"Bound in Bundles"
The phrase Deep State became a widespread term during President Trump’s administration, but it originated in the 1990s in reference to an alleged longtime deep state in Turkey. Even then, the thought was not new. In the 1950s, many Americans believed in the existence of a “Dual State” as reported in 1955 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Dual State referred to a hidden national security hierarchy and shadow government that monitors and controls elected politicians. President Eisenhower, in his 1961 farewell address, warned Americans about the “military industrial complex.”
Today, the term has broadened to include a host of global networks, including bankers, corporate executives, medical leaders, think-tanks, financiers, and governments all working together toward a mutually agreed upon future. Christians see a chilling resemblance between this administrative state and Biblical prophecies about a coming Antichrist.
Our church always taught the Reformation interpretation of prophecy: that the prophecy in Daniel about Nebuchadnezzar’s image (Daniel, Ch. 2), as well the one about the four beasts that emerged from the sea (Daniel, Ch 7), denotes the four successive empires that ruled over the Jews: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome; the ten toes (Ch 2) and the ten kingdoms (Ch 7) refer to the ten barbaric kingdoms that invaded the Roman Empire and won parts of it; and the “little horn” that grew after the ten horns appeared on the fourth beast apply to the “man of sin,” whom Apostle Paul prophesied would exalt “himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thes 2:4). This is the Papacy, whom the reformers concluded was the prophesied Antichrist. He ruled Western Civilization from an ecclesiastical throne as ruthlessly and powerfully as any pagan Emperor.
Although Daniel cryptically foretold an end to the Antichrist’s ability “to scatter the power of the holy people” (Dan 12:7), which happened September 20, 1870 when the Vatican was stripped of its temporal states, today believers naturally fear the emergence of a shadowy administrative state that is dedicated to a new world order. They worry that Christians may soon awake to find a totalitarian regime in control of them, their nation, and perhaps the world.
When Nimrod built his totalitarian empire around the Tower of Babel, the Lord’s people had a virgin world into which they could flee. Likewise, when an unholy alliance between church and state developed after the Reformation and arrested, imprisoned, and even executed people for following Biblical teachings according to their conscience, the Lord provided the American wilderness as a land of refuge. He even promised, as Cotton Mather pointed out to the first Puritans setting sail for America, that He had prepared a land where they would be forever safe from the enemies of true religion. Mather quoted Nathan’s prophecy “I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime” (2 Sam 7:10). If a totalitarian state rises, especially if it is worldwide, there is no place of refuge today to which people can flee. Instead, the Lord must destroy any emerging deep state.
In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the king saw that “the God of heaven set up a kingdom” (Dan 2:44). He also heard when that kingdom would be established: “In the days of these kings” (Dan 2:44). The kings are the kings that are represented in the statue: the head of gold (Babylon), breast and arms of silver (Persia), belly and thighs of brass (Greece), legs of iron (Rome), and feet with ten toes of iron and clay (the barbaric kingdoms that divided the Roman Empire). All 14 nations existed at the same time, from February 1830 until December 1918. That is the same time that America developed as a world power, and the church emerged from hiding in its wilderness (Rev 12:14).
John the Revelator testified that after Jesus opened the first six seals that secured the sealed book, an angel “having the seal of the living God” (Rev 8:2) demanded sufficient time “till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Rev 8:3). These “came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 8:14). That period when the servants of God were sealed for their testimony of Jesus began under Roman rule, but extends till today. When that time ends, “there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour” (Rev 9:1). Latter-day revelation explains why: “The powers of darkness prevail upon the earth, among the children of men, in the presence of all the hosts of heaven, which causeth silence to reign, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to reap down the earth, to gather the tares that they may be burned; and, behold, the enemy is combined” (D&C 38:3b-c). The silence in heaven not only marks when the period for sealing God’s servants is over, but that the enemies of God’s kingdom are bound; that the deep state is ready for its destruction.
The fact that the Deep State is no longer hidden and so many people see it shows that the enemies of the kingdom of God are combined. They do not fear being detected or challenged. They openly advocate immorality and violence, while opposing Christianity, freedom, and wholesome families. Their propaganda and subversion is causing America and the West, perhaps the entire world, to divide until little, if any, common ground remains. This is the time of the end, when the good and bad are separated. Jesus taught, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world” (Matt 13:47-49). Jesus said the same in His parable of the wheat and tares: “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt 13:30).
The separation that is happening now is dividing people into two groups: one defending goodness and virtue, especially as outlined in Christian teachings and morals, and one advocating immorality and impiety. It is what Jesus called the harvest, when the grain and chaff are separated, the depleted stalks bound, and the chaff winnowed away. Latter-day revelation explains, “Behold, she is the tares of the earth, she is bound in bundles, her bands are made strong, no man can loose them; therefore, she is ready to be burned” (D&C 85:26c). Once the silence in heaven ends, the angels will reap the harvest. The good will be “gathered into the barn,” a place of safety, and the bad cast out among the wicked.
Are we in the period of silence, when heaven mourns for all those who choose to fight against God’s kingdom? Are the enemies of righteousness currently being identified and separated from the kingdom while the good prepared for it?
When Jesus began His ministry, He “came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). The good heard and obeyed. They followed Jesus. When judgment came on the Jews in 70 AD, their Temple was destroyed, Jerusalem decimated, and the nation entirely defeated. The Jewish Christians, being forewarned by an oracle, gathered to Pella on the East side of Jordan where they were safe. They returned to Jerusalem afterward.
In these last days, before the time of harvest, but when the fields were white, the Lord sent servants with the gospel message. He told them, “Open your mouths and they shall be filled, saying, Repent, repent and prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; yea, repent and be baptized every one of you, for the remission of your sins; yea, be baptized even by water, and then cometh the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. Behold, verily, verily I say unto you, This is my gospel." (D&C 32:2f-3a). This is the same message that Jesus bore. Let us diligently declare this message. Let us all believe and obey the gospel. Let us help others do the same. If we do, like the Christians in 70 AD, we will be gathered in the harvest and forever dwell in God’s kingdom.