A Letter to Denver Snuffer.

Denver Snuffer:

I was excited to find your book, “The Second Comforter”. I was looking for evidence that other Latter-day Saints (in addition to the LDS General Authorities) had seen Christ and know that He lives. The fact that you were not an LDS General Authority yet were backing or sustaining the witness of dozens of LDS General Authorities who had either seen or talked with Christ made your message valuable and interesting. I had found many eye-witness accounts of God and Christ in the LDS Library 2009. The thing that made your witness valuable was the fact that it sustained the witness of all the Living Prophets since Joseph Smith who were claiming to have had similar experiences.

Consequently, I have found it kind of confusing and disappointing to see you slowly turn away from your support of the Brethren. Once you stopped backing or sustaining the Brethren and the Living Prophets, you basically undid or threw away everything that you had accomplished before. As a result, your message as of late lost its value because you stopped testifying of Christ, His Church, and His Anointed Ones. Lately, the only thing you are testifying to is how incompetent and worthless the Living Prophets are.

Recently, I was privileged to present Lesson 8 “The Church and Kingdom of God” to the High Priest Group in my ward. This lesson is found in the “Joseph Fielding Smith: Teachings of the Presidents of the Church” priesthood manual. The whole time I was preparing and presenting that lesson, I was thinking of you. That lesson was made just for you. It made me think of you.

As I read some of your recent blog messages, I realized that Denver Snuffer needs to get his nose out of the Triple Combination and the Bible and start reading the writings of the Recent Prophets and the Living Prophet. I realized that you had fallen for the classic satanic trap of worshipping and following the dead prophets while collectively rejecting all of the Living Prophets.

You have questions that you need answered, and the answers will determine the course you should take. The next time you see Christ, you need to ask Him, “Are you at the helm of the LDS Church? Are you in control of the LDS Church? Is the LDS Church your church on the earth right now? Are you guiding and leading Thomas Monson, the First Presidency, and the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church? Are you in control of the situation?”

If Christ tells you that He is not in charge, is not at the helm, and is not in control, then you need to ask Him who is. If Christ is not at the helm and the LDS Church is not His church, then all the stuff you are fretting about in your recent blog messages makes no bit of difference whatsoever. You then need to ask Him which church you should join or who you need to turn to so that you can get to the man who is really in charge and is in full control of it all.

If Christ says that He is in charge and at the helm of the LDS Church, is speaking to and guiding the 15 Apostles, and has everything under control and on schedule for His Second Coming, then you have some serious repenting to do. Repentance means course correction or choosing to go a different direction with one's chosen beliefs or ideas. If Christ is truly at the helm and in control of the situation, then you need a reboot. You need to start over and see what it truly means to have Christ at the helm of His Church.

You need to study in depth what it means to be a helmsman. Look at that lesson mentioned above, which was built from the writings of Joseph Fielding Smith. The helmsman of the ship has certain responsibilities to the ship and to its crew. The helmsman is responsible to keep the ship on course, to keep it out of the rocks, and to guide the ship into harbor (the right harbor) on time, on budget, safe, and sound. If the helmsman sees that the ship is off course, it is his job to put the ship back on course. If the ship is going too fast or too slow, it is his job to make the necessary adjustments so that the ship arrives on time and on schedule to the desired destination.

If Christ is truly at the helm of the LDS Church, then it is His responsibility to set the course that the Good Ship Zion will take, the speed or pace it will travel, and its ultimate destination. If the Good Ship Zion gets off course, it would be the responsibility of Christ as the helmsman to make the course corrections necessary to put it back on course. If the Good Ship Zion is going too slowly, then it would be the job of Christ as the Captain and helmsman to issue the orders necessary to speed up the process. As the helmsman of the LDS Church, only Christ knows if the Church as a whole in on schedule and going in the right direction. If we are off course or behind schedule, it is Christ's job to make that known to us through His duly appointed Apostles or crew.

Who will Christ appear to or talk to if course corrections or a change in speed is needed? Will He talk to Denver Snuffer who is not even a member of the crew, or will He talk to Thomas Monson or one of the Other Fourteen, in order to get the job done? Will Christ talk to the men who hold the keys to the doors of the Kingdom or ship, or will He talk to someone who doesn't hold the Priesthood? If the LDS Church is really Christ's Church on this earth right now, who do you think Christ as the helmsman will issue His orders to in order to correct the course and speed of the Good Ship Zion? I suggest that Christ will speak to the crew that is currently running the Good Ship Zion. Christ would speak to the Living Prophets that He has put into place to run His ship.

You say that you have faith in Christ. Clearly, as an outsider, I can see that you do not have faith in Christ. It's very easy to see the flaws of others, but nearly impossible to see our own flaws. Remember that. Yes, you have faith that Christ can speak to or appear to or lead Denver Snuffer or Joseph Smith; but, you have no faith whatsoever that Jesus Christ can appear to, speak to, and lead any of the 15 Living Apostles that currently serve at the top of the LDS Church. Yes, you have faith that Christ can save an imperfect Denver Snuffer or an imperfect Joseph Smith; but, you have no faith that Christ can guide, work through, or save any of the people on the LDS Correlation Committee. Your recent books and blog demonstrate clearly that you have no faith whatsoever that Christ can bring the LDS Church, its Current Imperfect Leaders, or the Good Ship Zion into the harbor (the right harbor) on time according to His will and pleasure, not a moment too soon and not a moment too late. You don't have faith that Christ can do it.

You don't have faith that Christ could possibly ever have been at the helm of the LDS Church after Joseph Smith died. You don't have faith that Christ can bring the Good Ship Zion into the port on time using any of the LDS Apostles that have lived since Joseph Smith was martyred. You have no faith in Christ. You don't believe He can do it. You don't believe that He is in control of the Good Ship Zion. You believe that Christ and His Church are destined to fail.

You don't believe that Christ knows what He is doing, and you don't believe that He can save us. You only believe that Christ can save Denver Snuffer, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon prophets. We need current salvation. The salvation of the dead prophets isn't going to do us any good now. We need faith here and now, not faith in the dead prophets. We need faith that Christ can successfully lead, guide, and instruct the current batch of Prophets and accomplish His goals through them. If we don't think He can do it, then we really don't have faith in Christ.

Next time you see Christ, you have some serious questions to ask Him. If Christ says that He is not at the helm and is not in control (as you seem to imply), then ask Him who is? Brigham Young had an interesting thing to say to an ordinary church member who came to give Brigham instruction and course correction for the LDS Church, information which the church member had received from an angel. After hearing the man out, Brigham said to the church member, “Next time you see that angel who is telling you to correct the Prophet and the LDS Apostles and change the course of the LDS Church, you tell that angel to go back to hell where he came from.”

How did Brigham Young know that that angel had come from hell? Decades ago, I used to ask that question. How did Brigham know? It's because Brigham Young knew that if it were an angel from Heaven and Christ, the angel would have appeared to Brigham Young or one of the Twelve Apostles, not the ordinary church member. If Christ is truly at the helm, Christ is going to work through the chain of command that He has set in place. Christ is going to work through His chosen crew. If Christ is truly at the helm, then Christ is directly responsible to make sure that it all turns out the way He wants it to turn out. The responsibility is His, not Denver Snuffer's or some ordinary church member who is seeing angels or hearing voices.

I remember my mother telling me how surprised she was when Harold B. Lee died. He was young and healthy and well-liked, and they all expected him to be the prophet for 20 years. Recently (a few years ago), I was reading and came across a statement that Harold B. Lee allegedly had made.  (I can't find the quote, but I still remember what it signified to me at the time when I read it.)  He allegedly said something to the effect, “No darkie will ever receive the priesthood while I'm President of the LDS Church.” Suddenly I had my answer. I got the feeling that the Lord removed him so that He could put Spencer W. Kimball into his place instead. The Lord is at the helm, and it was finally time for the Blacks to receive the priesthood. If the statement reflects the true reality of the situation, then at that point in time, the real obstacle would have been Harold B. Lee and Latter-day Saints like him who held an "anti-darkie" point of view.  The Lord would have needed someone like Spencer W. Kimball, who clearly wanted the Blacks to receive the priesthood, in order to accomplish the task.  The Lord is in the habit of granting us our righteous desires.

When I was young, the thing I hated most about the LDS church was its refusal to give the Blacks the Priesthood. Ironically, David O. McKay had asked the Lord many times for permission to give the priesthood to the blacks; but, the Lord had said no. The Lord said to David to never to ask Him ever again. The Lord said it would happen, but not under David O. McKay's tenure. So, what was happening? The Lord was at the time preparing ready-made LDS congregations on the African continent. The Lord was also raising up a new generation of Latter-day Saints who knew not prejudice.

When the Blacks were given the priesthood, I celebrated. In contrast, an elderly LDS Bishop at the time told me of his disgust. He hated seeing them niggers in the LDS temples. He was from that previous generation who would never have accepted the Blacks receiving the priesthood, if they had anything to say about it. The Lord had to raise up a new generation of Latter-day Saints who were ready and eager for the change. The Lord was at the helm and knew what He was doing. The timing was His. It happened when it did for a reason, and not a moment sooner.

I also heard the story of when both Spencer W. Kimball and Ezra Taft Benson were called as members of the Twelve. Ezra Taft Benson was known for his punctuality, but he was late for his ordination, because his car just mysteriously stopped working for awhile and then started working again. So, he was late, and Spencer W. Kimball was ordained an Apostle before Ezra Taft Benson was. Spencer Kimball ended up with seniority; and, we know what happened as a result. Do you think somebody was at the helm?

If Christ is truly at the helm of the LDS Church, then you can relax and stop fretting and stop kicking against the pricks. If Christ is at the helm, then it is His responsibility to bring the LDS Church successfully to its destination on time and in the condition He wants it to be in, despite all the frailties of the Church's leadership past or present. If Christ is not at the helm, then none of it matters anyway, and we need to look to someone else for our salvation.

If Christ is at the helm, it is His responsibility to speak to, appear to, and work through the current 15 Apostles, or it is His responsibility to get some new Apostles that He can work with. You don't need to worry about any of that if Christ is truly at the helm. You don't need to worry about any of that if you truly have faith in Christ. All you have to do is simply trust and believe that Christ will get the Good Ship Zion to His desired destination, on time and in the condition that He wants it to be in when it arrives. You can simply sit back, relax, repent of your sins and misconceptions, and sustain the work all the while trusting that Christ is in control and will bring Zion to fruition at His own speed and time.

If Christ is truly at the helm, truly in control of the Ark of the Covenant, then there is no need for Denver Snuffer to steady the Ark or to course correct the LDS Church and its leaders. That should take a great burden off of you. You can simply relax, sit back, and let Christ handle it all and the timing of it all. You can just simply trust that He will get it all done by the time that He wants it all done. That's what faith in Christ really means.

If Christ wants the work to go faster, then simply trust that Christ will tell Thomas Monson to start letting High School graduates go on missions before they have the chance to get married or get buried in school work, and then see if that will speed up the work. If Christ is truly at the helm and you truly have faith in Christ, then Denver Snuffer doesn't have to worry about any of this. Denver Snuffer simply has to repent and make sure that he is on the Good Ship Zion when Christ brings it safely into harbor. If Christ isn't at the helm, then you need to find someone else to worship and serve.

So once again, I ask, “Is Christ at the helm of the LDS Church or isn't He?” Denver, most of your recent writings and comments seem to indicate that you firmly believe that Christ is not at the helm of the LDS Church and is not in control of the situation. Therefore, I don't see how it is even remotely possible for you to have real faith in Christ if you truly believe that Christ is out of control, that Christ is not at the helm of the LDS Church, and that Christ is powerless to bring Zion to fruition on His own time schedule and on His own terms and in the condition He wants it to be in when it finally arrives.

It is impossible for you to have faith in Christ and the Restored Gospel if you truly believe that Christ is incapable of speaking to, chastising, correcting, and guiding the LDS Apostles. Denver, your recent messages and books seem to indicate that you no longer believe that Christ is capable of working through the current LDS General Authorities to accomplish His goals and desires for us. You no longer believe in Christ because you no longer believe that He has the power and skills necessary to bring forth Zion among the weak and imperfect Latter-day Saints. You don't believe that Christ can save us, change us, help us, speak to us, or perfect us. You don't believe that Christ can keep the LDS Church on course and on schedule. You don't believe in Christ enough to actually repent, turn back to Christ, accept His Gospel and His ongoing Restoration, and accept the Anointed Ones that He has put into place. You don't believe in Christ.

If you truly believed in Christ, there would be a repentance process taking place in your life right now, because that's the next step after having Faith in Christ. Instead, you are slowly moving into all-out rebellion, which is the opposite of repentance or turning back to God and His Chosen Ones. You can't see it because we each are blind to our own faults and imperfections; but, many of us on the outside looking in on Denver Snuffer can see it quite clearly.

Assuming Facts Not in Evidence:

Denver, you probably can't see it; but, you are starting to slip away. Nowadays, you are constantly assuming facts that are not in evidence. If you were a self-critical or self-observant lawyer, you wouldn't allow yourself or permit yourself to repeatedly make such a mistake; but, you have fallen into bias and have become blind to some things as a result.

You are constantly claiming in your recent blog messages that modern-day LDS leaders have not made a sacrifice sufficient enough to earn a theophany, or a calling and election made sure, or the second comforter, or a heavenly manifestation – as if such a thing can actually be earned or forced upon the Lord. Recently, you are repeatedly making the claim that they are not good enough or worthy enough for such an experience, as if you are passing judgment or final condemnation on them, which is not your right or responsibility to do.

Whenever one of us passes final judgment on someone by saying that they are going to hell or aren't going to make it, we are in fact denying the First Principle of the Gospel. Each time you say or indicate that Christ cannot save, change, correct, speak to, or improve Thomas Monson or any of the other LDS General Authorities, you are denying Christ's atonement and saying that Christ is powerless to save us and change us. You are saying that Christ lacks the ability to bring Heaven on earth. You are saying that you have no faith in Christ. Satan is called the Accuser. Satan's primary accusation is that Christ lacks the power to save us and lacks the power necessary to establish Zion on earth. Satan spends his time accusing the Brethren and Christ of failure, because Satan lacks faith in Christ. Satan spends his time calling everyone else incompetent.

In your many blog messages and recent books, you assume that Christ cannot and has not appeared to any LDS General Authorities since Joseph Smith. You cannot assume the negative, simply because these men have never come out and made such a spectacular claim in public; yet, for some unexplained reason, you insist on doing so every chance you get. Just because they refuse to toot their own horn, doesn't automatically mean that they don't have a horn to toot. Furthermore, the fact that they have made such claims in private and those claims have slipped out over time should be sufficient evidence to contradict your claims to the contrary; but, you are now currently blinded or biased against such claims, so you can't benefit from them as a result. You simply call it all hearsay, which only serves to negate or kill many of your own claims to divine inspiration.

It's simply poor practice and very poor research to assume that no LDS General authority since Joseph Smith has seen God or talked with Him face to face, and to conclude that they have all been rejected by the Lord as a result. That's assuming facts not in evidence while at the same time blindly and deliberately ignoring all the evidence to the contrary. I was there in General Priesthood Meeting when President Spencer W. Kimball publicly told the LDS Church Priesthood that he had seen Christ. We knew what he said, and I believed him when he said it.

If you (a nobody by your own original admission) have seen Christ, then the proper assumption to make (since we are making assumptions now) is that dozens of Latter-day Saints and LDS General Authorities since Joseph Smith have seen Christ and talked with Him face-to-face, and been accepted by Him. If you are going to make assumptions or assume facts not in evidence, assume the positive and not the negative; it will get you further in the end. Furthermore, your personal claims of having seen Christ and the journal entries of dozens of Latter-day Saints indicate that the positive assumption is closer to the truth than the negative assumption that you keep making. If you are going to assume, assume the positive.

To See As We Are Seen:

Denver, can't you see that each time you claim that the Prophets since Joseph Smith could not have and did not have any kind of contact with God, it only serves to bolster the claim that Denver Snuffer could not have and did not have any kind of personal experience with Jesus Christ. That's the way your current writings are coming across to many of us. Every time you attack the current Apostles, your words and preachings sound more and more hollow and valueless and hypocritical as you go along. The only value of your message was that it sustained and substantiated the message that was being delivered by the current living Apostles of the LDS Church. Once your message stopped doing so, it lost its value to most of us. Once you stopped edifying the Brethren, your message stopped being edifying.

Can't you see that by assuming that you are the first and only person since Joseph Smith to have seen Christ and talked with Christ, you are simply assuming facts that are not in evidence? Can't you see that if only one of them (even Denver Snuffer) has seen the Resurrected Christ, then most of your claims in “Passing the Heavenly Gift” simply fall flat and dead on the floor?

Whenever you shoot the Brethren in the foot, you are shooting yourself in the foot as well. Can't you see that?

Can't you see that many of your online followers are claiming that you are the first true Prophet since Joseph Smith? Can't you see that some of them think that you are the Second Coming of Christ? The fact that you haven't made any recent attempts to set them straight makes many of us believe that you want your followers believing and preaching such things about you. It also explains to many of us why the directive came down from the Top to have you and some of your followers excommunicated from the LDS Church. Many of your followers are out of control, and it reflects badly on you as their chosen leader. Can't you see that you have started your own little cult or splinter group, the Snufferites, whether you purposefully wanted to do so or not? Can't you see that you are personally responsible for what you have started? As their leader, you are responsible for them and for the path you have chosen to lead them down.

Can't you see that your most dedicated followers have taken up the task that you have set for them – constantly complaining about the Brethren and bemoaning all the failures and lost opportunities that can be traced to the Brethren?

Well, we can see it. My question is whether you wanted it that way, or not. Either way, by their fruits (and nuts), ye shall know them. Your followers are a reflection of you, their leader.

An Observation:

I have observed that the quickest way to lose your LDS Church job or to lose your LDS Church membership is to develop a following and then have some of your followers start saying that you are the only True Prophet since Joseph Smith.

Many seminary teachers, institute teachers, and even some LDS General Authorities lost their Church Jobs when they started to develop a following and when some of their followers started to claim that they were the only true prophet since Joseph Smith. Many splinter groups started when a person's followers started to claim that that person is the first true Prophet since Joseph Smith.

This explains to me why the directive came down from the top to have you excommunicated without giving you much of a hearing. It might not have had anything to do with what you did, but everything to do with what your followers are doing. You are being judged by the fruits you are producing.

Over on the LDS Freedom Forum and elsewhere, they have exclusive forums dedicated just to you; and, many of your followers there are claiming publicly that you are the only True Prophet since Joseph Smith. Some of them are now being excommunicated as a result.

When your followers no longer sustain the LDS Apostles as Prophets, Seers, and Revelators, then your followers are no longer worthy of a temple recommend and are no longer really members of the LDS Church in their hearts. When they refuse to sustain Thomas S. Monson as the President of the Church, the holder of the Corporate Keys and the holder of the Celestial Priesthood Keys, then your followers are no longer LDS or Mormon in their hearts; and thus, they are in apostasy and ripe for excommunication. By their fruits, ye shall know them.

Many of your followers are now being excommunicated for losing their testimony of the Brethren and for no longer being able to honestly answer during their temple recommend interviews that they sustain the LDS Apostles as Prophets, Seers, and Revelators. Obviously, their chosen beliefs reflect directly on you, their leader, as the one they have chosen to follow now instead of following the Brethren. The apostasy and excommunication of your followers is now serving as the fruits of your teachings, which tells me that somewhere along the way, you got off track, and started working against yourself and your original message.

If you really saw Christ, then you should already know that it was because of the Priesthood and the Endowment that you had received through the direct line of all those imperfect Brethren or Priesthood Holders who came before you. God honored the Priesthood and sacrifices of all those imperfect and faulty men that you claim “Passed Up the Heavenly Gift”; and, if God appeared to you, it was because He was honoring the Priesthood and Endowment of all those imperfect men who came before you and brought the Priesthood and the Endowment to you. It's not because of some kind of special righteousness or sacrifice on your part. As mortal beings, none of us are truly worthy of a personal appearance from God. If we have such an experience, it's because of Christ's grace, not because of our worthiness or sacrifices.

Have you ever noticed that God and angels tend to appear to the foreordained who have gotten off track – Saul, Alma the Younger, the Sons of Mosiah, the Brother of Jared, Denver Snuffer? God doesn't have to appear to the ones who remain on track. God simply has to whisper to them through the Holy Ghost, and they immediately obey. It's a law of conservation. God will not appear to you with trumpets, thunder, and lightning, if the whisperings of the Holy Ghost are sufficient enough to get the job done. Yes, the Heavenly Messengers had to appear to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to transfer and restore KEYS; but, when Christ or angels appear to any of us or speak to any of us, it's for other reasons – mercy and grace come to mind. Fore-ordination comes to mind. Getting off track comes to mind as well.

I suggest that Christ doesn't have to appear to many of the LDS Apostles and wake them from their slumber, because they haven't gotten off track and the whisperings of the Holy Ghost are good enough to get the job done. But then again, we are assuming facts not in evidence and assuming that Christ has not appeared to any of these men, when in fact, He actually has; and they have said that He has. Nevertheless, the truth is that Christ doesn't have to reward these men with a theophany when a full helping of the Holy Ghost is sufficient enough reward to demonstrate that Christ has fully accepted their meager offering. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Spirit of the Lord has rested upon these men abundantly, from time to time, and from one generation to the next. All you have to do is be willing to open your eyes and see it.

The Brethren were able to see the fruits that your efforts are currently producing among many of your followers, and the Spirit was strong enough within them to let them know that they had to nip it in the bud before it got even more out of control than it has already gotten. They could see that you and many of your followers were on the road to apostasy. They saw it long before I saw it. That tells me that the LDS General Authorities are still in touch with God and the true reality of things.

Your Greatest Flaw or Weakness:

Denver, I saw this in your first book, and it has only gotten worse with time. You are fascinated or fixated on collecting and expounding all the different ways that the Brethren since Joseph Smith have failed. Instead of making a list of all the times that they got it right and were accepted by the Lord, you have focused all your time and effort on collecting and documenting all the times that they failed the Lord. The result or consequences follow naturally. You have developed a bias; and, now you are only capable of seeing the times that they have failed, and are becoming incapable of seeing or accepting all the many times that they have succeeded and gotten it right. Ironically, you seem to refuse to apply the same 'judgment' or criteria to Joseph Smith; and because Joseph Smith was the first and because Joseph Smith was so very honest, it's extremely easy so see all the hundreds of different times that he failed, which of course makes all the times that he gets is right all that much more amazing.

A suggestion: You are still in the habit of collecting and looking for all the times that Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon prophets got it right, while at the same time blindly overlooking their failures and weaknesses; so, I encourage you to apply the same principle and process to the Living Prophets and the Prophets who have lived since Joseph Smith. It would save you a great deal of trouble in the long run.

SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND. It's a true principle. You found exactly what you were searching for. If you seek for all the times that the Prophets since Joseph Smith got it wrong; you will find exactly what you seek. The opposite is true as well. Seek for the times when they got it right; and, before you know it, you will start to find dozens and hundreds and thousands of times when they got it right and were accepted by the Lord. The evidence is there. You only have to be willing to open your eyes and see. “Forgive us, for we know not what we do.”

Have you ever heard the statement that too much of a good thing is a bad thing?

You have rightly noticed that Nephi, Paul, and others warned that in the last days, there would be some who would be saying, “All is well in Zion”, when such is not the case. You have latched on to this and fixated on this and, to your own condemnation, have taken it all the way to the opposite extreme and have started to make the exact opposite claim, “Nothing is well in Zion”, which is also not true.

When dealing with people and populations and nations, the truth is never at the extremes, but always somewhere in the middle. That's just the way population dynamics work. Among the thousands of failures, there will always be some who get it right. Look for the positive, not the negative. Why do you feel obsessively compelled to support the claim that “Nothing is well in Zion” or “Nothing is well in the Councils of the LDS Church?” Where is that coming from? Who is the one that they call the “Accuser of his Brethren?”

You Are in Good Company (Numbers 12):

Olivery Cowdery, Martin Harris, David Whitmer, Sydney Rigdon, Orson Pratt, Orson Hyde, Aaron (Numbers 12), and now Denver Snuffer. Each one of these men turned against the First Elder or the President of the LDS Church, to one degree or another; and, each left the LDS Church or was excommunicated or was chastised as a result. Some of these men saw Christ. Others saw angels. They were each Prophets of the Lord; but, they were not The Prophet. When they turned against The Living Prophet, Joseph Smith (Thomas Monson or Moses), that was the end of their Priesthood and the end of their Church membership, unless they speedily repented. Even if they weren't excommunicated, they were no longer members of the church in their hearts and were no longer accepted by the Lord. Then the process was to wait and see which of them would choose to repent and come back, and which of them would not. Denver, you find yourself in the same boat. You seem to think that you are a special case or something unique, but you are not. Others have been there long before you were.

Eventually, Oliver Cowdery and some of the others realized that the Lord was no longer speaking to them, realized that they had lost their Priesthood authority, and they humbled themselves and came back. In many of the forums online, your followers are simply assuming that Christ is still speaking to you and appearing to you. I assume (since you like to assume facts not in evidence), given your recent comments against the Brethren and your recent excommunication, that the exact opposite has happened; and, the Lord has stopped speaking with you and speaking through you. When you finally realize that such is the case, it would do your followers well if you were to come out and say so, just as Oliver Cowdery and some of the others before you did.

You are definitely not the first LDS 'apostle' or special witness to turn against the Brethren or the Living Prophet and be excommunicated as a result. You won't be the last. Having seen Christ is not a protection against these kinds of things. Having seen Christ doesn't exempt you from the need to humbly submit to and follow the Lord's duly anointed and authorized Servants, who hold all the KEYS to the Priesthood and to your exaltation as well. No matter how much you might hate them right now, not only do they hold the KEYS to the Priesthood, but they also hold the keys to the doors of the institution or corporation itself.

If you spit on them and reject them, you are not only rejecting the Heavenly KEYS that they currently hold, but the earthly or man-made physical keys to LDS church buildings and LDS temples as well. You are rejecting Christ who gave them the KEYS.

Whether they are perfect or not, whether they have had theophanies or not, whether they have seen the Lord or not, they hold the KEYS to the Celestial Kingdom as well as the Keys to the doors of the temple and church buildings. The Kingdom is currently theirs, and you will only become a part of it by accepting them and sustaining them as the Key Holders that they really are. They currently hold the keys to all the doors that you want to pass through, or that I assume you want to pass through.

Again, I am following your example of assuming facts that are clearly not in evidence. In reality, on your blog, you seem to be enjoying your recent excommunication greatly and treating it as some kind of new special status. But, to many of us out here in the rank and file, you simply look like another Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris or Sydney Rigdon, and nothing more. They lost their special status when they turned against the First Elder of the Church. You have Oliver Cowdery written all over you, except for the fact that none of the KEYS to the Kingdom were ever given to you.

Alas, in your most recent blog messages, you say that you have no further desire to pass through the door into the Kingdom of God on earth ever again. If that is truly the case, then let it go. Go find something else to do with your time. That would be my advice. You are not going to change the KEYS or the key-holders or Christ to fit your needs or your mold or your expectations. It is what it is. So, either accept it, or give it up.

If you are still in there, then look up Numbers 12, and liken the scripture unto Denver Snuffer. Put yourself in the place of Aaron or Miriam. See what you can learn.

Passing Up the Heavenly Gifts:

If you really love Joseph Smith, keep his commandments.

Joseph Smith wrote this commandment: “If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, seek after these things.”

What Joseph Smith is saying here is that if you are determined to cultivate and nurture a bias, make absolutely sure that it is a positive bias, and not a negative one. Joseph Smith isn't against you developing a bias, just as long as you make sure that it is the right kind of bias.

The book, “Passing the Heavenly Gift”, is a blatant and obvious violation of this commandment from Joseph Smith. In that book (and some of your other books), if there is anything filthy, ugly, scandalous, or uncomplementary about the LDS Church leaders, Denver Snuffer has sought after and published those things.

In your books, you seemed to follow a pattern. You started with the sacred and were careful with the sacred. Then over time, you slowly transformed until nothing was sacred and everything was profane. Many of us have noticed and regretted the transformation.

For many of us, “Passing the Heavenly Gift” also violates other commandments that we have received from Joseph Smith, namely the temple covenant to avoid evil speaking of the Lord's anointed. That commandment is in the temple covenant for a reason, so that we won't end up with books like “Passing the Heavenly Gift”.

All across the internet, “Passing the Heavenly Gift”, is often described as a mean book or an ugly book, by the active members of the LDS Church. They agree that the scandalous events happened, but they disagree with your interpretation of the meaning of those events or your claimed consequences for those events. Something is not quite right about that book and the person who wrote it.

“Passing the Heavenly Gift” basically denies the power and the spirit of the Atonement of Christ by stating that Christ does not have enough power to compensate for all our failures in the past and all our failures that we will make in the future, particularly the failures of our LDS leaders. By indirectly (and sometimes purposefully) stating that Christ's Atonement isn't strong enough to compensate for and forgive all the failures of the LDS Church Leadership to date, that's a denial of the First Principle of the Gospel. It shows a lack of faith in Christ and His Atonement.

Can't you see that “Passing the Heavenly Gift” undid and destroyed most of what you tried to accomplish before that book was written? You shot yourself in the foot with that one, leaving you nothing to stand on.

Can't you see that the person many of us think is truly passing up all the heavenly gifts that he has been given is Denver Snuffer?

Christ is either at the helm, or He isn't. Which is it? If Christ is at the helm of the LDS Church and has been at the helm all the way along, then Christ bears some responsibility for our failures by simply refusing to intervene before we got too far off track. It's Christ's responsibility to keep us on track and on course, if He is at the helm – that's what being at the helm means. If Christ is at the helm, it's Christ's responsibility to speak to the LDS Apostles, or to get Himself some new LDS Apostles that He can speak to.

Furthermore, it's Christ's job to judge whether we have failed or succeeded, not Denver Snuffer's job. Christ is the one who paid and is paying for our failures, not Denver Snuffer. It's Christ's job to pass final judgment on the LDS Church and its leadership, not Denver's.

Denver, you claim to follow and preach the pure teachings of Joseph Smith. I have just offered and listed a handful of different ways in which you have obviously failed to follow and employ the teachings of Joseph Smith. I don't think Joseph Smith would have approved of your book, “Passing the Heavenly Gift”. I think that book would have been a great disappointment to him.

Joseph Smith's primary goal was to establish Zion. In your book “Passing the Heavenly Gift”, you imply that establishing Zion cannot be done. You keep implying that Christ is powerless to establish Zion using the current batch of imperfect Latter-day Saints that He has to work with. You do not have faith in Christ that He can do it. Joseph Smith said that Christ would do it, that Christ would establish Zion on this earth before the Second Coming; and then comes along Denver Snuffer who says that it can't be done. Denver keeps saying that it's not happening and that it can't be done, certainly not through the Church Correlation Committee or the current batch of LDS Apostles.

Turning Against the Key Holders Has Consequences:

Remember, biting the hand that feeds you will only get you so far. Eventually, the owner of the hand will turn against you and may even bite you back. You spew evil and filth and accusations out against the LDS Prophets and Apostles who lived after Joseph Smith, and then you act surprised or hurt when they finally decide to fight back. If you bomb them enough times, don't keep expecting them to turn the other cheek. At one point, one of them is going to simply slap you up the side of your head and see how willing you are to turn the other cheek.

Notice the real History of the LDS Church and the Kingdom of God in general. From our perspective, it goes all the way back to the time of Joseph Smith. Whenever a person or his followers turn against the President of the Church or the LDS Apostles, the President of the Church and the Church itself acts quickly and decisively and excommunicates that person and his followers from the Church. And yes, they often excommunicate the person before he can walk away of his own free will and choice.

Failure to excommunicate the dissidents in the Primitive Church was one of the main reasons why the Primitive Church fell into the Great Apostasy. Paul, Peter, James, John, and some of the Original Apostles should have excommunicated many of the Bishops and their followers, if they truly wanted to keep the Ancient Church intact. Following the Brethren and sustaining the Brethren is essential for the success of the Church as a whole.

In fact, this principle has precedence and goes back to the pre-existence, where the followers of Satan refused to sustain God the Father, the-then-current President and Prophet of the Church and His counselors. (People keep saying that there isn't going to be a Church in heaven, but there is going to be some kind of an organization, because God's House is a house of order or organization.)

If you don't want to stay in the Church or Kingdom, God isn't going to force you to stay. God showed Satan and his followers the door, and they walked though it of their own free will and choice, and found themselves on the outside separated from God and His Church. God the Father holds the KEYS to all the doors; and, you have to come in by the right way and stay in, if you want the rewards. To the great dismay of a third of the hosts of heaven, God the Father, the Holder of the KEYS, chose to share those KEYS with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has now chosen to share those KEYS with Thomas S. Monson and the LDS Apostles, much to the dismay of a third part of the Latter-day Saints. The true History repeats itself.

In fact, if we go by the True History of things, we could predict in advance that up to one third of the Latter-day Saints (one third of the modern-day LDS Church members during the temporal history of the Latter-day Saints past, present and future) will refuse to sustain the-then-current church leadership, and will leave the Church or be excommunicated as a result. Just like what happened in the pre-existence among the Church members of the time will happen again among the LDS Church members in our era – up to a third of them will fail to sustain the Brethren and will be separated from the Church as a result. It is and will be an example of history repeating itself. The LDS church leaders take these things seriously, and they act quickly and decisively and often unilaterally, where failure to sustain the Brethren is concerned.

Satan and his followers rejected the Brethren, God the Father and Jesus Christ, and now those pre-mortal fallen apostates no longer have access to the KEYS that God and Christ hold. The same process holds true today. If you reject the Brethren, you automatically reject the KEYS that they currently hold. You might have legitimate reasons for rejecting the Brethren, but the results are still the same, whether your complaints are legitimate or not. Those who rejected Joseph Smith or currently reject Joseph Smith believe that they have legitimate reasons for doing so; but, the result was to separate those rebels from the KEYS that Joseph held and still holds. The same thing applies here and now, with Thomas S. Monson. You may think your cause or complaints just, but the result is still the same, separation from the Brethren who currently hold the KEYS.

In any age of the Church or Kingdom of God, right from the very beginning, if you don't want to sustain the current Prophet of the Church or His Chosen Servants, you are shown the door and asked to leave. That's just the way it works. It doesn't matter if you like the current Prophet or not, or like His plans, or not, or think He has succeeded or not, or think He is good or not, or think he has failed or not, or think your complaint legitimate or not; once you turn away from THE CURRENT PROPHET, you have in effect turned against God the Father, and soon you find yourself on the outside looking in. It just happens.

Refusing to sustain the Brethren leads to separation from the Brethren, because you are no longer going where they are going.

Conclusions:

Sorry Denver, but I'm not going to join you in disaffection with the Brethren, apostasy, and excommunication from the Church. Been there; done that. It wasn't taking me where I wanted to go; so, I had to do a 180 degree turn around and go the other direction. I love my current local church leadership; and, I like most of the LDS General Authorities and sustain them fully. The few that I disagree with only serves to show my personal weaknesses and the areas where I need further repentance and course correction.

No, I'm not blind. I can see instances where the LDS General Authorities throughout time have failed to get it right, but that observation serves no useful purpose. Although, let me give you one example, which might help. In one of the recent General Conferences, one of the LDS Apostles said some things that weren't doctrine. Advanced age does some horrible things to each one of us. After his speech, my wife said, “That didn't feel right.” I responded, “It wasn't right.” I then told her how and where he had gotten it wrong. A few days later, his speech was corrected and changed so that it was closer to true doctrine. The cool thing is that if one of the LDS Apostles get off track, he has fourteen other LDS Apostles who can step in and rectify the situation. Someone like Denver Snuffer doesn't have that kind of backup for all the times that Denver gets things wrong.

Yes, we can do as you have done and dwell upon all the times that the LDS Apostles have gotten it wrong; but, what's the point? What is of value to me is all the thousands and millions of times that they have gotten it perfectly right, especially when they have gotten it right pertaining to my life and my family's life.

If you choose to be be blind, be blind to the negatives, not the positives. Doubt your doubts. Read a book like “Believing Christ” by Stephen E. Robinson and see that Christ has the power to forgive even the worst leaders and sinners and failures among us.

What He cannot forgive is your personal refusal to repent and come back. If you don't want to come back, there's nothing He can do to help you. He can't force you to change course and can't force you to come back. He's not going to force you to return if you really don't want to return. A lack of desire is the real unpardonable sin, because Christ cannot instill within you a desire to sustain the Brethren where there is none. That's something that only you can do for yourself. Christ cannot overcome an entrenched lack of desire on your part.

When I decided to come back into the Church, I first had to be willing to meet them half way. I had to go to them, and I had to let them come to me. Then I needed to develop a desire to come back. Then I had to make some changes. I then had to regain my testimony of the Brethren, Christ, and the Gospel. The process is the same for all of us, who decide to turn around, repent, and come back into the Kingdom and the fold.

The LDS Church (and the Church of God) is a Kingdom, not a democracy. They run it as if it were a kingdom. Right now, Thomas S. Monson is the king (regent is a more accurate term, but the analogy holds). Sustain the current king and his chosen lords, and you'll be just fine. Stand against them, and you will find yourself on the outside looking in.

Can't you see that evil speaking of Thomas S. Monson, David O. MacKay, the current LDS Apostles, the current LDS General Authorities, or their chosen courses of action is the same exact thing as evil speaking against Joseph Smith, Nephi, Moses, Mormon, or Jesus Christ?

Evil speaking of the Lord's Anointed results in being separated from the Lord's anointed. It has been that way throughout the whole history of the Kingdom of God, from the very beginning. First your heart and beliefs are separated from these men. Then your membership in the Church community is separated from them. Then your desire to return leaves. Then eventually you are or will be physically separated from them as well. If you don't want to be with them and be a part of them, God won't force you to stay. God, the King, will simply show you the door and invite you to leave. God always gives us what we want most.

Best of luck to you Denver Snuffer,

A Former Follower and Collector of Your Books