Posted on 04/06/2008 5:27:22 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.
The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.
The incursion into the temple caps the three-day saga of the state’s Child Protective Services agency removing at least 183 women and children from the YFZ Ranch since Friday afternoon. Eighteen girls have been placed in state custody since a 16-year-old told authorities she was married to a 50-year-old man and had given birth to his child.
Saturday evening, ambulances were brought in, said Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound.
“In preparing for entry to the temple, law enforcement is preparing for the worst,” Palmer said Saturday evening. They want to have “medical personnel on hand in case this were to go in a way that no one wants.”
Apparently as a result of action Saturday night at the ranch, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Schleicher County school bus unloaded another group of at least a dozen more women and children from the compound.
Although members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, have provided varying degrees of cooperation to the sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers searching the compound, all cooperation stopped once authorities tried to search the gleaming white temple that towers over the West Texas scrub, Palmer said.
“There may be those who would oppose (entry) by placing themselves between law enforcement and the place of worship,” Palmer said Saturday afternoon. “If an agreement cannot be reached … law enforcement will have to — as gently and peaceably as possible — make entry into that place.”
Sect members consider the temple, dedicated by then-leader of the sect Warren Jeffs in January 2005 and finished many months later, off-limits to those who are not FLDS members, said Palmer, who prosecutes felony cases in Schleicher County.
Palmer said she didn’t know the size or makeup of the group inside the temple.
The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.
“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”
The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.
The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.
“Things have been a little tense, a little volatile,” she said.
Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.
Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.
“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”
You, RESTORNU, have borne NO witness as to what was wrong with PRESBYTERIANISM.
I'm begining to think you don't know!
”to those who are dead (I Peter 4:6) The preaching of the gospel not only offers a rich life (3:10), a ceasing from sin (v. 1), and a good conscience (3:21), but also an escape from final judgment. Peter had in mind believers who had heard and accepted the gospel of Christ when they were still alive, but who had died by the time Peter wrote this letter. Some of them perhaps, had been martyred for their faith. Though these were dead physically, they were triumphantly alive in their spirits (cf. Heb. 12:23). All their judgment had been fully accomplished while they were alive in this world (“in the flesh”), so they will live forever in God’s presence.” (The MacArthur Study Bible, Word Publishing, c1997, p. 1947.)
“the gospel was preached even to those…..now dead. This has been interpreted as referring to (a) those who are spiritually ‘dead in sin’, (b) those who heard and believed the gospel but have since died, (c) those who died without hearing or believing the gospel. Barclay preferred the third interpretation, assuming that 3:19 refers to Christ’s preaching to the dead. Consequently he believed that here ‘was a breathtaking glimpse of a gospel of a 2nd chance.’ This interpretation has no scriptural support and is contrary to orthodox Christian doctrine. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Walvoord & Zuck, c1983 p. 853; New Testament Edition).
So let's analyze this verse in context and grammar shall we????
I Peter 4:6 KJV - 6For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead,
I Peter 4:6 NASV - 6For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead,
I Peter 4:6 NIV - 6For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead,
Notice the verb tense in this passage Resty. It is always past tense, not present tense. It says that the gospel "was" preached to them (when they were still alive on earth), but they "are" now dead - it does not say that the gospel "is" preached to those who are dead. I Pet. 4:1-6 is not about salvation for the dead! Its about living for God in the flesh so that we are ready to meet Him at death. What did you do Resty, flunk English 101 and can't even tell the difference between past and present tense verbs?
So once again Resty you are twisting Scripture here to make it what you want it to say not what it does say.
What’s the deal here Resty????? Did you lose a loved one at some point in the past prior to your conversion to Mormonism that was not saved??? Then some Mormon comes along and tells you that loved one can still be saved and that’s what hooked you into the LDS like a fish on a line???? Is that it Resty???? Well I hate to break it to you but Scripture does NOT teach this concept no matter how much you fervently want to believe this lie, and no matter how much you may twist Scripture to your own ends. And just like that fish you are now in the frying pan. As long as you continue to preach falsehood your end will be worse than that loved one you lost, because you are going to have to give an account of every word that you’ve spoken in defense of false teaching and idolatry, in this case the idolatry of worshiping Joseph Smith. (I Peter 4:5).
HELLO!
You DON'T get tossed into prison unless you are JUDGED!
FINALLY!!!
THANK you for admitting that your FOUNDER was a CREEP!!!
He claimed that PRESBYTERIANISM was UNTRUE - without a BIT of evidence to show for it!
Talk about JUDGING others!!
Gentile; how have you found us out??
You will be admonished to NEVER do this again!!!!
--MormonDude(Do NOT do it AGAIN!)
I, for one, am just SALIVATING thinking that soon I will LISTEN while you tell me just what is wrong with PRESBYTERIANISM!
I know that there are some things I believe which may be incorrect, and am willing to make change when I see it. Further, I know that sometimes, feelings betray me and I say something I shouldn’t. I make apologies in those instances, rather than making justifications for them.
On the other hand, you are absolutely certain that you are the paragon of all truth, and when you make such statements that indicate you rejoice in the sufferings of others, you make justifications for it rather than saying that perhaps you made a mistake. Even when another poster posted passages from the bible demonstrating to you how wrong it is to take pleasure over the stumbling of those who disagreed with you, you pointedly ignored those and continue to justify your baser, self-loving statements.
“All of the Lord’s children still need counsel for those who are willing to over come their ways!”
However, when dealing with those who are unwilling to listen at all, who willfully ignore truth when it is presented in uncertain terms, such as yourself, it is nothing more than casting pearls before swine. Therefore, further discussion with you is merely wasting my time.
Once again, I ask that you confine further discussions to others. You have made it quite clear that you are convinced of your infallability, and I have no need to read any more of your justifications.
Likewise...
Why am I not surprised that you would be SILENT on why Joseph Smith LIED about the PRESBYTERIANS!
Well if I come across myself haughty I deeply apologized because even if I am put upon by others I should strive not to return in kind!
Why thank you for the vote of support, Greyfoxx. I have been a member of BACA for 20 years (and a member of the Patriot Guard Riders for 4). It is a lot of fun, I meet a lot of great people, and serves a good cause.
To HECK with Spearfish - let’s roll to HILLDALE!
I guess this means you ARE, as I type this, perparing YOUR explanation of what is wrong with PRESBYTERIANISM.
BTW, there are chapters in UT and AZ...wonder what the folks in those chapters are thinking right now?
These guys wouldn't wrap child molestation in a first amendment blanket, IMO!
Uh, you might be waiting a long time there Elsie for Resty to ever answer that q!
conservativegramma what you are trying to do is to force your to accept your dogma.
The Lord gave us free will and I respect the fact you have your own understanding and opinion of other faiths.
But neither you nor I am are in the position to correct another.
You can share or one can exchange their understanding but when one tries to take of away or become hostile towards another’s belief than they are venturing into unrighteous domination.
We are ALL holding our breath!
So...free will gives you the right to corrupt the Word of God (take His Words out of context, change the meaning of words, and ignore rules of grammar????) LOL!
y'okay - good luck with that one.
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