Defending the Word of Wisdom: 10 ways the LDS church has altered the Lord’s “law of health”.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka LDS church, aka Mormon church) is the largest denomination split from the original Church of Christ founded by American Restorationist prophet, Joseph Smith, in 1829, which splintered into several different churches upon Joseph’s death in 1844.
The “Word of Wisdom” (as it known to church members) is one of many revelations from God to Joseph recorded in the original Book of Commandments (now the Doctrine and Covenants), and particularly outlines the Lord’s “law of health” for his Saints in the last days.
(Note: At least 4 such general laws regarding food/health have been given by God through Adam, Noah, Moses and Paul respectively in their individual dispensations throughout scripture, so the existence of such a revelation in the last days would presumably be expected of anyone claiming to be the Lord’s prophet for the last days.)
But does the health code actively promoted by the modern LDS church actually hold up to the words God revealed to their Prophet?
Frankly, not at all.
We’re going to go through the original handwritten dictation found at josephsmithpapers.org (which is run and funded by an imprint of the LDS Church) and point out all the major discrepancies for you.
But first, just what does the modern LDS church claim about the Word of Wisdom?
For contrast, here’s what the LDS missionary manual Preach My Gospel says about it in its section on The Commandments:
Note that we already have some big discrepancies about what the Word of Wisdom teaches, and that we’ve already jumped from “generally understood to be tea and coffee” and “not by commandment or constraint” to “to be baptized… …those you teach must give up these substances.”
Do you smell that? I think it’s Pharisee.
So without further ado, here are ten ways the original Word of Wisdom health code has been subverted (yes, subverted) in the modern LDS church.
- It Literally Says It’s Not A Commandment
A word of wisdom for the benefit of the Saints in these last days and also the Saints in Zion to be sent greeting, not by commandment or constraint, but by Revelation and the word of wisdom shewing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all Saints, given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all Saints who are or can be called Saints. (Joseph Smith Papers, Sec 89, paragraph 1)
As you can see it begins very much like one of Paul’s epistles. Greetings. Here’s some wisdom. It’s not a commandment, just some guidelines that even the weakest of you should be able to follow, and there will be a promise from God attached if you do.
Very straightforward. Pretty biblical. Seems good so far.
However, as we saw above, contrary to the very spirit-of-the-law teachings of Christ in his day, and the seemingly spirit-of-the-law beginning to this revelation we’ve just read, the modern LDS church has in practice reduced this general health guide into a very specific checklist of thou-shalt-nots (specifically tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco and habit forming drugs) that people being interviewed for baptism (or later entrance into Mormon Temples) must pledge adherence to to pass go.
The problem is, most of those aren’t actually mentioned in the revelation. That’s just not what it says. Interpretation and application of scripture should be a private matter, based on scripture and solid leadership, not an increasing list of letter-of-the-law demands.
By effectively reducing the revelation into an arbitrary low-bar list of avoidances, the church has created a large number of “loophole Mormons” (or, as Jesus called the Pharisees, “hypocrites”) who without any rational moral framework, will take anything the modern church hasn’t expressly forbade as agreeable to God, and otherwise disregard what’s actually in the revelation itself.
So the question must be asked: what on earth happened to “not by commandment or constraint”?
Did Joseph Smith come down from Mount Sinai and find the church worshiping a golden cow while he was gone, and then decide they needed 613 much more specific commandments?
Quite the contrary, in fact.
Although Joseph did lead a church high council resolution (one year after the Word of Wisdom revelation was published) stating that all church officers should not be worthy of their office if they don’t comply with the Word of Wisdom, it wasn’t really thought to apply as a rule to the entire membership until Brigham Young (all bark and no bite) declared in 1851 that he would sever from the church those who would not keep it.
It was made a soft requirement for temple access in 1902, largely as a means to exclude drunkards, but so-called total adherence became a hard rule during the Prohibition era in 1924, and nothing much has changed in almost a hundred years.
However, various records indicate that Joseph Smith himself (who presumably understood the revelation best) at times partook of tea, beer, wine, and even smoked a cigar on at least one occasion.
This leads inevitably to one of two conclusions: either Joseph was himself a hypocrite, or he understood the revelation differently then than it is being applied in the modern LDS church today.
Given that the revelation declares itself to be for the time period “these last days” presumably God is happy with it as it was originally given until Jesus comes again.
Now, to be fair, there are many Latter-day Saints who do attempt to live the higher law found in the Word of Wisdom revelation. However, as you will see, not only have certain fundamental parts of the revelation been altered in modern printings, likely based on private interpretation, but the restrictive standard given by the modern church leadership is in many ways at odds with the written law of health itself.
This means that in order to seek a higher law/standard, church members must either disregard and/or lie to their local church leadership regularly or content themselves with a lesser version of the law than what is written.
They must in effect choose to serve either God or man.
Seems simple enough when put in those terms. However, given that submission to modern man’s false standard is now a prerequisite for both baptism and temple ordinances, serving man’s interpretation (not God’s word) in this case becomes directly tied-in to the gaining and maintaining of their salvation.
And it is this very sort of hypocrisy that will drive your insufficiently indoctrinated children away from the church.
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. (Jeremiah 17:5–6 KJV)
2. Who Are The Conspiring Men In The Last Days?
After the introductory preamble of the revelation as a non-commandment, God warns the saints specifically against the “evils and designs which will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days”.
This forewarning of the Lord is entirely consistent with scriptural patterns. But just who are these conspiring men who seek to destroy our health anyway?
Well, Joseph for one called out allopathic medical practitioners (on more than one occasion) for giving their patients poisons, and insisted that people could be healed by faith and food.
On the other hand, the current President of the church just encouraged his 16 million followers to be “good global citizens” by taking a still-experimental gene-altering therapy containing literal poisons and harmful drugs to help fight a rebranded strain of the common cold that has a 99.7% survival rate.
Or, to put things in other terms, none of the church leadership (generally heralded by the modern membership to be “living prophets”) since Joseph’s time have made any further indication as to who and where these conspiring men are to be found.
But if we take the words of the revelation itself, the obvious assumption would be those in charge of mainstream food and alcohol production.
Between the chemical pesticides, GMOs, water additives, processing, pasteurization, preservatives, plastics and more, in the modern so-called Food Industry, very little of what we find on grocery store shelves would be recognizable as food to someone in the early 1800s.
Moreover, we see a lot of corporate crossover happening between Big Agriculture and Big Pharma, as though the people feeding you also have a vested interest in you buying their medicines as though that’s not a conflict of interest.
At the very least, it does sure seems to line up with what Joseph was saying.
The modern LDS church leadership, however, does not.
3. Homemade Wine And Beer Is Acceptable
Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you in consequence of evils and designs which will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you and forewarned you by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation, that inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves in your sacraments before him, and behold this should be wine of your own make, and again strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies. (Joseph Smith Papers, Section 89)
So God specifically warns against the consumption of alcoholic drinks, especially hard liquors or spirits, but specifies that sacramental wine should be homemade.
This actually ties into an earlier revelation (section 27) wherein God forewarned Joseph not to buy any alcohol or sacramental wine from his enemies, but that they should be homemade, the implication there being that his enemies would attempt to poison the wine.
Furthermore, section 27 actually specifies that it doesn’t matter what you eat and drink of as your sacrament as long as your eye is single to God’s glory.
The scriptural pattern here is in keeping with Jesus’ spirit-of-the-law teachings, encouraging us to reach for a higher standard and have self-responsibility.
The modern LDS total prohibition on alcohol is not.
As further evidence, the Word of Wisdom later specifically states that barley is “for mild drinks, as also other grains.”
Now, to be fair, barley water recipes vary, but most are fermented for a few days, and more so historically. Moreover, some form of fermentation was a common and important health practice in virtually all cultures throughout history.
The actual distinction in the Word of Wisdom revelation regarding alcohol here seems to be:
Mild drinks, of your own make = good.
Strong drinks, or anything made by people you don’t know or trust = bad.
Given that Joseph Smith himself established a wine bar in Nauvoo almost ten years after receiving the Word of Wisdom revelation, we can assume that “mild” here was never intended to be interpreted as strictly non-alcoholic.
Logically speaking, lightly fermented homemade, homegrown organic wines and beers are in complete keeping with the actual revelation, implying an inherent level of self-responsibility and self-governance as Jesus taught.
Insofar as we can tell, this appears to be how Joseph understood it as well.
Ancient and modern expertise on the vital importance of fermented organic foods and drinks for gut health is also in keeping with this scripturally-based understanding of the Word of Wisdom.
The total prohibitive stance of the modern LDS church, however, is not.
4. Tobacco is Medicine
And Tobacco is not for man but is for bruises and all sick cattle to be used with judgement and skill. (Joseph Smith Papers, Section 89)
In a modern-day context, it seems obvious that Tobacco should be warned against, but it’s important to remember that chewing tobacco and smoking were not understood to be harmful at any period during the 1800s.
Even in the early to mid-1900s (and even while alcohol prohibition was in full swing) cigarettes were being actively advertised to pregnant mothers as healthy.
The LDS church was more than a little smug to be eventually proven right about tobacco after so long a time of going against the public grain. Many in the church have used this so-called win to justify continued abstinence of other things less specifically vilified in the revelation. We’ll get to that in a minute.
But while we’re still on the point of tobacco, it should be noted that the revelation doesn’t just forbid the use of tobacco, it actually specifies God-ordained uses for tobacco, and that’s actually really important.
And the modern LDS church, in its haste to focus on the thou-shalt-nots, ignores these little pearls of wisdom.
The revelation tells us that tobacco is specifically for a) bruises and for b) all sick cattle, and then admonishes us to gain skill and judgment in order to use it correctly.
A cursory google search on the medical applications of tobacco will show anyone a range of studies and historical data backing the use of tobacco in homemade salves, ointments and poultices for external use in healing a wide variety of exterior skin and muscle conditions.
What we effectively have here is prescriptive wisdom from God that we ought to gain skill and judgment (aka further self-responsibility) in using plant-based medicines.
God is effectively saying here that every plant has a purpose. If it’s not edible, it’s topically medicinal, or for your animals. Moreover, you can harm yourself by misusing them. That’s why it’s imperative to gain judgment and skill in these matters.
5. Dairy is Implied as Natural
The second even more subtle Easter egg here is the implication of cattle. Cattle are excellent soil-builders, yes, but there’s really only two reasons to keep cattle, for milk and for meat.
Given that meat is to be consumed sparingly (we’ll get to what that actually means in a minute too), this is the biggest hint that dairy is indeed for man.
It’s a given in the cultural context during which the revelation was given that most families have a family cow, (or at the very least, every community has some) and everyone’s drinking raw, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk, not to mention consuming raw butter, yogurt and cheese.
Given the conspiring political and media agenda against raw dairy, I’m not going to make any claims about the curative properties of raw dairy for a host of chronic conditions. There are books and online forums on the topic should you wish to research it further.
I will make three quick points though
- As a whole food, raw milk is complete as it is, the way God intended it to be consumed. There was no such thing as dairy allergies or intolerances until after pasteurization was introduced. Pasteurization kills vital enzymes present within the milk that aid our digestion of it.
- The modern pasteurized and processed Western diet is woefully low on gut flora, probiotic and prebiotic bacteria that aid our digestive system. Many autoimmune conditions prevalent today begin with bacterial imbalance in the gut.
- Vitamin K2, which is crucial for bone development and regeneration, especially for growing children, is only really found easily in grass-fed dairy. Cows naturally convert the Vitamin K in the grass into K2 for us during the rumination process.
The differences between store-bought “milk” and raw, organic, grass-fed dairy is like night and day.
By outsourcing your personal responsibility over the food you eat and the medicines you use to conspiring corporations, you give Satan, the enemy, power over you.
And modern LDS church leadership, so-called “watchers on the rim”, have not warned or expounded unto you (as true prophets should have) about these dangers.
6. Hot Drinks Are Probably Just Drinks That Are Hot
And again hot drinks are not for the body or belly, (Joseph Smith Papers, Section 89)
Short and sweet, unlike tobacco and alcohol, which are good for topical and medicinal uses, “hot drinks” aren’t good for either.
So what are these hot drinks anyway?
We know that the LDS church says it means tea and coffee, and for years many of the membership and leadership had expanded that to all caffeinated drinks, but the church has recanted any official assertion that caffeine is the reason, and as of 2010 have allowed other caffeinated sodas and energy drinks at BYU.
So, why then does the church stipulate avoidance of tea and coffee?
Well, there’s an article from the Times and Seasons (1 June 1842) that describes a sermon on the Word of Wisdom given by Hyrum Smith (Joseph’s brother) who was at that time Assistant President of the church.
I’m not going to go through the entire sermon here. Here’s the cliffnotes.
The sermon is obviously intended to be inspirational. Hyrum essentially chastises men in the church community for not taking the Word of Wisdom more seriously (presumably because it wasn’t actually a commandment), quoting Jesus, that man shall not live by bread (food) alone, but by every word that proceeds forth out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4 KJV), and trying to inspire them to a higher standard of devotion to God in the way they live. To do this, Hyrum repeatedly offers his own personal application of the revelation that he and his family abide as a standard unto the people.
“And again ‘hot drinks are not for the body, or belly;’ there are many who wonder what this can mean; whether it refers to tea, or coffee, or not. I say it does refer to tea, and coffee.” (Times and Seasons)
So this one quote (not actually written by Hyrum but taken from notes recorded at his sermon) is why the modern LDS church stipulates that “hot drinks” does not actually mean hot drinks, it means tea and coffee.
Here are three problems with that interpretation:
- We have records that indicate Joseph drank tea. Presumably many people knew this and this is why it was in question. So Hyrum’s either undermining his brother, the Prophet, or simply offering his own personal take or standard or interpretation of the spirit of the law. Perhaps Joseph only drank cold tea.
- Hyrum never limits or exclusively equates “hot drinks” to only tea and coffee. In the context of the quote, he could be including tea and coffee under a much larger implied group specifically because people questioned those two drinks. He could simply mean tea and coffee when drunken too hot qualify as hot drinks to be avoided. In the same way that Dalmatians and Pomeranians are both types of dog, but are not representative of all dogs. Nothing Hyrum says here implies that it was specifically something in both tea leaves and coffee beans (which were created by God for the use of man) from which men should abstain.
- The credibility of the whole article as a secondhand source, taken from shorthand notes in the meeting and transferred to longhand later on, gives doubt to any specific wording mentioned. Several times in the article, specific wording attributed to Hyrum fails to match up with the recorded revelation. ie. Tobacco is not for the body or the belly, but is for bruises… So wait, it’s not for the body but it is for bruises? Are these spiritual bruises? Do you excise them by burning tobacco in a campfire as you sit around breathing the fumes? Or do you feed the tobacco to the cow and then drink the milk?
Regardless, I see no evidence to view this as anything but a sermon in which at the very least, Hyrum confirms that drinking hot coffee or hot tea would, in his opinion, be a violation of the Lord’s intention here.
If God had intended hot drinks to mean exclusively “tea and coffee”, why wouldn’t he have just said “tea and coffee”?
Now, to be absolutely fair, we don’t know for certain what type(s) of tea Joseph drank.
A letter from the Presidency of the Church to the Asian mission in the 1980s specified that fruit and flower teas not containing tea leaf were suitable for consumption; that it was specifically tea leaf that was prohibited.
Perhaps this is also how Joseph understood it and he was drinking some form of nettle tea or pine needle tea or the like.
Or perhaps he drank cold teas or iced teas because it really is just about not consuming hot liquids.
In my opinion, the most rational interpretation of the revelation is the avoidance of consuming any liquids more than a few degrees warmer than body temperature.
A study several years ago on coffee drinkers found that those who regularly drank coffee at temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) were 73% more likely to get oesophageal cancer.
Obviously, scalding your internal organs on a regular basis would require a lot of internal healing. We know that burning your tongue can lead to a whole slew of respiratory and sinus diseases, as your body diverts natural local cold and flu protections to heal the tongue.
Drinks that are too hot are clearly damaging to your health. It’s a far more common-sense, spirit-of-the-law interpretation of the scripture than what is currently being taught.
No additional revelation from the church has ever been offered to justify its strict ban on tea and coffee specifically while having no consistent line against either hot chocolate or caffeinated sodas.
This makes the church’s letter-of-the-law rules here arbitrary and seemingly hypocritical, certainly not in keeping with Jesus’ teachings.
7. Herbs ARE Vegetables
All wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution and nature and use of man, every herb in the season thereof and every fruit in the season thereof, all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.
This is the point in the original printings of the revelation where it divides into a new section or paragraph. God has just covered things to avoid consuming: strong drinks, hot drinks and tobacco.
Now we’re onto things we are to consume. First up, herbs.
What herbs is God talking about?
Well, the dictionary at the time makes it perfectly clear that the word herb basically means any edible plant (and even grasses too).
Here’s the problem: as simple as this would be to clarify for modern people whose understanding of the word herb has shifted a fair bit in almost 200 years, the church has failed to do so once.
As we saw at the start, their synopsis of the Word of Wisdom essentially makes an assumption that vegetables must be included under “fruit”.
I find this lack of any research whatsoever into what is clearly meant and implied by “herb” particularly damning for the modern church leadership.
Have they really expended so little effort into correctly understanding this revelation in its original context, so as to better assist church members in applying it for the modern day?
Or worse, do they know precisely what is prescribed here and just disregard its importance to the membership?
What we see now that we’re in the proscriptive section of the revelation is that vegetables, fruits and herbs are the foremost thing God has ordained for our consumption/use, with the proviso that we consume them fresh in their natural season, according to their natural growing cycles.
Again, we see an implication here that we ought to be producing all our own food locally, and be familiar with the various health benefits and medicinal properties of all the different plants we’re capable of growing.
What is, perhaps, most troubling about this section is that modern church teachings on the Word of Wisdom include “ avoiding harmful or habit-forming drugs”, despite a lack of any such wording, express or implied, and for roughly the last hundred years that has included cannabis, the miracle plant that in the 1800s formed the foundation of almost all natural plant-based medicines.
In the last few years, as the social stigma against cannabis has shifted and medicinal (and now recreational) cannabis has become acceptable, the church has approved the use of medicinal cannabis for its members.
This reeks so much of changing-ones-whims-based-on-following-mammon-not-God that I want to literally wash my hands of everyone in the Church Office Building.
If this is indeed a revelation for the “last days”, then let it stand immovable and unchanging.
Nothing in the Word of Wisdom forbids (or implies the forbidding of) cannabis use. In fact, God seems pretty clear that most (if not all) of what is good for man can be found in plants, and that we are to gain wisdom about how to use and consume them correctly for maximal benefit.
The fact that the allegedly traditionalist LDS church has not even retained the superior wisdom about herbs from the 1800s is both deeply troubling and not a good precedent or foundation for the impending future.
8. Meat is NOT ONLY for Winter or Famine
Yea, flesh also of beasts and of fowls, I the Lord hath ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving.
Nevertheless they are to be used sparingly and it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used only in times of winter or of famine.
Now, if you’ve only ever read section 89 as it exists in the modern Doctrine and Covenants, you should hopefully be noticing the same discrepancy I did when I first went back and read this.
Not only has the verse break and punctuation been intentionally changed to place greater emphasis on the word “sparingly”, but punctuation has been added between the words “used” and “only” to completely alter the original meaning.
Don’t believe me?
For further reference, here’s the 1835 printing of the Doctrine and Covenants.
And here’s the 1844 edition.
The only two real changes between the original transcription and both printed versions from Joseph’s lifetime (which are identical) are the addition of the phrase “or of cold”, and the semi-colon after sparingly.
A semi-colon breaks up two different descriptions of the same subject. ie. the sky was red; a sunburnt haze ready to fade into a tan of darkness.
This means that the phrase “should not be used only in times of winter or of cold, or famine” applies as a further description of what the Lord intends by “sparingly”.
But wait, you’re saying, what does “sparingly” mean then, if not “only in times of winter and famine”?
Well, again, Hyrum’s 1942 sermon clarifies that it is “sparing” of the unnecessary shedding of animal life.
We are stewards of animal-kind, to have dominion over them, and we are not to kill them unnecessarily. We are to use their flesh in a manner that spares as many as we don’t actually need. In other words, to avoid the waste of life caused by the needless killing of animals.
To further reiterate this, a revelation given to Joseph in 1931 (now Doctrine and Covenants Section 49) says:
And whoso forbiddeth (commandeth) to abstain from meats, that man should not eat the same, is not ordained of God; for behold, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man, for food, and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance, but… …wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need.
In the mouth of two or three witnesses, meat is ordained by God to be the food and clothing of man, but he doesn’t want you to shed unnecessary blood and waste animal life.
If anything, the natural extension of this law is to only eat what meat you catch or kill yourself, once again, implying a traditional homesteading lifestyle as the basis for life. That is what is meant and implied by “sparingly”.
The scriptures, however, have been altered by modern church leadership to fundamentally change the way many faithful members understand this simple fact.
9. Grain IS Only For Famine and Excess Hunger
All grain is for the use of man and of beasts to be the staff of life not only for man, but for beasts and for the fowls, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth and these hath God ordained for the use of man only in times of famine or excess of hunger
All grain is good for the use of man as also the fruit of the vine that which beareth fruit whether in the ground or above the ground. Nevertheless, wheat for man and corn for the ox and oats for the horse. Rye for the fowls and the swine and for all beasts of the field and barley for all useful animals and for mild drinks as also other grains.
Again, those of you who have only read your modern altered scriptures and blindly believed the philosophies of men mingled with scripture will take issue with this but the original scripture is pretty plain, we just have to deal with a few prejudicial misconceptions you may have.
What is the staff of life?
It’s a poetic term meaning bread.
Where does the term come from?
This one verse in Isaiah.
So in the Bible, bread and water are likened unto a staff or crutch.
When do you use a staff or a crutch?
When you are ill, injured or traveling on an extended and/or taxing journey.
So should a normal, healthy person in good circumstances be using a staff or crutch daily?
Of course not. That would make them physically weaker and less capable over time.
But I thought staff of life meant “staple food”?
No, that’s a begging-the-question logic fallacy. You’re assuming bread is a staple food in order to define bread as a staple food.
But the Lord’s prayer literally says “give us this day our daily bread”?
Do you assume then that God wants you to only ever ask for and eat bread and no other food? Do you not think that perhaps the language is figurative for food in general the same way “meat” can also be used as a word for food in general? Because that’s what the context of the scripture implies. It’s not literal bread.
But what about water? That’s something you need every day.
You don’t actually need water every day to survive. People have lived for months at a time (even years) on raw milk without any water. There are some people who drink juice or soda or coffee or tea instead of water and they continue to live. If there is enough water in your food and other drinks, you don’t actually need to drink water separately every day to survive.
But the food pyramid…
…was made by conspiring men, and is now well understood by dieticians and health experts to be upside down; you want raw saturated fats, protein, fruits and vegetables, zero sugar, and very little grains. Many chronic health conditions over the past century have been the result of the upside-down, processed Western diet.
But it’s the meat from animals that is for famine, not grain.
No. You’re either claiming God is contradicting himself or repeating himself, and we already covered this; no version of any printed or handwritten revelation in Joseph’s time ever implied that it’s better not to eat meat in any season.
You could attempt to argue that this is a clarification on hunting wild beasts, but as we covered previously, section 49 debunks that idea. Grain is the most logical answer for what is being specified as only in times of famine and excess hunger.
But, but, wheat is for man…
Just think about it. Look at the original scripture again. Look at the context.
In verse 1, God went through the things to avoid: Strong drinks, hot drinks and tobacco.
In verse 2, God tells us what IS ordained for man to eat and in the order they are to be preferred.
Number 1: All edible plants, vegetables, fruits, herbs, fresh in their season, that’s your main food.
Number 2: Meat is good too, just be grateful and don’t waste unnecessary life. This implies that you will probably eat less meat than plants, so you ought to be getting what fat and protein you can from eggs and milk from your chickens and cows/goats.
Number 3: Grain is good also, but specifically for times of famine and excess of hunger. It’s food storage; a fall-back; a staff, crutch or staple to rely upon when you don’t have as much readily available fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, etc., and in those cases, wheat is better for man than other grains.
But wait, there’s more.
In the Word of Wisdom revelation, grain for man is likened unto grain for beasts and fowls.
Well, anyone who knows anything about chickens and cows (which is basically everyone in the 1830s) knows that they feed better, produce more eggs and milk, live longer lives, and have far fewer health problems when they are raised on pasture, not grain.
Grain is a fallback. You might use it to supplement their natural diet, perhaps during times of famine or winter, but it’s simply not the main diet God designed for them, and not for us either.
Now, you can choose to continue clinging to false beliefs and the traditions of men over scripture, or you can embrace the fact that God had a higher law of health for you all along, and it’s common sense, spirit-of-the-law, and not at all arbitrary.
The modern interpretation pushed by the LDS church is arbitrary and letter-of-the-law nonsensical.
10. Unfulfilled Promises
And all Saints who remember to keep and do these sayings walking in obedience to the commands shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones and shall find wisdom and great treasures of wisdom and knowledge even hidden treasures and shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint.
And I the Lord give unto them a promise that the destroying angel shall pass them by as they did by the children of Israel and not slay them.
In April 2010, Elder Uchtdorf of the LDS Twelve Apostles spoke in the church’s General Conference about the subject of patience and specifically recounted a troubling experience during his early military training in which, contrary to his expectations, other men who didn’t obey the Word of Wisdom (as the church teaches it) were regularly overtaking him during running exercises, and how weary he felt.
He eventually concludes that their lifestyles caught up with them decades later because now he is the healthier one.
But doesn’t that sound more than a bit like cope?
Skipping over the problematic chosen-one complex that he’s instilling into impressionable young members, I want to focus on the nature of unfulfilled or eventual promises.
Book of Mormon prophet, King Benjamin, had a very different take on the Lord’s promises:
Countless times in the New Testament, Jesus touches a person or says the words and “immediately” they are healed.
According to scripture, the Lord’s blessings are bestowed immediately, not several decades later.
And this is just one part of a much larger and more horrifying trend.
Contrary to the fruits of living prophets and apostles as described in scripture, of eleven different priesthood blessing experiences recounted in the church’s annual General Conference by apostles in recent years, not a single one of the recipients was healed; in fact, the majority of them died!
Anyone overlooking these patterns is either too distracted by the world to notice or isn’t really holding to the word of God as their guide.
And that’s a big problem because the real promise with power behind the principles given in the Word of Wisdom revelation comes right at the end: that the destroying angel shall pass them by as they did by the children of Israel and not slay them.
There is a destroying angel coming (and I believe we’re going to see this desolating scourge very soon).
And if Latter-day Saints cannot abide the actual principles contained within the Word of Wisdom as it was given (NOT as the current LDS church says it is, but as it was actually written in plain, common-sense, spirit-of-the-law terms); if they are not specifically on the lookout for conspiring men desiring to poison them in any of various ways, then they will NOT be passed over for destruction as were the children of Israel in the days of Moses.
And that is the promise.
