There have always been bad guys, and there always will be bad guys, and if we were to carefully evaluate each of our lives, we may bring to remembrance a time when we might have qualified as a bad guy ourselves. Bad guys were probably not always bad guys or were not considered bad guys in the eyes of everyone who knew them. Too! A bad guy may be one who is a Democrat to someone who identifies with Republicans and vice versa. In such cases, they may not be bad guys at all, just persons who have different opinions about how things ought to be. Yet, to hear some political opponents talk, you would think the other party members were criminals of the worst kind and even short of brain cells.
All through the Old and New Testaments there are bad guys giving the prophets or the people a bad time. The first bad guy described in the Bible is, of course, Cain, who committed the first murder. He was, as we know, tempted and encouraged by Satan to do the deed. Cain, after having committed the murder, then realized that all of Able’s property was his for the taking. With that revelation, he initiated the “murder for profit” secret society. He was the original human “bad guy.” Satan preceded him as a spiritual bad guy, not having been born to earth. Cain became the “master” or “keeper of a great secret” whereby he covenanted with Satan to kill for personal gain. Because he was superior to Satan, in that he had an actual physical body, he became the Master Mahan.
Dennis Gaunt recently described several other bad guys in the Old Testament. One was Shemaiah. Shemaiah was a spiritual opponent to Jeremiah, the prophet, during his time on earth. Jeremiah was a very special prophet, as he was called to be a prophet while still in the womb. “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” ( Jeremiah 1:4–5) Shemaiah was not the only one who gave Jeremiah a bad time; however, he was the chief among his agitators. Shemaiah claimed that Jeremiah was a false prophet and that the people should listen to him instead. ( Jeremiah 29:25–26) He was basically saying, “The prophet is wrong, and the church is headed in the wrong direction, but don’t worry! I’ll fix it! I know what to do!” Dennis Gaunt goes on to say: “Sadly, there are plenty of Shemaiahs in the Church today who question the doctrines, who think Church leaders are out of touch with important issues, and who think that they know what is best. They are examples of the principle taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith, who said, “That man who rises up to condemn others, finding fault with the Church, saying that they are out of the way, while he himself is righteous, then know assuredly, that that man is in the high road to apostasy; and if he does not repent, will apostatize, as God lives.” God told Jeremiah, “Neither shall [Shemaiah] behold the good that I will do for my people… because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord.” ( Jeremiah 29:32). In addition to the pain and suffering that always comes with choosing to disobey God, Shemaiah’s rebellious spirit would prevent him from seeing and understanding all the good that the Lord was doing. When we act like Shemaiah, we, too, blind ourselves to the good that we once were able to see. That example is not to say that all criticism is inappropriate or bad in the church or in the government as all aspects of the church and/or government are not related to doctrine or to those who have been called to serve as Prophets, Seers and Revelators. For example, there is a rather large section of the modern day church that has to do with management of all of the church’s assets. These aspects of the church are managed by paid employees, and they are not always man- aged through inspiration or revelation. In some cases, it appears that they are not managed well at all. Because there is a certain amount of waste and a lack of oversight, I don’t believe anyone would be condemned for appropriate and honest criticism of those entities. When I write of bad guys, I do not necessarily mean bullies but rather people who have negative attitudes and who are always criticizing whatever is said or done regardless of whether it was a good productive effort or not, whether that be an effort by an organization or an individual. In some cases, bad guys become the catalyst for good and appropriate change. Their criticism may have drawn the attention to a situation that needed to be evaluated and modified. Besides, of those rather modest bad guys mentioned above, there are some really bad guys and every generation has had to deal with them. In some cases, bad guys have fought alongside good guys as they deal with another bad guy that was even worse. I am referring to the second World War where the United States and Russia were allies against Hitler and the Nazi Regime. Yet, Stalin was as bad, if not worse, than was Hitler in that literally millions of his own countrymen were killed under his authorization. The list goes on, and even today with all of our modern technology, there are people in the world who are oppressed by evil and murderess despots. Bad Guys. We have always had them, and more than likely we will always have them. If there are no good and fearless men, such as Moroni in the Book of Mormon, who will rise up against those who will oppress, we will always have them. Those we call “the Bad Guys!”