Pioneer Days in Utah…Then and Now

24 July

Wagon wheelAh, Pioneer Days aka the “Days of 47”.  Hot sun. Parades, Closed banks & grocery stores. Pioneer regalia marching down the main streets of Utah’s biggest cities are all a tradition held every year in my beloved home state of rugged mountains and lush green valleys.

All these things can be experienced if you’re in Utah on July 24th.  Pioneer Days is the celebration marking the day Brigham Young rolled into Utah with other Mormons who pushed their handcarts from Nauvoo after they were unceremoniously kicked out of town.

The observance of this event held every year can’t be overstated as you see homes and streets expressing the pride of every Mormon for their heritage and the “American Moses”, Brigham Young.

Their gratitude for making it to the Wasatch Front is obvious, but what isn’t so obvious is any marker thanking God for His provision. Where is the indication they worship Jesus? If you’re looking for a Cross or anything symbolizing their Christian faith in the Lord you’ll be sorely disappointed.

As they re-enact what their pioneer ancestors accomplished in 1847, the Church today is also busying itself with sounding out the call for a new type of pioneer to flood the earth with the Mormon gospel delivered by Moroni, an angel of light.

They’re encouraging members to go online and be a pioneer to corners of the world they never would have known before. The bonnets and petticoats of yesteryear have been hung up and traded in for a laptop and a corner of the dining room table.  Stay at home moms in the burbs of Utah have been told by leaders of the Church to create their own blogs to promote a message of the Mormon Jesus most of the world has never heard of before.  Using the blogs as a daily journal or lessons on genealogical work and even a repository for family recipes is a good way to lure people in as they share the daily life of a Mormon and spread their version of who Jesus is.

This strategic plan along with changing the age requirement for missionaries isn’t a coincidence or accident my friend! Be on the lookout for more missionary type work showing up in your Google searches or on your front doorstep as often as you saw those “I’m a Mormon” ad campaigns we had to endure during the 2012 presidential elections.

The message of needing new pioneers isn’t just for those stateside – oh no – they’ve taken their message of being a new kind of pioneer to the nations who’ve probably never heard of what took place on the American frontier; Uganda, Liberia and Kenya to name a few.

As the LDS are busy with the festivities of the season let’s pray they’ll find time to discover and thank Jesus for what He did for them. It’s easy enough to be burdened with the ideologies of Mormonism, but when it’s celebrated to this extent it makes seeing Jesus even more cumbersome.

To learn more about the spiritual impact of this you can read our article about worshiping Mormon pioneer ancestors.

Remember also what the Lord told us about the dangers when we involve ourselves in ancestor worship. In Psalm 45:10 we read; “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; 11 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.”

And then in 1 John 2:16 it says; “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

You don’t have to pray to the dead people to dishonor God.  By definition, worship means you’ve devoted your time, talent and energy to something. Temple worship which is a Mormon term is not from God. And to be involved in temple worship means you go to the temple to devote yourself to do works for dead people. This is necromancy and the worship of false gods.

The first commandment tells us not to worship any other gods in Exodus 20:3; “ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Please, if you’re LDS think about these things during this holiday season in Utah. Search the Bible even further and see what the Lord has to say about it.

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

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