you want to know if Nibley was a sincere truth seeker, you have to read his books and articles and compare them to what you have found in your own journey for truth. For me, Nibley's books resonate with truth, he showed how restoration scripture revealed through Joseph Smith actually lines up with apocryphal works coming from the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. Joseph, a young and ignorant farm boy, had no way of knowing about these other records that would emerge a century later, yet his revelations actually verify what these other records say. Hugh Nibley alone is responsible for creating comparative analyses of restoration scripture and other ancient records of antiquity. This was his legacy, and he was both heralded and hated for it. 

The Book of Abraham has been the Achilles heel for so many ex-Mormons who have lost their faith in the Restoration. It is very important, which is the reason it has come under such scrutiny and attack. Nibley took on the arguments coming from the Egyptologists that Joseph's "translation" was incorrect, specifically Samuel A. B. Mercer, who began attacking the Book of Abraham in 1912. The Joseph Smith Papyri was given back to the LDS Church in 1967 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Hugh Nibley was the first to analyze them. He discovered that "Papyri X and XI were not copies of the Book of the Dead but a different document, known as the Book of Breathings." The Book of Breathings is a ritual text detailing a temple endowment that is similar to the one performed in Mormon temples, and the Book of the Dead is a funerary text. But the Book of Abraham is an autobiography, and has nothing to the do with the papyri that came into the Joseph's possession, and this is where people get hung up on it. 

The word "translation" is an interesting one. The labor to take an ancient language and somehow bring it into context with a modern language is extremely difficult. How do you make the translation fit into the culture and semantic milieu of the modern language? How do you even know if the translation is correctly portraying the context of the ancient text? How do you know that you're not looking at a corrupted language that lost the original meaning of its words? Hugh Nibley discovered that when it comes to ancient Egyptian, almost no one knows how to read it. Egyptologists are all over the board on translations; Egyptian is very difficult to decipher. And when you combine that with the claim that Joseph received the Book of Abraham by the "gift and power of God," you get a recipe for skepticism, and understandably so. It sounds like a hoax. But when you study the apocryphal works of Abraham you begin to discover an emerging pattern, and things begin to line up. And just like the Book of Mormon, the only way to discover the truth of the Book of Abraham is by the Spirit of God. There is no other way. If you put your faith in scholars then you will end up believing what scholars believe. If you put your faith in God you can potentially know the truth, but it will not be "proven" to you through worldly evidence. You have to test the fruit of the Book of Abraham for yourself, just as Alma suggested we do with any truth we learn from God. 

For me, the fruit is that the Book of Abraham teaches us how to reach back to the Patriarchal Fathers, and how to recognize that ancient Holy Order that we have been promised will return in our day as part of the restoration of all things. The only reason that the earth will not be utterly wasted at Christ's coming is because of the authority of the Holy Order. It is that Order that will exercise the sealing power which will stop the advancing armies that will attempt to come upon the New Jerusalem. God will continue to reveal more of His word to us as things ramp up toward the tribulation and the Second Coming. To be able to withstand the evil that is coming upon the earth will require more knowledge from the Lord. He will equip us if our hearts are open. And just like the Book of Abraham, it will be controversial, and will seem like a hoax, and will come through the most obscure and seemingly inconsequential people. God uses the weak things of the earth to accomplish His strange acts. Joseph Smith was one of those "weak things," and discounting his revelations is tantamount to discounting the words of God Himself. If the controversy of the Book of Abraham has proven anything, it is that people have always been the same: stiffnecked and slow to believe in the things of God. 

If you have made this far in this series you will definitely not want to miss part VIIII. I'm going to dive into what lawmakers, nonprofit organizations, and the LDS Church have been up to over the last few years to further UN Agenda 2030 in Mormonland. Indeed, the Beast is coming to Utah, and the last vestiges of our freedoms are going by the wayside. Stay tuned. And in the meantime, I'll link some videos and books on the importance of the Book of Abraham. 



The Religion of the Fathers Transcript and Paper


Abraham in Egypt, by Hugh Nibley


And this one on Cain was also very interesting:


And here is part one of Nibley's article series entitled A New Look at the Pearl of Great Price, written between 1968 and 1970. The rest of them can be found in the books Abraham in Egypt and An Approach to the Book of Abraham. 

Ancient Temples II: A Gothic Castle in Logan

  Previously: Saint George and the Dragon Welcome readers to Ancient Temples part II, where we'll explore the official story of Utah...