Splinter Groups FLDS

Answering Mormons questions by Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson deals with 36 commonly asked questions by your LDS friends and neighbors. It's a great resource for Christians want to share their faith with friends and loved ones. Be sure to pick up your copy today at your favorite Christian bookstore viewpoint on Mormonism program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from a biblical perspective viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism research ministry since 1979 Mormonism research ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect.

And now, your host for today's viewpoint on Mormonism so glad to be with us for this edition of viewpoint on Mormonism on your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director Mormonism research ministry and with me today is Eric Johnson.

My colleague at RM who was born Jeff's and what is the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This week we began a series looking at some of the probably lesser-known churches that fall under the umbrella of the restoration movement they all claim that Joseph Smith is the founder of their movement, even though they do not agree when it comes to doctrinal positions and, of course. Certainly, their history would be a little bit different when it comes to each unique group as well. The fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the F LDS, and we should mention that the word ladder-day has a capital D not a small D like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, headquartered in Salt Lake City, but you would probably agree Eric that of all the groups. This one is probably going to be a bit more well known outside of perhaps the community of Christ that we do plan on covering as well, mainly because Warren Jeffs has quite a colorful though disgusting history and he is currently serving a prison term since 2006. Yeah it it actually apt that that first case got overturned by the Utah Supreme Court. So then he was extradited to Texas and so now he has been proven guilty and is serving a life sentence +20 years, so there's no way that he'll ever be able to get out of prison that Warren just was not the founder of this movement. This goes back to founder Leroy S. Johnson. He was I guess members would affectionately quote" call him uncle Roy. He lived between 1888 and 1986. This church, this organization was founded in 1952 and it has a strong emphasis on the practice of plural marriage. That is like a telltale trademark of this group that is plural marriage. The main places where this group congregates would be Hildale, Utah as well as Colorado city, Arizona yeah, I noticed our Twin Cities and until recently, the majority of population in Hildale and Colorado city were made up of F LDS, but in recent years people have left. In fact, only 5% of those in Hildale. It's estimated our F LDS in about 40% of Colorado city and so many of those members have moved to other places and in southern Utah they use to have a place in Canada, and South Dakota, North Dakota, and I'm to be honest with all the research I've done and I've talked to people who are familiar with this group and nobody knows if anybody is even at those sites anymore so it's a hard grip to really understand with no website we can't just go on there and find out how this group is doing but certainly, ever since Warren Jeffs was arrested in 2006 and he has not been released since 2006. This church is really suffered because he was the kingpin of how this church operates today and would you agree that this is probably one of the more difficult groups to have a discussion with they don't usually talk a lot about what they believe they're very suspicious of just about everybody. If you were to drive into Hildale, Utah.

I've heard stories of people that have gone there and there's a truck sitting there watching you and you always feel like somebody has their eyes on you there very suspicious in that area for many years that Warren Jeffs was the principal of a school near Little Cottonwood Canyon and that was called Alta Academy and he was the principal for 22 years.

He was very strict and then it wasn't until 1998 that the church told people to move to Colorado city in Hildale that Little Cottonwood Canyon leading up to some of the ski resorts written by there many times and there. Still, I think at least one house left that belong to this group. All the others have been torn down. They've all been raised in new construction has been put in their place thousand 2002, where Warren Jeffs after having move the people to these Twin Cities.

He begins to tighten the screws and he starts to institute rigid rules for the members and let me just tell you some of the roles that the members had to live by.

They could no longer fly the flag. They cannot participate in sports that could not have any organized get-togethers. It could not dance.

They could not have holidays. No TV, no books, no dogs, magazines and newspapers were banned and not even allowed to go camp or fish. Was there also a strange restriction that you couldn't wear clothing that was red in color. He was a believer that the color red was a sign of the devil, which is ironic because in 2006 when he was arrested.

He was found in a bright red vehicle and it upset many of the members because it was very much a slap in the face to everybody who no longer would wear red and here's their profit escaping the police. He was one of the top 10 wanted in the FBI wanted list and when they catch him. They catch up in this red vehicle.

So, like many other groups. What the leaders do is not what the members are supposed to do.

It's more of you know, do what I say don't follow my example because they look at themselves as being a special emissary for God and therefore they're not usually held to the same kind of restrictions and it's amazing to me in these groups, how they so easily seem to fall in line and do what they're told. See, this is the danger when you put so much trust in another fallen individual. If you really think this person is called of God to tell you, God's will do just about anything and this is why we find ourselves being so frustrated when it comes to some of the behavior of Joseph Smith Junior he's doing things that members would never be allowed to do, especially when it comes to the subject of polygamy. But that's okay. They make all sorts of excuses for Joseph Smith. He can get what we call the proverbial pass regarding his behavioral inconsistencies. But if you as a member were to do those things you would be discipline, maybe even to the point of being kicked out of the organization now in 2003. This group purchased a 1400 acre ranch called the Y. F.

Z. That stands for yearning for Zion.

This was in El Dorado, Texas.

There was a temple built there, but they no longer hold this property. Do they know they don't.

They actually ended up losing it and one of the things that they would do here in this temple on that night and just have a temple. They had 1400 people who were living there at. At the same time the temple was dedicated in 2005, but they also had houses in a meeting house and guess what Warren Jeffs had a 29,000 square-foot home for the profit but what they did is they ended up doing a lot of marriages in this temple where they would consummate the marriage on a special bed that Warren Jeffs had made, but when he did he made a mistake if you're gonna try to do things with under age girls as young as 12 years old and having sexual relations with them filming what they would do together and those films were. But what actually ended up getting him a life sentence. In fact, some of those films were found in the vehicle when he was arrested in 2006 here's all the evidence they needed in this box and I don't know why somebody would want to have that as a memory.

But this man had over 70 wives. In fact, when his father died, his father, who was the the prophet before him died. He told everybody to leave those wives alone, and he ends up marrying dozens and dozens of his father's wives to be able to have them for himself, so he has plenty of women, but he had to have girls as young as 12 years old and to have that on audio to implicate him II don't understand why he would have done that what he had to have known that that was illegal. Maybe he didn't think it was wrong and maybe he's following the example of Joseph Smith although Jeff Smith, the youngest he ever dealt with was 14, but this man actually 12 years old. It makes you wonder how wise an individual, Warren Jeffs could possibly be when he's arrested in 2006. He is pretty distressed and on January 28, 2007. He tries to hang himself when he was awaiting trial. Try to kill himself and does not succeed at that.

But then in September 2007. He is found guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice and was sentenced to 10 years to life in the Utah State prison. But as I mentioned before, this court overruled that because the jury had been given faulty instructions and so Texas was waiting to have him come and so they extradited him to Texas and probably even worse as far as a sentence goes because he did get the life +20 years and even though he will be up for parole in about 20 years. That doesn't seem like anybody thinks that he would ever be able to escape. Now Jeffs actually taught that the world was going to come to an end in 2013. Obviously that was a false prophecy, but he also came out with a book that garnered a bit of notoriety because he mailed this book out to a number of political leaders in all over the country and what was the name of that book. It was called Jesus Christ message to all nations, and I read that book and there was actually a second edition that came out a year later, but in 2012. He writes this book and he writes as if he's talking to Barack Obama and all of leaders of the world saying what catastrophes would happen if they did not release Warren Jeffs and meanwhile Jeffs is operating out of prison they actually discovered that he was doing that and took away his right to be able to talk to his membership but he he was somebody who I think had a lot of audacity to think that God was still using him in prison and to have him released.

You can read the review that I did on Jesus Christ message to all nations by going to MRM.org/Warren Jeffs, and if you want to read more about this FL DS group you can go to our website MRM.org/FL DS and you could even say that the Jeffs families, like a crime family. His brother Lyle was indicted for fraud and money laundering. On February 23, 2016 so again these people feel that they are above the law. They can do what they want on any cuts off his ankle bracelet and he goes to North Dakota for a year and they finally rediscovered him. And so now he's serving a five-year certain sentence that he was given in 2017. We have a treat for you because tomorrow were going to be interviewing Brody Olson. He is a Christian missionary who has lived in the Hildale Colorado city area since 2012 so were going to get his first-hand account of what life is like living in this area and ministering among members from the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding his research ministry. We encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org you can request our free newsletter Mormonism research. We hope you'll join us again as we look at another viewpoint is sharing your faith with the latter-day St. It helps to know what their church is taught in several basic topics.

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