I just arose from a very disturbing dream.  I was told that one of my good friends and Church members was now a general in the adversary’s army.  He came riding by on a horse at the head of this army.  He was way in advance of the army, so he was the only individual that I saw.  But I caught a glimpse of his face.  This is what was so disturbing about the dream.  I initially couldn’t believe that he could have fallen so far as to lead Satan’s army, but it was him all right.  I could recognize his former self and former countenance, but it had changed so much as to be almost unbelievable.  The shine was gone.  His strength and vitality and handsomeness were gone.  He was ugly.  He had aged dramatically.  He couldn’t keep his head upright.  It tilted badly to the side, and there was an inner trembling and shakiness evident.

But his face looked resolute.  He had the illusion that he was doing something important, and that he was important.  I was filled with pity for him, but it was obvious that there was nothing I could do to reclaim him.  He had abandoned himself to destruction thinking he was doing some great thing.  The Spirit had, therefore, abandoned him.  He thought of himself as a great leader (which he was while I knew him in the Church), but now he was leading an army that wasn’t really there.  He was so far in advance of the army that I never even saw it.  He was a pitifully alone, misguided, dark, ugly, lost soul.

I wonder if my dream was prompted by a conversation that I had with Kevin last night.  M. Russell Ballard encouraged good Church members, who had the ability and interest, to participate in on-line forums about the Church.  Kevin took that challenge.  He has been a part of two such forums over the past year.

He doesn’t preach in these forums, but kindly responds to misinformation about the Church, and answers questions that are directed to him.  In one forum he has led one woman from being mildly interested in anti-Mormon dialog to regular Church attendance back in the Midwest somewhere.  Another person sent him a message saying, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Mormon.”  One or more of the more virulent contributors to the forum have dropped out because they couldn’t counter Kevin’s gentle and unassailable positions, and because other contributors of the forum rallied to Kevin’s defense against the unfair and vituperative attacks these persons made against him.

He recently visited another “Christian” forum that has an LDS sub-forum heavily dominated by ex-Mormons.  A video was posted there that was so untrue and detrimental to the Church that Kevin just had to respond.  He was immediately attacked by many former members of the Church who were the principal contributors to the forum.  They had widely divergent views, and all felt that they were called of God to expose the evils of the Church.  They were united only in their opposition to the Church.  Kevin posed a question to them wondering how they could all be called of God when they diverged so completely.  He left the forum, but not before one man corresponded privately with him and shared the epiphany he’d had wherein he suddenly realized who these people were, and what they were trying to do.

I wonder if those people were the general in Satan’s army that I saw.  What a miserable, sour, friendless, unenviable, lonely, sad, dark and futureless position!  They have the illusion that they’re doing something important, but all they’re doing is fighting against the light.  They’re confusing those who might come to the light, and fulfilling Satan’s will as he moves them like pawns in a chess game.  They’re each only worth one point, so he’ll readily sacrifice them when a move is to his advantage.

“I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them; for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off;

“… (they have) gone astray, and have denied me, and have sought their own counsels in the dark; and in their own abominations have they devised murder, and have not kept the commandments…

“Wherefore, they have foresworn themselves, and by their oaths, they have brought upon themselves death; and a hell I have prepared for them, if they repent not.”  (Moses 6:27-29).