Not a Dime's Difference? Look Again.

A few days ago a man left a string of comments under one of my videos. He opened by telling me I was completely misguided and that my lack of discernment was shocking. Embarrassing, he said. So I asked him to show me where I was wrong. Give me a scripture. He didn't give me one. He said he wasn't challenging the scriptures, only my interpretation of them, and that the whole thing was nonsense. So I sent him the video where I explain how all of this got started, hoping it would help. He watched it. Then he came back and told me that, as far as he was concerned, there wasn't a dime's difference between me and a man on YouTube who claims a revelation told him he is the Davidic servant. The only difference he could see was that I wasn't claiming to be the Davidic servant myself. We were both either deceived or delusional, he said, and he wasn't going to spend one more second on my absurd claim.

I'm not going to name that other man here. I don't need to. Many of you already know who I'm talking about, and if you don't, his name isn't the point. The point is that I keep getting lumped in with him and with people like him. This wasn't the first time. I've had to answer the same charge in other places, so I want to answer it once, plainly, and then I can send people here when it comes up again.

We are nothing alike.

What I Have Never Claimed

Let me start with what I am not claiming. I'm not claiming that I've seen an angel. I never had a vision regarding this book, and I've never had a near-death experience. When I first learned all of these things, I honestly wondered why I didn't have some kind of dramatic experience to go along with them. Why no vision? Why no angel? Now I'm glad I didn't. There are a whole bunch of people who have come forward making exactly those claims, and I'm thankful God dealt with me the way He did. What I received for this work came through the still small voice, the same way any member of the Church receives it.

But I know that's not really the difference. Someone will say a voice is still a voice, and a claim is still a claim. Fair enough. So here is the real difference, and it's the one that matters. I claim no authority over anyone. I hold no calling for this, no keys, and no right to receive revelation for the Church or for any member of it. I'm not asking anybody to follow me. I'm not telling anyone the prophet is wrong. That's the line between a member who believes he has been prompted to do something and a man who sets himself up over the Church, and I've written about who receives revelation for whom because so many people get lost right there.

And when the prompting came, I did what I was taught to do. I went to my stake president. Not for his approval, and not to have him review a manuscript, but to make sure I wasn't being deceived. That's a check outside of myself, and I needed one. I've written about the day I sat down with my stake president and why so many people dismiss it.

I'm not claiming to be the Davidic servant. I'm not claiming to be the one mighty and strong either. I'm not claiming the Church has fallen in any way, and I'm certainly not claiming I'm going to take it over. The servant my book is about is Donald Trump, and the case for that is in the scriptures, not in me. If you think my reading of Isaiah is wrong, I'm open to being shown where. I've laid it out in who the Davidic servant is, with every reference. Show me the verse and I'll gladly look at it. A label isn't a verse.

The One Mighty and Strong

Here is what bothers me most. When a man stands up and says he is the one mighty and strong, he has just told you he doesn't understand the scriptures. He hasn't read them correctly. I have a whole section in my book about what the one mighty and strong is going to do, and it has nothing to do with taking over the Church. There is nothing wrong with the Church. It has to do with receiving inheritances in Zion. Read the verse yourself...

And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the saints whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God; (Doctrine and Covenants 85:7)

Inheritances. Names enrolled in the book of the law of God. The whole section is about the Saints who moved to Zion and the records of who consecrated and who received an inheritance. Even the heading in your own scriptures says it. Nowhere in that section does God send someone to correct His prophet or replace His apostles. And yet for well over a century, one person after another has pulled that verse out of its setting and put himself in it. This is another one. He misread the scriptures and then wrote himself into them. The First Presidency addressed this very thing a long time ago, and I've gone through what the First Presidency actually said about the one mighty and strong in another article.

And it's a prideful thing. Anybody who says, "Look, I'm in the scriptures, I'm the one mighty and strong," has stepped onto very dangerous ground. Then this man goes on, and I've watched him say it in other videos, to announce that he and his group are going to come in and take over the Church. That is the boldest thing I think I have ever heard. You are going to walk up there and lead, and seventeen million people are going to sustain you as the prophet of the Church because you said so? That's not going to work. It never has. That isn't how God calls His servants, and every member who has raised a hand in a sustaining vote knows it.

Jesus Told Us This Would Happen

How many times do we have to hear this? How many times have we seen it before? Jesus Christ warned us that in the last days there would be false Christs, false prophets, false preachers, and false teachers, and He didn't say they would only come from outside...

For in those days there shall also arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch, that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant. (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:22)

The elect according to the covenant. That's us. We are watching this happen right now, all over the world, and it's happening in the Church and outside the Church. Somebody sees an angel, and the next thing you know they're on YouTube telling everybody what the angel said. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. But I'm mostly concerned about those inside the Church, because what I'm watching is people following them. There are videos of this man going to meetings and telling people, "Oh, look, I can see the Spirit right now. He's right behind you." And the Spirit wants you to know he's there, and he wants you to have the best, and he's looking forward to you succeeding. And the people eat it up.

There's something in these people that wants to believe it. They want the dramatic spiritual experience. They want someone to tell them he's seeing visions right now, in the room, about them. And they are falling for it.

That's the dangerous part. A man can go out and claim anything he wants, but the fact that he has followers is what worries me. I've gone to his page and read the comments. "Oh, you're so right. We're so grateful to have you." Everybody loves praise. But what are they praising him for? False teachings? Come on. This is bizarre.

Priestcraft 101

And then there's the money. He holds retreats where he charges six hundred dollars for a weekend so men can come and learn how to be better Christians. Six hundred bucks. He's performing baptisms. He's charging for blessings. He's making money off of blessings! The Book of Mormon has a name for this, and it isn't complicated...

He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion. (2 Nephi 26:29)

Now, I know exactly what some of you are thinking. Kelly, you sell a book. You have a YouTube channel. People praise you in the comments too. So let's be honest about that verse, because I'd rather say it myself than have someone say it for me. Selling a book is not priestcraft. Members of the Church write books and sell them every day, and you can buy them at Deseret Book. Priestcraft is setting yourself up as the light. It's putting a price on sacred things, on ordinances and blessings, and drawing people to yourself instead of to the Lord and His Church. And Nephi gives us the test at the end of the verse. They seek not the welfare of Zion. So ask where a man is pointing you. Is he pointing you to himself, his retreats, and his group? Or is he pointing you back to the prophet, the temple, and your covenants? That's the question. Everything I write points back to the Church.

He also predicted that the Salt Lake Temple is going to fall. That's the temple they just finished rebuilding to survive a major earthquake, at enormous cost. He says it's coming down next year. Another week, it's going to fall. Oh my heavens.

I wish he were the only one. He isn't. There are others, and I don't want to name them all. We are living in exactly the time Jesus predicted, when people are proclaiming themselves as false Christs, false preachers, and false prophets.

It Can Happen to Anybody

What it shows me is that people are not doing what they need to do to maintain their own testimonies. They had testimonies. Real ones. But they let them get weak enough that when some man comes along who speaks boldly and proclaims what's going to happen next, predicting all kinds of things, they decide he must be a great leader. I have personal friends who are falling for this stuff. I'm a temple worker, and I'm watching friends of mine who served in the temple fall for it. We've seen former sealers sitting on podcasts telling their stories against the Church. It can happen to anybody, at any level of membership, and that's why we can never let our guard down. Not for a day. I wrote about this in why people leave the Church, and it comes down to the same root every time.

One of the things they do is make outrageous accusations against Church leaders. Satanic ritual abuse. Child abuse and child sacrifices going on in the temple. There is no way in the world. Then they'll find somebody who has fallen away from the Church, somebody who used to work in the temple, and that person will say, "Oh yeah, it happens all the time." No, it doesn't. Once you've lost the Spirit, you can't tell truth from error anymore, not the way you could before. And people will say anything. I mean anything, to get more friends.

I know how that sounds coming from me, because that's exactly what my critic said about me. Every person who has been deceived believes he's the one seeing clearly. That's why none of us can be our own test. The test has to sit outside of us. Does it agree with the scriptures? Does it agree with the living prophets? Would you take it to your bishop or your stake president? Does it lead you closer to the Church or away from it? I've tried to hold myself to those questions, and I'd ask you to hold me to them too.

That's the strangest part of the world we live in now. Remember when we didn't have a cell phone glued to our face the whole time? We had to talk to people. If I went to my group of friends and said something ridiculous, they would have let me have it. Today it doesn't matter what you say. You can say anything at all and you'll find people who follow you. They'll support you. They'll give you money. They'll give you a like on your Facebook page, your YouTube channel, or your Instagram. This is the strangest time in history.

Satan uses pride, and the ones to watch out for most are those who have made covenants and broken them. That's the deal. You keep the covenant, and God is with you. You break the covenant, and you lose that promise, and Satan is right there waiting...

I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. (Doctrine and Covenants 82:10)

There have been some horrible stories told about members of the Church who broke their covenants and went on to commit terrible crimes. 20/20 and Dateline love those stories. That is the condition. As soon as you break a covenant, you are in deep trouble, and a dramatic spiritual experience is the last thing you should trust. It's also why I don't watch the near-death experiences that show up on YouTube. I'm not going to spend my time sorting through them. Everybody wants something strange and dramatic. Look at me, look what I've experienced. If you've ever wondered how to avoid deception, the first step is to stop chasing that.

Yes, I Know I Wrote a Book

Now, I understand how this sounds. I'm telling you to stick with the basics of the gospel, and I know that what I teach about the first horseman is definitely not in the basics of the Church. I'm telling you that and then telling you to buy my book. I get it.

But here is the difference. God asked me to publish it to the world. For two years I wasn't allowed to say anything, and I didn't. I didn't publish one word of it online or on social media. Then, when I was going to compile everything just for my family and self-publish it, God told me, on December 23, 2024, to publish it to the world. I remember the exact date. I'm following what He asked me to do, because the first seal of Revelation has not opened yet, and when it does, I believe it will be too late to start getting ready. That's part of why I'm writing this article at all. These false Christs and false preachers are coming out of the woodwork, and they are going to get worse.

So look at the limitations on what I've done. I never saw an angel. I never had a vision regarding this book. I never had a near-death experience. I'm not trying to take over the Church. I'm not trying to form a group. I'm not charging for anything sacred. I'm selling a book, and that's it. I'm not taking anyone away from the Church. I'm encouraging people to follow the prophet.

If that sounds like the same thing as a man who charges for blessings and plans to take over the Church, then I'd ask you to look again.

Unless you have a solid foundation in the basics of the gospel, don't go jumping out of the boat looking for something spectacular. People want spectacular. And when somebody comes forward and says, "I've had a spectacular experience," even people serving in the temple are falling for it. President M. Russell Ballard gave us the counsel years ago: stay in the boat and hold on. Stick with the basics of the gospel. Follow the prophet. And don't get deceived by the very things Jesus Christ Himself warned us about.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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