Finding Refuge Through Forgotten Messages from the Past by Joseph C. Taylor, Ph. D. , David C. Taylor Search Amazon for other books by or about Joseph C. Taylor, Ph. D.. Rating: Reviewed by: Maurice Williams

Many people fear for the future. The threats of terrorism, war, and persecution make us all want security. Some people have already started constructing communities in remote areas they hope will be untouched if calamities do happen. Joseph and David Taylor wrote Finding Refuge through Forgotten Messages from the Past, to assure us that we can build places of refuge. They discuss a place of safe refuge they believe had been established long ago during Enoch's time. Quoting the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrines and Covenants, they propose that God established a safe city of refuge called "Zion" for Enoch and the people that lived with Enoch. All of them "walked with God." They, of their own free will, lived according to God's laws. They were of one mind and one heart.

The authors also discuss some of John Nash's economic theories. (The movie, A Beautiful Mind, was about the life of John Nash). The authors discuss Nash's concept of "Individual Excess Capacity" (IEC). They stress that this concept is required to build a better society. Trust also is required and critically needed when IEC is expended. Misplaced trust destroys IEC. People seek happiness; IEC gives us greater capacity (or power) to seek that happiness. Some things the authors cite that require IEC (and produce happiness in ourselves) are serving others, completing a project or goal, mastering a skill, developing lifelong friendships, and overcoming a weakness or a bad habit. The fundamental and exclusive nature of what gives humans joy is our own creating of things or creating order in the world, and our creating lasting relationships. The author's point out that "We are exclusively motivated by joy." "Man is a spiritual being. All relationships have a spiritual component."

IEC is the amount of productivity still available after an individual has satisfied the basic requirements of his or her own life. If a person, all persons, direct that excess capability toward the betterment of other people, a flourishing, safe society can be developed. If people, as did Enoch, walk with God, freely living according to God's laws, all of one mind and one heart, their society will be peaceful. There would be no murder, terrorism, adultery, robbery, lying, cheating, embezzlement, child abuse, or any other ills of modern society. There would be no need for a police force, prisons, homes for battered mothers, and social programs to fight illiteracy. These people would not need an army because God will protect them. Not needing expenditures for these branches of government, this society would be debt-free.

The authors do not mention two factors that, I think, would make such a society very difficult to establish. One factor is the presence of evil in the world. More clearly stated, since this is a religious book, the evil comes from Satan and fallen angels who tempt humans not to live according to God's laws. Resisting temptation is very difficult, as we all know. The other factor is the very widespread disagreement of what God desires. The authors quote source materials that few people accept as reliable. As we all know, there is very little agreement among humans about what God believes, yet there is only one God who obviously believes everything that is true, nothing that is untrue. If humans could believe what God believes and know that God believes it, they could put their trust in it. The authors emphasized the importance of trust. If all humans would resist temptation, this entire planet would be a place of safe refuge. None of us would have to bear the expense of armies or law enforcement. None of us would have to endure the tragedies of crime and war.

An utopia like this, I believe, is beyond human achievement, primarily for the two reasons I cited above. The authors give a very good incentive for humans to pull together and try another attempt at utopia. I'm not so confident it will work, unless, as the authors, suggest, God intervenes. The challenge here is to make sure its citizens believe what God believes. I think if God singles out one group for divine protection, that group would have to endorse what God wants everybody to believe. They literally must live according to God's laws. They would have to be of one mind and one heart. Above all, they cannot be mistaken about what God believes. The authors fail to make that case.

Since we have so much disagreement about what God believes, we need, for our own security, some tolerance for differences of belief, while protecting the rights of honest people to reach for God as best they can. This is not easy, but the principles of IEC, if applied properly, could bring about a peaceful society that has not forgotten its dependence on God. In this sense, the authors have something important to tell us.

The authors point out that, in the future, two major centers of refuge will exist, both named Zion. One will be in Jerusalem, the other in North America. In addition, other smaller areas of refuge will exist, each called a "stake" (after stakeholders). All will contain people living as Enoch as his people did, freely living according to God's laws and all of one mind and one heart. The authors describe a well-functioning football team as an example of how these people will act in cooperation with each other. This is a good example of IEC in action.

God will protect these people from outside aggression. The authors quote the Book of Mormon to describe a decisive war fought by a city of refuge in the past. When threatened from outside, the people put together an army of 2060 men and women and, with God's help, defeated the aggressor, killing tens of thousands of them. The authors then give examples of IEC in action describing the life of Joseph in Egypt, Joseph's providing for his brothers and father and bringing them to Egypt when there was famine in the land.

The book ends with two scenarios presented to the reader. You wake up one morning, open the window and see missiles coming and exploding, killing your loved ones. Second scenario, you wake up one morning, open the window, see the same missiles, but they explode in the sky, and their harmful effects return to those who launched the missiles. The authors describe another book they wrote: Building the Faith to Create and Protect Zion. They give their website address for further information. The authors include a long list of references to show where their information came from.

This book makes for serious reading and offers much food for thought.