Accountability Part 2

"Until we have perfect love we are liable to fall and when we have a testimony that our names are sealed in the Lamb's book of life we have perfect love and then it is impossible for false Christs to deceive us...many of us have gone at the command of the Lord in defiance of everything evil, and obtained blessings unspeakable, in consequence of which our names are sealed in the Lamb's book of life, for the Lord has spoken it. It is the privilege of every Elder to speak of the things of God; and could we all come together with one heart and one mind in perfect faith the veil might as well be rent today as next week, or any other time, and if we will but cleanse ourselves and covenant before God, to serve Him, it is our privilege to have an assurance that God will protect us" section one  TPJS, heading: Perfect Love a Safeguard Against Falling from Grace, section One

In defiance of everything evil, or in other words in defiance of all that denies the Holy Ghost, and denies access to the Holy Ghost for any soul on earth that has knowledge, for as Christ said, "Who having knowledge have I not commanded to repent?"

1. Little children are not all children under the age of 8. Little children according to the Book of Mormon and D&C are infants. (Mosiah 3: 16-18; D&C 93: 38-41) To assume Mormon is referring to all children under age 8 when he refers to "little children", is conflating his words with a future restriction Mormon knew noting of. Mormon knew little children were infants or those without knowledge because he had just abridged King Benjamins record teaching this truth. (see Mosiah 2-4)

2. Accountability is not related to age which is arbitrary and forbidden by God. (see Moroni 8:15)

3. Accountability is knowledge and understanding. (D&C 29:49; Mosiah 2-4; Moroni 8:19)

4. Because the early saints asked for a specific age they were given one; Joseph was influenced by Rigdon who was directly involved with the JST translation specifically, and by the Campbellites who brought with them all of their false traditions and detoured the restoration God was attempting. Part of that false belief was a question of age of accountability. Instead of Using agency and personal responsibility allowing each to decide for themselves by the Holy Spirit, when to baptize using the standards of knowledge and understanding, the saints demanded an age to let them off the hook from deciding according to the Spirit on a case by case basis, thereby obtaining an idol or king, or in Josephs words a creed to tell them what to do. (see PTR on Campbellite perversion of restoration)

5. This is part of the perversion of the Campbellites coming aboard, along with them desiring priesthood offices instead of real connection to the Powers of Heaven as their priesthood. These two are actually related, as restricting baptism from those who have knowledge actually restricts priesthood and prophecy from those who are most recently arrived from the other side of the veil. This restriction stunts them because they know they are sinful and they know Christ can fix them, but tradition denies them the Holy Ghost and fulness of fellowship with Them. 

6. This is similar to God forbidding a king, and then allowing it when the people asked for it. It was Gods will not to have a king. It was allowed due to hardness of heart and unbelief. So Kings are in scripture among Gods people but God would prefer it otherwise. So too we have age restriction and accountability as knowledge in scripture, but that doesn't mean God sanctions both.

7. This is the reason we have been commanded to replace D&C 20. If we are going to replace section 20 because the Campbellites detoured the restoration by demanding a New Testament church rather than an ancient one, conflating priesthood with church office, we should also restore and return age of accountability to its proper and Godly form, or at least account for Gods word proclaiming such. If priesthood is an association with the Powers of Heaven or the Holy Ghost, then restricting it from those who know but cannot yet receive the ordinance denies that fellowship based only on age despite the understanding of the individual. This would make God partial.

8. Age 8 requirement then is a false tradition of men, and is not of God although God allows it for the hardness of our hearts. It stifles His work, prevents the Holy Ghost from coming to the tender branches among us and goes against His very nature, attributes and perfections, as He is just and does not judge one child from the next on so arbitrary thing as the ticking of the clock. (See Moroni 8)

Because I believe accountability is based on knowledge and understanding, I have taught my children the wages of sin as commanded me. I have also taught them about redemption through Christ through faith on His Name and repentance followed by the “firstfruit of repentance”, which is baptism. After they were taught this they are accountable because they have knowledge of sin and how to come to Christ to repair that breach. They cease to be an infant, or a being who doesn't know or is ignorant. The child gets it. It’s a Bongard problem. They know they don't know things and they know they make mistakes and sin. They want a way to come to Christ, but the traditions of our fathers prevent them from doing so until they become a certain age. This denies the Holy Spirit. This is forbidden by God. Using the same criteria for baptism for all mankind is just and is Gods will. For He is the same yesterday today and forever.

Telling children fairy tales about accountability is akin to telling them Santa and the Easter Bunny are real and then later telling them mommy and daddy were lying the whole time for fun. We are teaching them through this false tradition of age restricted access to God, an incorrect attribute about our Lord. That He is arbitrary. That He will save one child for being innocent due to age, and damn another because they are a day older. It tells them that despite knowing of their own sin and desire to repent, God doesn't hold them accountable despite their knowledge. It ingrains into the psyche a false belief or understanding of God. This is part of our condemnation we currently struggle under. Doing what the Book of Mormon says, requires us to shed this false tradition of our fathers and teach our children in light and truth (D&C 93;38) by allowing them access to the atonement as soon as they desire to repent and come unto Christ and be baptized. This is the God I believe in. I reject the false God who is changeable and partial and judges based on random rules for one set of His children while judging others on another standard. 

Whenever God has been reduced to rules and minutia it is referred to in scripture as the “lesser law”. (see D&C 84) It is a reduction of what could have been. It becomes a way for those who accept it to be condemned for their aaronic behavior. It denies the Holy Ghost, and it prevents the fulness and Zion. When you change the ordinance to fit your religious anxiety and fear of choosing for yourself, you loose what God offers. This religiously enshrined false and changed ordinance is what scripture calls abomination. It becomes difficult to reverse because those who practice it are very religiously devout and become angry when it is suggested that they are abominable and following false Gods. I suppose its reasonable enough in their minds to cast out those like Abinadi, Nephi, Lehi, Samuel, Alma, Mormon, Moroni, Joseph and even the very Son of God as wildmen or unfit neighbors when they feel so religiously justified. 

Can God's people live under rules and creeds which establish accepted orthodoxy? Is having rules and creeds what is meant by "one heart and one mind" which is a reality of those who reside in Zion? Or is one mind and one heart a function of knowing God? Is it doing as Joseph suggests above that we receive the mind of God for ourselves by what we sacrifice, what we know and what we do to defy evil, receiving covenants by what we do? 

God is a Principle. We must be in agreement or accord with Him and His Principles to be united with them. These Principles are who He is and who we must be or not be saved. These Principles are the Powers of Heaven or the Fathers we must unite ourselves with in order to be one with Them. The unity we seek between each other comes as a result of knowing and possessing Them. Love is Truth. Love is reality of who God is. God is real because He is reality or He is what is, because He caused what is to be. If we base ourselves on Him who is and was and will be, we will continue on because we are like Him. If we are not like Him then we will continue on in the deaths, worlds without end. 

Why do we not repent of our ignorance when truth is taught plainly revealing our folly? Especially when it is given us in love and charity? God is not a creed or a rule. Christ consistently broke rules and creeds to obey His Father because He was principle based, or in other words He obeyed the higher law of principles which allowed Him to remain in obedience to the Father while not necessarily staying true to rules and creeds.

"People are quickly and easily drawn away from repentance  into some other vain and foolish track." (Denver Snuffer, Preserving the Restoration, p. )

Repentance and baptism is the Way. It is the only mechanism given by heaven to grant a greater abundance of the Holy Spirit (Mosiah 18:10) and to establish equity and equality of all people.(see Moroni 6:1 and 7) It is the ONE doctrine of Christ and apparently we just don't have the patience to abide in that doctrine long enough to be cleaned up and filled with enough light to be one with God and thereby one with all who also are one with God. And our children languish and fade in the Spirit because the earth is defiled with an altered ordinance which curses the whole earth and makes it desolate or without the Holy Spirit, and in so doing are living under a broken covenant no longer everlasting to salvation but only to separation from that Spirit which is designed to fill us with light and truth, but we will not. Therefore will the earth be burned and few men left. (Isaiah 24:5-6)

O let us repent while it is day! Let those who are the most tender among us be reconciled to Christ and filled with His Holy Spirit as they gain understanding! Let those who have knowledge come into the house of the Lord and be united back with their Christ! Let those who do not know of Christ and His mercy be taught the good news of the gospel, and then having knowledge repent and be baptized! Let those who are willing to come unto Christ as He has commanded then be filled with the Spirit of God, pressed down shaken together and overflowing with light and truth! That our young men and our young women may prophecy in the name of the Lord and no one will need say "know ye the Lord" for all will know Him and be like Him for they will all be filled with the same Spirit all in all! (Joel 2) May those who come fall upon the necks of all those who will remain as Followers of the Way in steadfastness and humility! For God is coming! And He will burn up those who cannot abide who He is, and with that same fire will quicken or make fast those who see Him as He is because they are like Him and have a fellowship with Them.