In a world growing darker with time, Clyde Williams took a moment to spread a little light on how to recognize the secret combinations, both ancient and modern, of the world.
Williams’ Education Week class enlightened students with little tips and insights they might have missed in their personal study of the Book of Mormon
“A secret combination can be two people conspiring to get a recommend from the bishop to get into the temple unworthily,” Williams said. “Lucifer will introduce it to anyone who will give him a listening ear.”
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“A lot of our enemies are former members of the Church,” Williams said. “They leave us, but can’t leave us alone.”
From the beginning of time, secret combinations have plagued the world. Williams mentioned some of these potential modern-day combinations, like the Mafia and terrorist groups.
“There’s a pattern here in scripture,” he said. “This doesn’t just apply for them, the Lord’s given us these as a warning for us.”
Williams described what a secret combination looked like. They’ve modernized, he said, but everything they do is still the same.
Secret combinations will have secret covenants and signs to ensure the privacy of their society. Interestingly enough, many of these signs imitate, and mock, sacred temple occurrences.
“When we see these secret combinations you’re going to find some parallel,” Williams said. “The adversary takes things that we do that are sacred to us in the temple and he’ll imitate some things.”
Similarly to this, Williams said, secret combinations will make a mockery of the things we, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hold sacred.
Williams also pointed out the intention of most secret combinations: to murder, plunder and get gain.
“Life doesn’t seem to mean much to terrorists,” Williams said. “[The Adversary] didn’t get a life … if he can cut somebody’s life short it’s all the better.”
Most of all, Williams said, secret combinations want to take away freedom. With freedom, they justify, comes sin. Their idea of command, he said, is similar to Satan’s.
“Just think about terrorists today, they don’t like democracy,” Williams said. “They don’t want freedom, they want control.”
Luckily, Williams said, there’s a way to avoid and, if enough are faithful, overthrow these secret combinations.
“When things get really bad, people often feel threatened or concerned and so they begin to think more about religion,“ Williams said. “Isn’t that, in a way, sad that that’s what it takes to get there.”
While secret combinations depend of principles of wickedness, having power over others, to survive, Williams urged the students in his class to follow principles of righteousness in their lives. This principle is power, not over man, but over the natural man.
“These are being revealed … to get power over the devil and all the influences we face,” Williams said. “That is done to help us to become like Christ so we can help lift others and be as he is.”
