I’ve been re-reading an article from my files about the Mormon Mafia and the JFK assassination by John F. Sweeney. I haven’t written about Sweeney’s paper and I don’t intend to write about it today. It is quite damning and I don’t want more trouble in my life than I’ve already had. Another reason I haven’t written about it is the hundreds of JFK assassination theories that already exist. No, instead this article is about a book cited by Sweeney, The Cleansing of America1 by Willard Cleon Skousen. My question: Is it true what some are saying that we should be connecting Project 2025, Opus Dei & and Mormons?
If you like to research the books you read, as I do, Cleon Skousen’s book is on another level of believability. It does not depend on sources. In fact, it doesn’t depend on reality at all. Skousen claims to know God’s plan for the United States and the World. And as we all know too well, such beliefs are the political currency of our time.
Cleon Skousen Left Instructions For Future Publication of His Book
The Preface tells us this book represents years of writing and speaking about prophecy and the latter days relative to the United States. Skousen told his family that he wrote it for them, but he didn’t feel comfortable going public with it until the time was right. He left instructions for future publication and included the assurance that his family would know when the time was right. It would be a chaotic time, he said. Abandonment of the constitution would be among the many horrors. (Apparently the time was right in 2010.)
The Restoration of the Gospel is What Peter Had in Mind When He Talked About ‘The Restitution of All Things’
According to the Introduction, this book is a sequel to The Majesty of God’s Law, which Skousen says relied ‘almost entirely on the Bible and standard secular sources’. However, for this prophecy concerning the last days in America he had to use the marvelous works of the Restoration (The Book of Mormon). Skousen believes the Restoration of the Mormon Church was what Peter had in mind when he talked about ‘the restitution of all things’.
Summary of the Introduction
The central theme of The Cleansing of America is the preparation of America for six major purposes:
- The restoration of the Constitution
- The adoption of God’s law
- The introduction of a Zion society under the Law of Consecration with individual stewardships.
- The great last gathering of Israel
- The coming of the ten tribes
- The building of the New Jerusalem
Chapter 1: The Divine Destiny of America
In chapter one we learn that the end goal is the ‘divine destiny of America’. But first, nine things must happen:
- The message of the restored gospel must flood the earth in order to search out the remnants of Israel and prepare them for the great last gathering. This has increased since 1989 because the world has opened up.
- But first we must cleanse America. The near future will see the fulfillment of the time of the gentiles in America. At that time, the wickedness of the gentiles will have so thoroughly sinned against the gospel and desecrated the land that it will go beyond the further endurance of God.
- The Lord says the means of this cleansing will be a desolating scourge, which will eliminate the elements of wickedness among the gentiles as well as the members of the church.
- After America is cleansed, the members of the church worldwide will be called to flee to America before it is too late. Also, those who do not want to be drafted into the military world dictatorship will be called to flee to America before it is sealed off.
- The Western hemisphere will then be sealed off so that it cannot be attacked. The roaring seas will prevent anyone from reaching America either by sea or by air.
- The scripture says at that time America will be the only place on the face of the earth where there will be peace. This will allow the people to be organized according to God’s law. Zion’s cities will be built up to provide freedom, peace and prosperity for the inhabitants of all faiths and the new Jerusalem will be set up as the capitol to govern the entire land.
- After the Battle of Armageddon, Jesus will appear to the Jews and the leaders of the military dictatorship will be wiped out. With only a sixth of the army surviving, the battered remnants will flee back to their homes. America will no longer need to be sealed off. Thereafter, the New Jerusalem in America will be the Zion from which shall go forth the law with the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
- After the fall of Gog and Magog, following the Battle of Armageddon, the remnants of the remaining nations will be fighting and quarreling among themselves. Meanwhile, the ten tribes will make their miraculous journey to the temples in America. Twelve thousand will be chosen from each of the tribes. These 144,000 will go out among the nations to warn them for the last time. Those who reject their message will be sealed up to destruction at the time of Christ’s second coming.
- And just before the second coming there will be many gigantic changes on the surface of the earth. The continents and island will become one land. The mountains will be lowered, the seas will be forced back to the poles, and the earth will be restored to its paradisiacle glory just as it was before the Fall.
According to Skousen, the Lord has said that all of these things must occur before the ushering in of the millennium. So, where we are now on this continuum?
The Signs of the Times (According to Skousen)
“The hedonistic disintegration of the culture in recent years is virtually unbelievable. All the elements of rot and corruption which have destroyed three previous civilizations on this continent are now spreading the same poisonous decadence on every level of American society. Who would ever have guessed that America would outlaw Bible reading, prayer, or the ten commandments in public schools? Or legalize the abortion of 40 million American babies in a single generation…or tolerate a flood of murders, robberies, violent assaults and rapes exceeding that of any other nation in the world? …[W]ho would have thought that with the hundreds of millions spent to build prisons, the most dangerous types of criminals would be turned loose on the streets because officials claimed they had no room to hold them? Or… the filth pouring out in books, magazines, television and motion pictures? [Who woud have believed] the thousands of children being sexually abused, even by their own parents? Or the legalizing of sodomy as an optionally judicially protected lifestyle and calling it part of the new morality?” (Skousen, Chapter 1)
Skousen then informs the reader that many prophets have predicted doom for this nation. They say the only way to avoid destruction is if the entire people repents. However, not one of the prophets, including Maroni, the last prophet of the Nephites, believed repentence would take place.
The Importance of Civilizational Decline in Right-Wing Scenarios
I explained in a previous article the importance of civilizational decline in right-wing scenarios. Here Skousen spins his own version of certain doom for the United States. His warning to the gentiles, those who are strangers to the law of God: if they fail to repent the sword of the justice of God will come upon them.
Don’t Give Goodness a Bad Name
It’s a terrible thing to hold someone’s religious beliefs up to ridicule. But if those beliefs result in judging and physically destroying entire nations, they mock the patience and good will the American people have shown to the Mormons.
No doubt as members of the human race we all have much to repent for, the Mormons Church included. I’m not thinking so much of church members who have strayed. I’m thinking of the church’s leadership. One wonders if Skousen’s prophecy of a scourge was behind Donald Trump’s failure to act during the Covid crisis. And perhaps the South African refugees are members of the church and they are fleeing to America before it is sealed off. Finally, could the imprisoning of immigrants have something to do with building a Zion society?
This may sound farfetched, but what else can explain the unflinching cruelty of the current administration?
- The Cleansing of America, W. Cleon Skousen, Valor Publishing Group, April 2, 2010. ↩︎