The Appearance of Things?

Nine years ago (Nov 17, 2017¹) I wrote about how we were already seeing, with the use of technology, an escalating, deliberate mix-up of what is true with what is false. Today, the capacity for mix-up is even more sophisticated. How can we be sure that what we think we see or think we hear is the real person, the real voice of the one purported to be in our presence? The CIA itself has become quite public about its nearly imperceptible skills in deception and disguise.² If the CIA (and Hollywood) have such skills and technology, who else?

So with serious accusations coming out about high-profile people in the Church,³ we are left to wonder if:

1) the accusations are shockingly true;
2) witnesses are lying for some personal motivation or mental-health issue; or
3) witnesses under situations of extreme fear, stress, and abuse have been manipulated to see and report as factual, events manufactured for appearance, thus creating witnesses giving adamant testimony that is (unknown to them) based on falsified, sophisticated mimicry of real or masked doppelgängers.⁴

Deception by those pursuing or protecting power, gain, glory, and domination has become so easy when there is motivation to destroy trust and reputation, and what would the adversary of truth (and his servitors) find more motivating than to steal, kill, and destroy trust and confidence in genuine servants of God (and / or witnesses) while, at the same time, elevating offending imposters?

The adversary is expert in making things appear to be what they are not:

20 ... The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light!  (Doctrine and Covenants | Section 128:20)

9 ... yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.  (Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 9:9)

13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (New Testament | 2 Corinthians 11:13 - 15)

So what is the truth in these accusations? On the one hand, satan is an accuser of striving, repenting, forgiven souls, and on the other hand, an author, seducer, protector of corruption and counterfeit.

Are we open to the truth, whatever it proves to be? We know from Ezekiel 8⁵ that corruption is tragically possible even at the highest levels and in the most sacred places. We know too from the Balaam strategy⁶ that corruption is the ever repeating agenda of the adversary to destroy God's people.

In this age of deception and lying wonders, how careful we must be.

---------------------------------------/
1. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2017/11/mix-up.html
2. Testimonies of sophisticated disguise:
• Deception, Illusion, and Espionage: An Unlikely Recipe for Success | Jonna Mendez | TEDxFoggyBottom at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MctMx-8lljU
• CIA DECLASSIFIED : JONNA MENDEZ FORMER CIA CHIEF of DISGUISE at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2sF5NC6B8
•https://www.cbsnews.com/video/former-cia-chief-of-disguise-breaks-down-the-reality-behind-mission-impossible/
•https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-cia-disguise-chief-the-mission-impossible-the-final-reckoning-gadget/
3. Just one example of several in recent years: Petersen Twins Expose Heber: Ritual Abuse and Blood Atonement [naming Elder David A. Bednar at circa 2:34:50 min.] We Are the People Utah at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ekezLucFaw&t=12632s
4. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2020/02/doppelganger-probabilities.html
5. Old Testament | Ezekiel 8:Heading
Ezekiel sees in vision the wickedness and abominations of the Jews in Jerusalem—He sees idolatry [and much more] practiced in the temple itself.
6. https://dejavu-timestwo.blogspot.com/2022/11/deja-vu-doctrine-of-balaam-doctrine-of.html/