Steve O

Dont Text and Drive

2011-05-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

LOGAN, Utah — In most states, if somebody is texting behind the wheel and causes a crash that injures or kills someone, the penalty can be as light as a fine.
Utah is much tougher.
After a crash here that killed two scientists — and prompted a dogged investigation by a police officer and local victim’s advocate — Utah passed the nation’s toughest law to crack down on texting behind the wheel. Offenders now face up to 15 years in prison.
The new law, which took effect in May, penalizes a texting driver who causes a fatality as harshly as a drunken driver who kills someone. In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an “accident” like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless.
“It’s a willful act,” said Lyle Hillyard, a Republican state senator and a big supporter of the new measure. “If you choose to drink and drive or if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.”
The Utah law represents a concrete new response in an evolving debate among legislators around the country about how to reduce the widespread practice of multitasking behind the wheel — a topic to be discussed at a national conference about the dangers of distracted driving that is being organized by the Transportation Department for this fall.
Studies show that talking on a cellphone while driving is as risky as driving with a .08 blood alcohol level — generally the standard for drunken driving — and that the risk of driving while texting is at least twice that dangerous. Research also shows that many people are aware that the behavior is risky, but they assume others are the problem.
Treating texting behind the wheel like drunken driving raises complex legal questions. Drunken drivers can be identified using a Breathalyzer. But there is no immediate test for driving while texting; such drivers could deny they were doing so, or claim to have been dialing a phone number. (Many legislators have thus far made a distinction between texting and dialing, though researchers say dialing creates many of the same risks.)
If an officer or prosecutor wants to confiscate a phone or phone records to determine whether a driver was texting at the time of the crash, such efforts can be thwarted by search-and-seizure and privacy defenses, lawyers said.

Reggie Shaw, texting caused a car accident that killed two scientists headed to work. (Jeffrey D. Allred for The New York Times)
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Prosecutors and judges in other states already have the latitude to use more general reckless-driving laws to penalize multitasking drivers who cause injury and death. In California, for instance, where texting while driving is banned but the only deterrent is a $20 fine, a driver in April received a six-year prison sentence for gross vehicular manslaughter when, speeding and texting, she slammed into a line of cars waiting at a construction zone, killing another driver.
But if those prosecutors want to charge a texting driver with recklessness, they must prove the driver knew of the risks before sending texts from behind the wheel.
In Utah, the law now assumes people understand the risks.
The law “is very noteworthy,” said Anne Teigen, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization of state legislators. “They have raised the bar and said texting while driving is not just irresponsible, and it’s not just a bad idea — it is negligent.”
Ms. Teigen said legislators throughout the country were struggling with how to address threats created by new technology, just as they once debated how to handle drunken driving.
Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary, has said drivers should not text behind the wheel, and several United States senators recently introduced legislation to force states to ban texting while driving.
Utah, governed by a Republican legislature with a libertarian bent, may seem an unlikely state to pursue particularly tough penalties governing driver behavior.
But the issue forced itself onto the legislative agenda here because of what occurred on the rainy morning of Sept. 22, 2006.
The accident occurred on a two-lane highway just west of Logan, in a verdant valley in Utah’s northernmost county.
Reggie Shaw, a 19-year-old college student working as a house painter, was driving west to work in a Chevrolet Tahoe S.U.V. Approaching him, in a Saturn sedan, was James Furaro, 38, and his passenger, Keith P. O’Dell, 50. The senior scientists were commuting to ATK Launch Systems, where they were helping to design and build rocket boosters.
Mr. Shaw crossed the yellow dividing line on the two-lane road and clipped the Saturn. It spun across the highway and was struck by a pickup truck hauling a trailer filled with two tons of horseshoes and related equipment.

Two scientists were killed when their car was clipped by a texting driver and spun across the highway into a pickup truck. (Utah Highway Patrol)
________________________________________
The two scientists were killed instantly.
At the scene, the investigating officer, Bart Rindlisbacher of the Utah Highway Patrol, said he could not pinpoint the cause of the crash. Mr. Shaw said he could not remember doing anything out of the ordinary.
The trooper figured it was an unfortunate case of “left of center,” a catch-all for a traffic offense that involves crossing the yellow divider.
But a witness told the police he had seen Mr. Shaw swerving several times just before the accident, raising Mr. Rindlisbacher’s suspicions. The trooper’s concerns grew as he drove Mr. Shaw to the hospital. He saw Mr. Shaw, in the passenger seat, pull out his phone and start texting.
“Were you texting while you were driving?” Mr. Rindlisbacher recalled asking.
“No,” he recalled Mr. Shaw responding. (Mr. Shaw said he did not remember the conversation or much about the accident.)
The trooper was deeply skeptical. He figured out how to subpoena Mr. Shaw’s phone records. Six months later, with help from a state public safety investigator, they got the records and their proof: Mr. Shaw and his girlfriend had sent 11 text messages to each other in the 30 minutes before the crash, the last one at 6:47 a.m., a minute before Mr. Shaw called 911. Investigators concluded he sent that last text when he crossed the yellow line.
Still, county prosecutors thought they were unable to charge Mr. Shaw with something other than “left of center.” For instance, if they wanted to prove Mr. Shaw guilty of negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, they would need to show he knew of the dangers or should have known of the dangers of texting while driving.
Mr. Shaw, who had retained a lawyer, would not discuss the issue with law enforcement or prosecutors.
Then Terryl Warner, a victim’s advocate in the county where the accident occurred, got involved.
Ms. Warner had a personal interest in the case because she knew the family of one of the scientists.
In July 2007, Ms. Warner, convinced by the trooper’s evidence, wrote to prosecutors arguing for a vehicular manslaughter charge. She said the dangers of texting and driving were broadly known, therefore Mr. Shaw should have known better.
Mr. Shaw had just started a Mormon mission in Canada when he was called home to face charges of negligent homicide. The trial was set for early 2009.
Then, just before Thanksgiving in 2008, at a hearing, Mr. Shaw looked at the families of the two dead scientists and decided he could no longer keep dismissing the phone records that showed he was texting, even though his lawyers advised him to remain quiet. “It hit me that I was being selfish dragging this on,” he said. “I decided I’ve got to do whatever it takes to make this come to an end. If there was anything I could do — spend a year in jail, two years in jail, whatever — I’d do it.”

Leila O'Dell is the widow of a scientist who died in the crash. (Jeffrey D. Allred for The New York Times)
________________________________________
He pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent homicide, but his record will be cleared if he fulfills the sentence imposed by the judge. It included 30 days in jail, 200 hours of community service, and a requirement that he read “Les Misérables” to learn, like the book’s character Jean Valjean, how to make a contribution to society.
Last February, Mr. Shaw spoke to the state House Subcommittee on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, which was considering a ban on texting for motorists. The measure seemed likely to fail given the legislature’s lack of interest in previous such efforts. Then Mr. Shaw stood to talk about his crash and started sobbing.
“I was the one driving and texting,” Mr. Shaw said through tears. “Excuse me. I apologize. I didn’t know the dangers.”
Ms. Warner, the victim’s advocate, said that moment was a turning point. “Before he spoke, some legislators were talking and texting,” she recalled. “After he started talking, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.”
Under Utah’s law, someone caught texting and driving now faces up to three months in jail and up to a $750 fine, a misdemeanor. If they cause injury or death, the punishment can grow to a felony and up to a $10,000 fine and 15 years in prison.
Alaska is the only other state that takes a similarly tough approach to electronic distraction, said Ms. Teigen of the National Conference of State Legislators.
A law passed there in 2007 makes it a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison if a driver causes a fatal accident when a television, video monitor or computer is on inside the car and in the driver’s field of vision. (The law applies to phones used for texting, but not to phones used exclusively for calling or to some other devices, like GPS devices.)
The law, which is less focused on texting than Utah’s, resulted from a 2003 accident in which a driver, who prosecutors said was watching a movie on a video monitor perched on his dashboard, killed two motorists.
These tougher penalties can lead to prickly legal questions.
John Wesley Hall, who just stepped down as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the police might have difficulty proving a driver suspected of texting wasn’t merely dialing a phone. And, he said, there are serious privacy and search issues raised when an officer wants to confiscate a phone.
“The police have no business going into my phone,” he said.
James Swink, the Cache County attorney, expects such challenges, but says that the police in some cases could simply get phone records later, as in the Shaw case.
More broadly, Mr. Swink said, drivers in Utah are now on notice that texting while driving is inherently reckless. And as drivers across the nation become more aware of that notion, he said, judges and prosecutors will feel more comfortable asking for big penalties. He said the Shaw case helped to pave the way.
“Once the word is out there,” he said, “it will become easier for judges to lower the big boom.”

9 Dec 2010

2010-12-09T13:13:00.001-08:00

Top Love Quotes & Sayings of All Time

The following is our collection of Quotes about love or Romance that we feel are the top quoted quotes of all time. We have not placed these quotes in any particular order. Make sure to check them all out, they are great! (See what users like yourself ranked as the top Love Quotes.)

1. "A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous."
--Ingrid Bergmen

2. Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin6. "Love is the beauty of the soul."
--St. Augustine

3. "My night has become a sunny dawn because of you."
--Ibn Abbad

4. "In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person."
--Margaret Anderson

5. "In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities."
--Janos Arnay
7. "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."
--Aristotle

8. "Each moment of a happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life."
--Aphra Behn

9. "Your words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me."
--Sarah Bernhardt

10. "In my wildest dreams, you always play the hero. In my darkest hour of night, you rescue me, you save my life."
--Bliss and Cerney

11. "Come live with me and be my love, and we will some new pleasures prove, of golden sands, and crystal beaches, with silken lines and silver hooks..."
--John Dunne

12. "What I do and what I dream include thee, as the wine must taste of its own grapes..."
--Elizabeth Barret Browning

13. "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach..."
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

14. "Take away love, and our earth is a tomb."
--Robert Browning
15. "But to see her was to love her, love but her, and love her forever."
--Robert Burns

16. "She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudness climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes..."
--Lord Byron

17. "Like music on the waters is they sweet voice to me."
--Lord Byron

18. "I love you, not only for what you are, But for what I am when I am with you."
--Roy Croft
19. "You're nothing short of my everything."
--Ralph Block

20. "The only true gift is a portion of yourself."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

21. "Thou art to me a delicious torment."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

22. "Love distills desire upon the eyes, love brings bewitching grace into the heart."
--Euripides

23. "I love her and that's the beginning of everything."
--F. Scott Fitzgerald

24. "I wished for nothing beyond her smile, and to walk with her thus, hand in hand, along a sun-warmed, flower-bordered path."
--Andre Gide

25. "Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."
--Robert Heinlein

26. "Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

27. "What I feel for you seems less of earth and more of a cloudless heaven."
--Victor Hugo

28. "It's so easy, To think about Love, To Talk about Love, To wish for Love, But it's not always easy, To recognize Love, Even when we hold it.... In our hands."
--Jaka

29. "Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one."
--John Keats

30. "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."
--Helen Keller

31. "... See there's this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger, and your whispers softly echo. It's the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me."
--Gretchen Kemp

32. "When you came, you were like red wine and honey, and the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness."
--Amy Lowell

33. "Make me immortal with a kiss."
--Christopher Marlowe

34. "Oh, thou art fairer than the evening air Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars."
--Christopher Marlowe

35. "Love is the enchanted dawn of every heart."
--Alphonse Marie de la Martine

36. "In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing."
--Mignon McLaughlin

37. "We came by night to the Fortunate Isles, And lay like fish Under the net of our kisses."
--Pablo Neruda

38. "The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain signing to it...you and you alone make me feel that I am alive...Other men, it is said, have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough."
--George Moore

39. "In love there are two things: bodies and words."
--Joyce Carol Oates

40. "I become a waterwheel, turning and tasting you, as long as water moves."
--Rumi

41. "I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal."
--Vita Sackville-West

42. "Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

43. "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

44. "There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved."
--George Sand

45. "Sometimes your nearness takes my breath away; and all the things I want to say can find no voice. Then, in silence, I can only hope my eyes will speak my heart."
--Robert Sexton

46. "My heart is ever at your service."
--William Shakespeare

47. "The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite."
--William Shakespeare

48. "Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition."
--Alexander Smith

49. "I am my beloved, and my beloved is me."
--Song of Solomon

50. "Her breath is like honey spiced with cloves, Her mouth delicious as a ripened mango."
--Srzgarakarika

51. "To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven."
--Karen Sunde

52. "Love, till dawn sunder night from day with fire Dividing my delight and my desire..."
--A. C. Swinburne

53. "Love is friendship set on fire."
--Jeremy Taylor

54. "Within you I lose myself. Without you I find myself wanting to become lost again."
--Unknown

55. "Somewhere there's someone who dreams of your smile..."
--Unknown

56. "I see my fated stars in your eyes. They melt me like the sun does snow."
--Unknown

57. "The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart."
--Unknown

58. "To be your friend was all I ever wanted; to be your lover was all I ever dreamed."
--Unknown

59. "If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, I would have the whole night sky in the palm of my hand."
--Unknown

60. "If you love me only in my dreams, let me be asleep forever."
--Unknown

61. "Kiss me and you will see stars; love me and I will give them to you."
--Unknown

62. "Love is a dream that comes alive when we meet."
--Unknown

63. "The soul that can speak with its eyes can also kiss with a gaze."
--Unknown

64. "Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essense."
--Vincent van Gogh

65. "Harmony is pure love, for love is a concerto."
--Lope de Vega

66. "Here are fruits, flowers, leaves, and branches, And here is my heart which beats only for you."
--Paul Verlaine

67. "When a heart finds another, what's a cloud more or less in the sky?"
--Wolf and Page

68. "The most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman's heart.
--Josiah G. Holland

69. "From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven. And when two souls that are destined to be together find each other, their streams of light flow together, and a single brighter light goes forth from their united being."
--Unknown

70. "The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life."
--Sir Hugh Walpole

71. "Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love."
--Erich Fromm

72. "You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."
--Sam Keen

73. "The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable."
--Victor Hugo

74. "True love begins when nothing is looked for in return."
--Antoine De Saint-Exupery

75. "Love is the emblem of eternity: it confounds all notion of time: effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end."
--Germaine De Stael

76. "The life and love we create is the life and love we live."
--Leo Buscaglia

77. "For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it."
--Ivan Panin

78. "Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals."
--J. Isham

79. "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
--Lao Tzu

80. "The most eloquent silence; that of two mouths meeting in a kiss."
--Unknown

81. "Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul."
--St. Augustine

82. "Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it."
--Thomas Fuller

83. "Paradise is always where love dwells."
--Jean Paul F. Richter

84. "True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart."
--Honore de Balzac

85. "We are all born for love... it is the principle existence and it's only end."
--Benjamin Disraeli

86. "Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

87. "Love doesn't make the world go round, love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
--Elizabeth Browning

88. " When you are in Love you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams. "
-- Dr Suese

89. "If I know what love is, it is because of you."
--Herman Hesse

90. "So dear I love him that with him,
All deaths I could endure.
Without him, live no life."
-- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

91. "Love is like a friendship caught on fire: In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable."
--Bruce Lee

92. "She walks in beauty,
Like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes."
--Byron

93. "....A simple I love you means more than money...."
--Frank Sinatra

94. "How delicious is the winning of a kiss at love's beginning."
--Thomas Campbell

95. "One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is Love."
--Sophocles

96. "Love is the irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
--Mark Twain

97. " Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you' re just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have YOU... The one who turns to his friends and says, thats her... "
-- Unknown

98. "There is no remedy for love but to love more."
--Henry David Thoreau

99. "If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever."
--Alfred Lord Tennyson

100. "All love is sweet, given or returned."
--Percy Bysshe Shelley

2 Dec 2010 I am reposting this for all of you that did not have a chance to tread about the Lord Jesus Christ

2010-12-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

The atonement of Jesus Christ is a broad topic but have chose to focus on three themes of the atonement. First the power of the atonement to forgive sins and to cover all things to allow us to enter into the kingdom of God, Second how the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to Succor his people because of his atoning sacrifice. Third through the atonement we will all be resurrected.

I think it's important to understand what the atonement is, as used in the Scriptures to atonement is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby removing the effects of sin from the center and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God. It’s understood that the atonement could only be performed by Jesus Christ because he was the literal son of God in the flesh. Even he the greatest of all pleaded with his father if there was any other way that mankind could be redeemed but he did his father's will and partook of that bitter cup. Because of this great sacrifice all people will be resurrected from the dead no matter their condition or state. But only those that live his gospel and keep his commandments and truly apply his atoning sacrifice into their lives will receive the ultimate gift which is to live with God and your family for eternities.
When we started our journey here on earth your father gave you a gift he gave you a large backpack and a backpack had nothing in it. Every time you sin on this journey in immortality you must pick up a rock and place it in this backpack, some of the rocks are smaller some are larger but it comes to a point where the backpack is to heavy you cannot bare the wait or the load of the backpack unless some of the rocks are taken out. I want you to then image that your older brother comes along and wants to help you along this journey so he pleads with your father and is able to help you carry the load and wants to remove the rocks. But we all have been there when the backpack is too much to carry rocks must be removed, I know that the only way the rocks can be removed is through the Savior Jesus Christ. Our father has given him that power because he lived a perfect life, and because he is taken upon him all of our sins. I think this is hard to fathom them that someone could literally take upon them the sins of all mankind. But that is exactly what he did he bore every sin that was or will ever be committed. In D&C 19 16 -17 it explanes what will happen to us if we do not repent while we have the chance. “For behold, I, God suffered these things for all that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself God, have suffered these things for all, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer bold body and spirit and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink nevertheless, glory be to the father, and I partook and finish my preparations on to the children of men.”If we do not repent while in this state we will suffer even as Jesus Christ suffered for our own personal sins, as explained in doctrine and covenants 19 we cannot bear that burden we cannot comprehend the pain that the Savior went through for each of us. Then there is the joy of knowing that when we have repented of our sins, the lord has made us a promise. “Behold he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I the lord will remember them no more.” I have felt the true and lasting Joy that can be experienced from the gift of repentance. The lord will have no remembrance of your sins if you truly have repented of your sins I know that to be a fact.
The Lord suffered so much more pain than just taking upon himself our sins he also took upon him our heart ached our sorrow our grief anything that you can imagine the Lord suffered. I remember when I first heard this wondering how it is possible that someone could suffer all of these things then I remembered a passage in the book of Alma 7 11 -13 and it reads “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled witch saith he will take upon him the pains and the sickness of his people. And he will take upon him death that he may lose the bands of death witch bind his people; and he take upon him there infirmities, that his bowels may be filed with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out there transgressions according to the power of his deliverance and now behold this is the testimony which is in me.” This passage of scripture explains the atonement perfectly here was a perfect man or should we say God. He came down to a foreign land to redeem his people. To know that the Savior knows my temptations knows my weaknesses makes me stronger. To know that the Savior is taken upon him my sicknesses my infirmities humbles me. The definition of the word succor is as follows; Literally, to run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; as, to succor a besieged city; to succor prisoners. http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,succor. I know that I think of the word succor in a whole different way after understanding that it literally means that the Savior is running to us before we have even committed a sin, before we have even experienced the sorrow the grief with the pain of committing sin. The Savior wants to relieve us from our burdens. I know that the Savior Jesus Christ truly does succor his people he has succored me in my time of need. And has supported me and lifted me up in my time of heartache. There is no other way to be completely clean from sin and sorrow, we must use this atoning sacrifice in our lives daily. We must learn to repent morning and evening but we'll must also remember never to take for granted this great sacrifice which was preformed for mankind. I often think that Satan wants us to think that there is no way that the lord can help us when we are going through a hard time or thatwe are not worthy to speak to our father, there is no greater time to talk to the lord then when you are in need of his comfort or his guidance. As once said “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Winston Churchill I hope and pray that will we not give in to the adversary and his temptations, but that we may keep our self’s unspotted from this world and clean from the blood and sins of the generation.
Jesus Christ resurrection is the crowning event of the atonement someway incomprehensible to me; Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. So it has been said at him as the father of mortality so Christ is the father of immortality. All men whether good or evil will be reunited with their body in a perfect state. “The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul. And every limb and joint shall be restored to its body may even a hair of the head shall not be lost but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”Alma 40:23 that is a free gift that Jesus Christ gives to all men. I know that this resurrection that has been prophesied since the beginning of this world will come to pass. All men will be reunited with their body, this is the free gift of the atonement to enable the full effects of the atonement we must repent and keep the Commandments that God has outlined for through and by his holy prophets and Scriptures.
In conclusion I know that the atonement has the power to forgive sins, and has the power to succor us at all times and in all places may we strive to use this atoning sacrifice in our daily lives will before it is too late. All mankind will be resurrected I know that to be true. In closing I know that the Savior suffered for us personally that he knows us that he is there to help us and wants us to be reunited with him and with her father for eternity. His suffering I cannot comprehend but I do know that he suffered for me individually and for all mankind. I have come to the conclusion that there is no sin to great no burden to small that the Lord does not care about. My prayer is that we as a people may speak of the atonement on a more frequent basis thus enabling us to understand this great sacrifice. As elder Eyring once said if you are talking about anything that matters you are talking about the atonement.

Thrift, Industry, and Self- Reliance President Young -Caring for the poor President Romney

2010-09-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

“If you wish to get rich, save what you get. A fool can earn money; but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage (DBY, 292).” I think that this quote kind of changed my point of view and that why I am going to use it and say that they should buy a smaller home that they can get a smaller mortgage on that way he can have more money to put away every year and save more I think that it is a great thing to have a huge home and everything that comes along with that life style but he should wait until as Dave Ramsey would say buy the home with cash.
“A few illustrations of the consequences of failing to perform according to our covenants
Should stimulate us to review our own performance, increase our fast offerings, and be
More faithful in our welfare work.” I think that he gave this talk in a good and bad way I came across thinking that he was trying to scare the saints into helping the poor but the more I got into the talk you would only think that if you were prideful and not in tune with the spirit. As I was reading it this sentence stuck out to me the most because it reminded me of the importance of fast offerings, When I was on my mission I received $130 a month and I remember I was paying $5 a month to fast offerings and once I was on exchanges and another Elder and I were talking about it and he asked why I did not pay more I said it is already hard to get by on $125 and he told me that I needed to sacrifice that there were people that needed it allot more than me. This was hard for me because I paid for my mission so it was my money or that was the thought that I had. I remember that I decided to pay $20 I remember thinking there is no way I am going to have enough money well we all know the way the lord works I never worried about money the rest of my mission. Reading this talk was a friendly reminder that I need to do better. I would say that I don’t disagree with anything that he said in his talk the one thing that is hard for me to understand is that we need to provide for the poor I think it is way better to teach them to provide for themselves so they can come self reliant but I will address this in my conclusion.
I love the Perpetual Education Fund I love the fact that we are not just giving the people the money but we are lending it to them interest free and they have a time period in which they will need to pay it back. I do have a biases and that is that every year my Dad goes down to Lagloria Mexico and builds homes for the people they will normally build 4-5 every year. For the longest time I never went with him I would always stay home one year I went and had an amazing experience with the people there but this is where my biases comes in, so they have organized something with the stake down there were they help members of the stake that really need help the stake president picks the people that will receive homes that year I was put on a job and worked for a few days then I realized that the people we were building the home for almost expected us to be there and in my option were very ungrateful that bothered me I talked to my Dad and told him first off that I think that we need to be teaching these people how to build so they can help other members build there homes and I also hated the fact that we were only helping members of the church so he told me I was on my own and that I could work on whatever I wanted so that night I found out that there were an elderly couple that needed a new roof on their home so the next day I went out there and there roof was caved in and O told them let’s get started the old man came out and watched me and helped me as I spent two days putting a new roof on their home the wife would bring us drinks every thirty min and ask if she could help I had such a great experience that old man told me that he knew of people that also needed new roofs and now that he knew how to do it he was going to offer the help to others. I personally think that we need to help the poor help themselves. I came home from that trip determined to help others in need but not just by giving them money. That’s when I found KIVA they are a non for profit company that gives micro loans to people in third world countries I was a skeptic at first but after the first two people I loaned to paid me back in full within months I was gung ho I have donated to over 8 people now ! it has been a great way for me to help the people in need and just not hand them money. http://www.kiva.org/

Safety for the Soul Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

2010-08-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world . . . that the Book of Mormon is true.
Prophecies regarding the last days often refer to large-scale calamities such as earthquakes or famines or floods. These in turn may be linked to widespread economic or political upheavals of one kind or another.
But there is one kind of latter-day destruction that has always sounded to me more personal than public, more individual than collective—a warning, perhaps more applicable inside the Church than outside it. The Savior warned that in the last days even those of the covenant, the very elect, could be deceived by the enemy of truth.1 If we think of this as a form of spiritual destruction, it may cast light on another latter-day prophecy. Think of the heart as the figurative center of our faith, the poetic location of our loyalties and our values; then consider Jesus’s declaration that in the last days “men’s hearts [shall fail] them.”2
The encouraging thing, of course, is that our Father in Heaven knows all of these latter-day dangers, these troubles of the heart and soul, and has given counsel and protections regarding them.
In light of that, it has always been significant to me that the Book of Mormon, one of the Lord’s powerful keystones3 in this counteroffensive against latter-day ills, begins with a great parable of life, an extended allegory of hope versus fear, of light versus darkness, of salvation versus destruction—an allegory of which Sister Ann M. Dibb spoke so movingly this morning.
In Lehi’s dream an already difficult journey gets more difficult when a mist of darkness arises, obscuring any view of the safe but narrow path his family and others are to follow. It is imperative to note that this mist of darkness descends on all the travelers—the faithful and the determined ones (the elect, we might even say) as well as the weaker and ungrounded ones. The principal point of the story is that the successful travelers resist all distractions, including the lure of forbidden paths and jeering taunts from the vain and proud who have taken those paths. The record says that the protected “did press their way forward, continually [and, I might add, tenaciously] holding fast” to a rod of iron that runs unfailingly along the course of the true path.4 However dark the night or the day, the rod marks the way of that solitary, redeeming trail.
“I beheld,” Nephi says later, “that the rod of iron . . . was the word of God, [leading] . . . to the tree of life; . . . a representation of the love of God.” Viewing this manifestation of God’s love, Nephi goes on to say:
“I looked and beheld the Redeemer of the world, . . . [who] went forth ministering unto the people. . . .
“ . . . And I beheld multitudes of people who were sick, and who were afflicted with all manner of diseases, and with devils and unclean spirits; . . . and they were healed by the power of the Lamb of God; and the devils and the unclean spirits were cast out.”5
Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.”6 That phrase—taken from Moroni’s final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehi’s vision—is a dying man’s testimony of the only true way.
May I refer to a modern “last days” testimony? When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent martyrdom, Hyrum read these words to comfort the heart of his brother:
“Thou hast been faithful; wherefore . . . thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.
“And now I, Moroni, bid farewell . . . until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ.”7
A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the page from which he had read, marking it as part of the everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were about to die. I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum read, the same corner of the page turned down, still visible. Later, when actually incarcerated in the jail, Joseph the Prophet turned to the guards who held him captive and bore a powerful testimony of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.8 Shortly thereafter pistol and ball would take the lives of these two testators.
As one of a thousand elements of my own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, I submit this as yet one more evidence of its truthfulness. In this their greatest—and last—hour of need, I ask you: would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for eternal salvation on a book (and by implication a church and a ministry) they had fictitiously created out of whole cloth?
Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and their children fatherless. Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be “houseless, friendless and homeless” and that their children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers and an untamed prairie floor.9 Never mind that legions will die and other legions live declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know the Book of Mormon and the Church which espouses it to be true. Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.”10
I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, . . . a rock of offence,”11 a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in this work. Witnesses, even witnesses who were for a time hostile to Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had handled the plates. “They have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man,” they declared. “Wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true.”12
Now, I did not sail with the brother of Jared in crossing an ocean, settling in a new world. I did not hear King Benjamin speak his angelically delivered sermon. I did not proselyte with Alma and Amulek nor witness the fiery death of innocent believers. I was not among the Nephite crowd who touched the wounds of the resurrected Lord, nor did I weep with Mormon and Moroni over the destruction of an entire civilization. But my testimony of this record and the peace it brings to the human heart is as binding and unequivocal as was theirs. Like them, “[I] give [my name] unto the world, to witness unto the world that which [I] have seen.” And like them, “[I] lie not, God bearing witness of it.”13
I ask that my testimony of the Book of Mormon and all that it implies, given today under my own oath and office, be recorded by men on earth and angels in heaven. I hope I have a few years left in my “last days,” but whether I do or do not, I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true, that it came forth the way Joseph said it came forth and was given to bring happiness and hope to the faithful in the travail of the latter days.
My witness echoes that of Nephi, who wrote part of the book in his “last days”:
“Hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, . . . and they teach all men that they should do good.
“And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day.”14
Brothers and sisters, God always provides safety for the soul, and with the Book of Mormon, He has again done that in our time. Remember this declaration by Jesus Himself: “Whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived”15—and in the last days neither your heart nor your faith will fail you. Of this I earnestly testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

NOTES
1. See Matthew 24:24; see also Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:22.
2. Luke 21:26.
3. See History of the Church, 4:461.
4. 1 Nephi 8:30.
5. 1 Nephi 11:25, 27–28, 31.
6. Moroni 10:32.
7. Ether 12:37–38; see also D&C 135:5.
8. See History of the Church, 6:600.
9. Joseph Smith, in History of the Church, 4:539.
10. George Cannon, quoted in “The Twelve Apostles,” in Andrew Jenson, ed., The Historical Record, 6:175.
11. 1 Peter 2:8.
12. “The Testimony of Three Witnesses,” Book of Mormon.
13. “The Testimony of Eight Witnesses,” Book of Mormon; emphasis added.
14. 2 Nephi 33:10–11; emphasis added.
15. Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:37.

The Grandeur of God Great talk I found by Elder Holland

2010-08-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.

Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.
He did this at least in part because then and now all of us need to know God more fully in order to love Him more deeply and obey Him more completely. As both Old and New Testaments declare, "The first of all the commandments is . . . thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first [and great] commandment."1
Little wonder then that the Prophet Joseph Smith taught: "It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God." "I want you all to know Him," he said, "and to be familiar with Him."2 We must have "a correct idea of his . . . perfections, and attributes," an admiration for "the excellency of [His] character."3 Thus the first phrase we utter in the declaration of our faith is, "We believe in God, the Eternal Father."4 So, emphatically, did Jesus. Even as He acknowledged His own singular role in the divine plan, the Savior nevertheless insisted on this prayerful preamble: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God."5
After generations of prophets had tried to teach the family of man the will and the way of the Father, usually with little success, God in His ultimate effort to have us know Him, sent to earth His Only Begotten and perfect Son, created in His very likeness and image, to live and serve among mortals in the everyday rigors of life.
To come to earth with such a responsibility, to stand in place of Elohim—speaking as He would speak, judging and serving, loving and warning, forbearing and forgiving as He would do—this is a duty of such staggering proportions that you and I cannot comprehend such a thing. But in the loyalty and determination that would be characteristic of a divine child, Jesus could comprehend it and He did it. Then, when the praise and honor began to come, He humbly directed all adulation to the Father.
"The Father . . . doeth the works," He said in earnest. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever [the Father] doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."6 On another occasion He said: "I speak that which I have seen with my Father." "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me." "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."7
I make my own heartfelt declaration of God our Eternal Father this morning because some in the contemporary world suffer from a distressing misconception of Him. Among these there is a tendency to feel distant from the Father, even estranged from Him, if they believe in Him at all. And if they do believe, many moderns say they might feel comfortable in the arms of Jesus, but they are uneasy contemplating the stern encounter of God.8 Through a misreading (and surely, in some cases, a mistranslation) of the Bible, these see God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son as operating very differently, this in spite of the fact that in both the Old Testament and the New, the Son of God is one and the same, acting as He always does under the direction of the Father, who is Himself the same "yesterday, today, and forever."9
In reflecting on these misconceptions we realize that one of the remarkable contributions of the Book of Mormon is its seamless, perfectly consistent view of divinity throughout that majestic book. Here there is no Malachi-to-Matthew gap, no pause while we shift theological gears, no misreading the God who is urgently, lovingly, faithfully at work on every page of that record from its Old Testament beginning to its New Testament end. Yes, in an effort to give the world back its Bible and a correct view of Deity with it, what we have in the Book of Mormon is a uniform view of God in all His glory and goodness, all His richness and complexity—including and especially as again demonstrated through a personal appearance of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
How grateful we are for all the scriptures, especially the scriptures of the Restoration, that teach us the majesty of each member of the Godhead. How we would thrill, for example, if all the world would receive and embrace the view of the Father so movingly described in the Pearl of Great Price.
There, in the midst of a grand vision of humankind which heaven opened to his view, Enoch, observing both the blessings and challenges of mortality, turns his gaze toward the Father and is stunned to see Him weeping. He says in wonder and amazement to this most powerful Being in the universe: "How is it that thou canst weep? . . . Thou art just [and] merciful and kind forever; . . . Peace . . . is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?"
Looking out on the events of almost any day, God replies: "Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands. . . . I gave unto them . . . [a] commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood. . . . Wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?"10
That single, riveting scene does more to teach the true nature of God than any theological treatise could ever convey. It also helps us understand much more emphatically that vivid moment in the Book of Mormon allegory of the olive tree, when after digging and dunging, watering and weeding, trimming, pruning, transplanting, and grafting, the great Lord of the vineyard throws down his spade and his pruning shears and weeps, crying out to any who would listen, "What could I have done more for my vineyard?"11
What an indelible image of God's engagement in our lives! What anguish in a parent when His children do not choose Him nor "the gospel of God" He sent!12 How easy to love someone who so singularly loves us!
Of course the centuries-long drift away from belief in such a perfect and caring Father hasn't been helped any by the man-made creeds of erring generations which describe God variously as unknown and unknowable—formless, passionless, elusive, ethereal, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at all. Certainly that does not describe the Being we behold through the eyes of these prophets. Nor does it match the living, breathing, embodied Jesus of Nazareth who was and is in "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his [Father]."13
In that sense Jesus did not come to improve God's view of man nearly so much as He came to improve man's view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came.
So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness."14 In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, "This is God's compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own." In the perfect Son's manifestation of the perfect Father's care, in Their mutual suffering and shared sorrow for the sins and heartaches of the rest of us, we see ultimate meaning in the declaration: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."15
I bear personal witness this day of a personal, living God, who knows our names, hears and answers prayers, and cherishes us eternally as children of His spirit. I testify that amidst the wondrously complex tasks inherent in the universe, He seeks our individual happiness and safety above all other godly concerns. We are created in His very image and likeness,16 and Jesus of Nazareth, His Only Begotten Son in the flesh, came to earth as the perfect mortal manifestation of His grandeur. In addition to the witness of the ancients we also have the modern miracle of Palmyra, the appearance of God the Father and His Beloved Son, the Savior of the world, to the boy prophet Joseph Smith. I testify of that appearance, and in the words of that prophet I, too, declare: "Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive. . . . God does not look on sin with [the least degree of] allowance, but . . . the nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs."17
I bear witness of a God who has such shoulders. And in the spirit of the holy apostleship, I say as did one who held this office anciently: "Herein [then] is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another"18—and to love Him forever, I pray. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

NOTES
1. Mark 12:29–30; see also Matthew 22:37–38; Deuteronomy 6:5.
2. History of the Church, 6:305.
3. Lectures on Faith (1985), 38, 42.
4. Articles of Faith 1:1.
5. John 17:3.
6. John 14:10; 5:19.
7. John 8:38, 28; 6:38.
8. See William Barclay, The Mind of Jesus (1961), especially the chapter "Looking at the Cross" for a discussion of this modern tendency.
9. For example, 1 Nephi 10:18; 2 Nephi 27:23; Moroni 10:19; D&C 20:12.
10. Moses 7:29–33, 37.
11. Jacob 5:41; see also vv. 47, 49.
12. Romans 1:1.
13. Hebrews 1:3; see also 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15.
14. Lectures on Faith, 42.
15. John 3:16–17.
16. See Genesis 1:26–27; Moses 2:26–27.
17. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 257, 240–41.
18. 1 John 4:10.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

2009-03-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

A Plan for Overcoming Addictive Behavior

2009-02-26T12:47:00.000-08:00

After meeting Michael Conant in Robinson IL, He suffered from a serious case of alcoholism. We used these steps to help him overcome his addiction. He became a member of The Church of Jesus christ after overcoming his addictions. How grateful I am for the healing power of the lord Jesus Christ may we all turn to him for the ultimate healing. Alma 7:11-13

A Plan for Overcoming Addictive Behavior

Adapted from Preach My Gospel, a guide to missionary service.

The following suggestions are helpful for those overcoming addictions:

· Outline the times, places, and people that contribute to the behavior. Then discuss the list with a spouse, bishop, ward missionary, or other trusted friend. Talk about what you need to do to change or avoid the items on the list.

· Write down what the behavior is causing you to miss now and, if not corrected, what it will cause you to miss in the future.

· Write down different things you can do to avoid or discourage inappropriate behavior. This may include talking to one’s spouse, calling the bishop or a friend for support, exercising, and any other activity that helps you avoid temptation

· Regularly pray, study the scriptures, listen to uplifting music, and read wholesome books.

· Possibly seek a priesthood blessing.

· Continue to be active in the Church, which is there to help you overcome problems and grow closer to the Lord.

· Attend, if appropriate support group or obtain professional help. In some places, LDS Family Services is available.

· Never give up! The Lord will assist you, even if it takes some time

Remaining active in the Church and striving to live faithfully are the most important things any individual can do in overcoming addiction problems.

THEDOCTRINE AND COVENANTS

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
Section 89
Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio, February 27, 1833. HC 1: 327–329. As a consequence of the early brethren using tobacco in their meetings, the Prophet was led to ponder upon the matter; consequently he inquired of the Lord concerning it. This revelation, known as the Word of Wisdom, was the result. The first three verses were originally written as an inspired introduction and description by the Prophet.

1 A Word OF Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests, assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the saints in Zion—
2 To be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom, showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days—
3 Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints.
4 Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—
5 That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.
6 And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make.
7 And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.
8 And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.
9 And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.
10 And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—
11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.
12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;
13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
14 All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;
15 And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.
16 All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—
17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.
18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;
19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
20 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

BLAKE SUITTER. RODEO IN REXBURG IDAHO

2009-02-25T11:55:00.000-08:00

BLAKE SUITTER RODEO IN REXBURG IDAHO!!!

Making Baptisms Magical !!!

2009-02-23T13:05:00.001-08:00

Michell Withrow Baptism Robinson IL.
This day was the greatest day of Michell's life. My companion and I knew that so we did all we could to make her have a magical Baptism. follow these steps when planning a baptism.

"Missionary service is not easy, but it is infinitely worth it." M. Russell Ballard - 2005, Apr. Gen. Conf.

Making Baptisms Magical!!!

Most of us don’t remember all the little details that went into making our own baptisms magical so we sometimes forget to take care of a few details for our investigators, so here are some simple steps on how to make everything go Swimmingly. ( Get it ? )

· Step 1. Go through and design the program with the investigator, so they feel like they understand what is going to be coming. ( Do this with your Ward Mission Leader)

· Step 2. Make sure to go through the movements of baptism, teach them to bend there knees, to plug there nose, and to grip the person baptizing right on the wrist, to make sure they go all the way under.

· Step 3. Be sure to express the importance both to the investigator and the members of how important and spiritual a baptismal service is and to show up early, be reverent, and quiet during the whole service. Encourage the members to reflect upon there own baptism.

· Step 4. Make sure the person being baptized has white underwear for the baptism, and make sure they bring EXTRA UNDERWEAR and a TOWEL!

· Step 5. Have the person being baptized sit in the front row right beside the person who will be baptizing! And try to get the guest to sit in the more front rows, not the far back. Have the conductor excuse those that are part of the baptism first.

· Step 6. Be sure the font is full and as comfortable temperature as possible, and the all doors to the font and to the dressing room are unlocked.

· Step 7. Have the doors to the font open during the whole time the guests are in the room. So that the guest can see both the baptizer and the person being baptized walk into the water.

· Step 8. Be sure on program to have Hymn numbers and speakers on it.

Let us be the ones that make this a MEMORABLE and MAGICAL experience for our baptisms! So they may feel as the people in Mosiah Chapter 18 vs.30 “ And now it came to pass that all this was done in Mormon, yea, by the waters of Mormon, in the forest that was near the waters of Mormon; yea, the place of Mormon, the waters of Mormon, the forest of Mormon, how beautiful are they to the eyes of them who there came to the knowledge of their Redeemer; yea, and how blessed are they, for they shall sing to his praise forever.”

Elder Holland

2009-01-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

There is power when a servant of God is perfectly obedient they Cary the power of the spirit stronger then they will at any time of there life. I remember President Brimhall talking about a missionary he knew that missionary carried the spirit so strongly that when the Elders would walk into a room everyone that was present at the meeting would stand. That is the way we should all strive to be perfect in the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2009-01-15T21:24:00.000-08:00

This picture explains my family in a nut shell. We are at the spot were Angle Moroni gave the golden plates to the young prophet Joseph smith and all we can think to do is get a cool picture of all three of us doing back flips with the monument in the background!!! Welcome to the life of an OLSEN.

Christmas Letter to all my family and close friends.

2009-01-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

The greatest gift that I have ever received was the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I wondered why I rejected the gospel for so long and why I hurt you all the ones I love the most, even though I might have not been listening and applying everything that you all were trying to teach me. You must never forget that I was always watching your actions. I was developing a testimony slowly through every one of your examples of righteousness. Thank you so much for everything that each one of you did I can truly say that I am the person that I am today because of the examples every one of you set.
During my mission I gained a very deep conversion of the gospel, I thank God every day for the testimony that I w as given. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve the lords people in the Kentucky Louisville mission, when I think of my mission I think of Alma chapter 29 1-3.
O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the atrump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!
Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and acome unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.
But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

The gift that I desire to give to you all is the gift that you have given to me over the years, the gift of the sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am indebted to each one of you that set examples you have set over my life time. I will be praying daily that the lord will assist your family as you strive to share the gospel in your own unique way the pass along cards are only to assist your families in sharing the gospel.
I would like to bare you my testimony that I know independent of any one else that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that in that spring mourning in the year 1820 the Father and the Son were both seen and heard by the young boy prophet Joseph Smith. Most importantly I know that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God and that he personally knows each one of us and longs to succor us. I love you all, Have a merry Christmas and give your savior the greatest gift of all.
Doctrine and convents 18: 15-16
15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!
Steven Olsen

The atonement of Jesus Christ is a broad topic but have chose to focus on three themes of the atonement. First the power of the atonement to forgive sins and to cover all things to allow us to enter into the kingdom of God, Second how the Lord Jesus Christ has the power to Succor his people because of his atoning sacrifice. Third through the atonement we will all be resurrected.

First I think it's important to understand what the atonement is, as used in the Scriptures to atonement is to suffer the penalty for sins, thereby removing the effects of sin from the center and allowing him or her to be reconciled to God. It’s understood that the atonement could only be performed by Jesus Christ because he was the literal son of God in the flesh. Even he the greatest of all pleaded with his father if there was any other way that mankind could be redeemed but he did his father's will and partook of that bitter cup. Because of this great sacrifice all people will be resurrected from the dead no matter their condition or state. But only those that live his gospel and keep his commandments and truly apply his atoning sacrifice into their lives will receive the ultimate gift which is to live with God and your family for eternities.
When we started our journey here on earth your father gave you a gift he gave you a large backpack and a backpack had nothing in it. Every time you sin on this journey in immortality you must pick up a rock and place it in this backpack, some of the rocks are smaller some are larger but it comes to a point where the backpack is to heavy you cannot bare the wait or the load of the backpack unless some of the rocks are taken out. I want you to then image that your older brother comes along and wants to help you along this journey so he pleads with your father and is able to help you carry the load and wants to remove the rocks. But we all have been there when the backpack is too much to carry rocks must be removed, I know that the only way the rocks can be removed is through the Savior Jesus Christ. Our father has given him that power because he lived a perfect life, and because he is taken upon him all of our sins. I think this is hard to fathom them that someone could literally take upon them the sins of all mankind. But that is exactly what he did he bore every sin that was or will ever be committed. In D&C 19 16 -17 it explanes what will happen to us if we do not repent while we have the chance. “For behold, I, God suffered these things for all that they might not suffer if they would repent; but if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself God, have suffered these things for all, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer bold body and spirit and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink nevertheless, glory be to the father, and I partook and finish my preparations on to the children of men.”If we do not repent while in this state we will suffer even as Jesus Christ suffered for our own personal sins, as explained in doctrine and covenants 19 we cannot bear that burden we cannot comprehend the pain that the Savior went through for each of us. Then there is the joy of knowing that when we have repented of our sins, the lord has made us a promise. “Behold he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I the lord will remember them no more.” I have felt the true and lasting Joy that can be experienced from the gift of repentance. The lord will have no remembrance of your sins if you truly have repented of your sins I know that to be a fact.
The Lord suffered so much more pain than just taking upon himself our sins he also took upon him our heart ached our sorrow our grief anything that you can imagine the Lord suffered. I remember when I first heard this wondering how it is possible that someone could suffer all of these things then I remembered a passage in the book of Alma 7 11 -13 and it reads “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled witch saith he will take upon him the pains and the sickness of his people. And he will take upon him death that he may lose the bands of death witch bind his people; and he take upon him there infirmities, that his bowels may be filed with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. Now the spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out there transgressions according to the power of his deliverance and now behold this is the testimony which is in me.” This passage of scripture explains the atonement perfectly here was a perfect man or should we say God. He came down to a foreign land to redeem his people. To know that the Savior knows my temptations knows my weaknesses makes me stronger. To know that the Savior is taken upon him my sicknesses my infirmities humbles me. The definition of the word succor is as follows; Literally, to run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; as, to succor a besieged city; to succor prisoners. http://1828.mshaffer.com/d/search/word,succor. I know that I think of the word succor in a whole different way after understanding that it literally means that the Savior is running to us before we have even committed a sin, before we have even experienced the sorrow the grief with the pain of committing sin. The Savior wants to relieve us from our burdens. I know that the Savior Jesus Christ truly does succor his people he has succored me in my time of need. And has supported me and lifted me up in my time of heartache. There is no other way to be completely clean from sin and sorrow, we must use this atoning sacrifice in our lives daily. We must learn to repent morning and evening but we'll must also remember never to take for granted this great sacrifice which was preformed for mankind. I often think that Satan wants us to think that there is no way that the lord can help us when we are going through a hard time or thatwe are not worthy to speak to our father, there is no greater time to talk to the lord then when you are in need of his comfort or his guidance. As once said “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Winston Churchill I hope and pray that will we not give in to the adversary and his temptations, but that we may keep our self’s unspotted from this world and clean from the blood and sins of the generation.
Jesus Christ resurrection is the crowning event of the atonement someway incomprehensible to me; Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. So it has been said at him as the father of mortality so Christ is the father of immortality. All men whether good or evil will be reunited with their body in a perfect state. “The soul shall be restored to the body, and the body to the soul. And every limb and joint shall be restored to its body may even a hair of the head shall not be lost but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”Alma 40:23 that is a free gift that Jesus Christ gives to all men. I know that this resurrection that has been prophesied since the beginning of this world will come to pass. All men will be reunited with their body, this is the free gift of the atonement to enable the full effects of the atonement we must repent and keep the Commandments that God has outlined for through and by his holy prophets and Scriptures.
In conclusion I know that the atonement has the power to forgive sins, and has the power to succor us at all times and in all places may we strive to use this atoning sacrifice in our daily lives will before it is too late. All mankind will be resurrected I know that to be true. In closing I know that the Savior suffered for us personally that he knows us that he is there to help us and wants us to be reunited with him and with her father for eternity. His suffering I cannot comprehend but I do know that he suffered for me individually and for all mankind. I have come to the conclusion that there is no sin to great no burden to small that the Lord does not care about. My prayer is that we as a people may speak of the atonement on a more frequent basis thus enabling us to understand this great sacrifice. As elder Eyring once said if you are talking about anything that matters you are talking about the atonement.

Try The Spirits

2008-12-17T10:16:00.000-08:00

"Try the Spirits"

The Prophet's Editorial in the Times and Seasons (April 1, 1842, 743-748)

History of the Church 4:571-581. (See also Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 202-215.)

Recent occurrences that have transpired amongst us render it an imperative duty devolving upon me to say something in relation to the spirits by which men are actuated.

It is evident from the Apostles' writings, that many false spirits existed in their day, and had "gone forth into the world," and that it needed intelligence which God alone could impart to detect false spirits, and to prove what spirits were of God. The world in general have been grossly ignorant in regard to this one thing, and why should they be otherwise -- "for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." {1 Cor 2:11.}

The Egyptians were not able to discover the difference between the miracles of Moses and those of the magicians until they came to be tested together; and if Moses had not appeared in their midst, they would unquestionably have thought that the miracles of the magicians were performed through the mighty power of God, for they were great miracles that were performed by them -- a supernatural agency was developed, and great power manifested.

The witch of Endor is a no less singular personage; clothed with a powerful agency she raised the Prophet Samuel from his grave, and he appeared before the astonished king, and revealed unto him his future destiny. Who is to tell whether this woman is of God, and a righteous woman -- or whether the power she possessed was of the devil, and she a witch as represented by the Bible? It is easy for us to say now, but if we had lived in her day, which of us could have unraveled the mystery?

It would have been equally as difficult for us to tell by what spirit the Apostles prophesied, or by what power the Apostles spoke and worked miracles. Who could have told whether the power of Simon, the sorcerer, was of God or of the devil?

There always did, in every age, seem to be a lack of intelligence pertaining to this subject. Spirits of all kinds have been manifested, in every age, and almost among all people.

If we go among the pagans, they have their spirits; the Mohammedans, the Jews, the Christians, the Indians -- all have their spirits, all have a supernatural agency, and all contend that their spirits are of God. Who shall solve the mystery? "Try the spirits," says John, but who is to do it? The learned, the eloquent, the philosopher, the sage, the divine -- all are ignorant. The heathens will boast of their gods, and of the great things that have been unfolded by their oracles. The Mussulman will boast of his Koran, and of the divine communications that his progenitors have received. The Jews have had numerous instances, both ancient and modern, among them of men who have professed to be inspired, and sent to bring about great events, and the Christian world has not been slow in making up the number.

Ignorance of the Nature of Spirits

"Try the spirits," but what by? Are we to try them by the creeds of men? What preposterous folly -- what sheer ignorance -- what madness! Try the motions and actions of an eternal being (for I contend that all spirits are such) by a thing that was conceived in ignorance, and brought forth in folly -- a cobweb of yesterday! Angels would hide their faces, and devils would be ashamed and insulted, and would say, "Paul we know, and Jesus we know, but who are ye?" {Acts 19:15.} Let each man of society make a creed and try evil spirits by it, and the devil would shake his sides; it is all that he would ask -- all that he would desire. Yet many of them do this, and hence "many spirits are abroad in the world." {See 1 Jn 4:1.}

One great evil is, that men are ignorant of the nature of spirits; their power, laws, government, intelligence, etc., and imagine that when there is anything like power, revelation, or vision manifested, that it must be of God. Hence the Methodists, Presbyterians, and others frequently possess a spirit that will cause them to lie down, and during its operation, animation is frequently entirely suspended; they consider it to be the power of God, and a glorious manifestation from God -- a manifestation of what? Is there any intelligence communicated? Are the curtains of heaven withdrawn, or the purposes of God developed? Have they seen and conversed with an angel -- or have the glories of futurity burst upon their view? No! but their body has been inanimate, the operation of their spirit suspended, and all the intelligence that can be obtained from them when they arise, is a shout of "glory," or "hallelujah," or some incoherent expression; but they have had "the power."

The Shaker will whirl around on his heel, impelled by a supernatural agency or spirit, and think that he is governed by the Spirit of God; and the Jumper will jump and enter into all kinds of extravagances. A Primitive Methodist will shout under the influence of that spirit, until he will rend the heavens with his cries; while the Quakers (or Friends) moved as they think, by the Spirit of God, will sit still and say nothing. Is God the author of all this? If not all of it, which does He recognize? Surely, such a heterogeneous mass of confusion never can enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Discerning of Spirits by Power of Priesthood

Every one of these professes to be competent to try his neighbor's spirit, but no one can try his own, and what is the reason? Because they have not a key to unlock, no rule wherewith to measure, and no criterion whereby they can test it. Could any one tell the length, breadth or height of a building without a rule? Test the quality of metals without a criterion, or point out the movements of the planetary systems, without a knowledge of astronomy? Certainly not; and if such ignorance as this is manifested about a spirit of this kind, who can describe an angel of light? If Satan should appear as one in glory, who can tell his color, his signs, his appearance, his glory, or what is the manner of his manifestation? Who can detect the spirit of the French prophets with their revelations and their visions, and power of manifestations? Or who can point out the spirit of the Irvingites, with their apostles and prophets, and visions and tongues, and interpretations, etc. Or who can drag into daylight and develop the hidden mysteries of the false spirits that so frequently are made manifest among the Latter-day Saints? We answer that no man can do this without the Priesthood, and having a knowledge of the laws by which spirits are governed; for as no man knows the things of God, but by the Spirit of God, so no man knows the spirit of the devil, and his power and influence, but by possessing intelligence which is more than human, and having unfolded through the medium of the Priesthood the mysteries operations of his devices; without knowing the angelic form, the sanctified look and gesture, and the zeal that is frequently manifested by him for the glory of God, together with the prophetic spirit, the gracious influence, the godly appearance, and the holy garb, which are so characteristic of his proceedings and his mysterious windings.

A man must have the discerning of spirits before he can drag into daylight this hellish influence and unfold it unto the world in all its soul-destroying, diabolical, and horrid colors; for nothing is a greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influence of a false spirit when they think they have the Spirit of God. Thousands have felt the influence of its terrible power and baneful effects. Long pilgrimages have been undertaken, penances endured, and pain, misery and ruin have followed in their train; nations have been convulsed, kingdoms overthrown, provinces laid waste, and blood, carnage and desolation are habiliments in which it has been clothed.

The Turks, the Hindoos, the Jews, the Christians, the Indian; in fact all nations have been deceived, imposed upon and injured through the mischievous effects of false spirits.

The Spirit of God the Spirit of Knowledge

As we have noticed before, the great difficulty lies in the ignorance of the nature of spirits, of the laws by which they are governed, and the signs by which they may be known; if it requires the Spirit of God to know the things of God; and the spirit of the devil can only be unmasked through that medium, then it follows as a natural consequence that unless some person or persons have a communication, or revelation from God, unfolding to them the operation of the spirit, they must eternally remain ignorant of these principles; for I contend that if one man cannot understand these things but by the Spirit of God, ten thousand men cannot; it is alike out of the reach of the wisdom of the learned, the tongue of the eloquent, the power of the mighty. And we shall at last have to come to this conclusion, whatever we may think of revelation, that without it we can neither know nor understand anything of God, or the devil; and however unwilling the world may be to acknowledge this principle, it is evident from the multifarious creeds and notions concerning this matter that they understand nothing of this principle, and it is equally as plain that without a divine communication they must remain in ignorance. The world always mistook false prophets for true ones, and those that were sent of God, they considered to be false prophets and hence they killed, stoned, punished and imprisoned the true prophets, and these had to hide themselves "in deserts and dens, and caves of the earth," and though the most honorable men of the earth, they banished them from their society as vagabonds, whilst they cherished, honored and supported knaves, vagabonds, hypocrites, impostors, and the basest of men.

The Gift of Discernment of Spirits

A man must have the discerning of spirits, as we before stated, to understand these things, and how is he to obtain this gift if there are no gifts of the Spirit? And how can these gifts be obtained without revelation? "Christ ascended into heaven, and gave gifts to men; and he gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers." And how were Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists chosen? By prophecy (revelation) and by laying on of hands by a divine communication, and a divinely appointed ordinance -- through the medium of the Priesthood, organized according to the order of God, by divine appointment. The Apostles in ancient times held the keys of this Priesthood of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, and consequently were enabled to unlock and unravel all things pertaining to the government of the Church, the welfare of society, the future destiny of men, and the agency, power and influence of spirits; for they could control them at pleasure, bid them depart in the name of Jesus, and detect their mischievous and mysterious operations when trying to palm themselves upon the Church in a religious garb, and militate against the interest of the Church and spread truth. We read that they "cast out devils in the name of Jesus," and when a woman possessing the spirit of divination, cried before Paul and Silas, "these are the servants of the Most High God that show unto us the way of salvation," they detected the spirit. And although she spake favorably of them, Paul commanded the spirit come out of her, and saved themselves from the opprobrium that might have been heaped upon their heads, through an alliance with her, in the development of her wicked principles, which they certainly would have been charged with, if they had not rebuked the evil spirit. {Acts 16.}

The Gift Held by the Prophets

A power similar to this existed through the medium of the Priesthood in different ages. Moses could detect the magician's power, and show that he [himself] was God's servant -- he knew when he was upon the mountain (through revelation) that Israel was engaged in idolatry; he could develop the sin of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, detect witches and wizards in their proceedings, and point out the true prophets of the Lord. Joshua knew how to detect the man who had stolen the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment. Michaiah could point out the false spirit by which the four hundred prophets were governed; and if his advice had been taken, many lives would have been spared, (2 Chronicles 18) Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and many other prophets possessed this power. Our Savior, the Apostles, and even the members of the Church were endowed with this gift, for, says Paul, (1 Corinthians 12), "To one is given the gift of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits." All these proceeded from the same Spirit of God, and were the gifts of God. The Ephesian church were enabled by this principle, "to try those that said they were apostles, and were not, and found them liars." (Revelation 2:2.)

Difference Between Body and Spirit

In tracing the thing to the foundation, and looking at it philosophically, we shall find a very material difference between the body and the spirit; the body is supposed to be organized matter, and the spirit, by many, is thought to be immaterial, without substance. With this latter statement we should beg leave to differ, and state the spirit is a substance; that it is material, but that it is more pure, elastic and refined matter than the body; that it existed before the body, can exist in the body; and will exist separate from the body, when the body will be mouldering in the dust; and will in the resurrection be again united with it.

Spirits Eternal

Without attempting to describe this mysterious connection, and the laws that govern the body and the spirit of man, their relationship to each other, and the design of God in relation to the human body and spirit, I would just remark, that the spirits of men are eternal, that they are governed by the same Priesthood that Abraham, Melchizedek, and the Apostles were: that they are organized according to that Priesthood which is everlasting, "without beginning of days or end of years," that they all move in their respective spheres, and are governed by the law of God; that when they appear upon the earth they are in a probationary state, and are preparing, if righteous, for a future and greater glory; that the spirits of good men cannot interfere with the wicked beyond their prescribed bounds, for Michael, the Archangel, dared not bring a railing accusation against the devil, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee, Satan."

Wicked Spirits Restricted in Power

It would seem also, that wicked spirits have their bounds, limits, and laws by which they are governed or controlled, and know their future destiny; hence, those that were in the maniac said to our Savior, "Art thou come to torment us before the time?" and when Satan presented himself before the Lord, among the sons of God, he said that he came "from going to and fro in the earth, and from wandering up and down in it;" and he is emphatically called the prince of the power of the air; and, it is very evident that they possess a power that none but those who have the Priesthood can control, as we have before adverted to, in the case of the sons of Sceva. {Acts 19.}

Having said so much upon the general principles, without referring to the peculiar situation, power, and influence of the magicians of Egypt, the wizards and witches of the Jews, the oracles of the heathen, their necromancers, soothsayers, and astrologers, the maniacs or those possessed of devils in the Apostles' days, we will notice, and try to detect (so far as we have the Scriptures for our aid) some few instances of the development of false spirits in more modern times, and in this our day.

False Prophets

The "French Prophets" were possessed of a spirit that deceived; they existed in Vivaris and Dauphany, in great numbers in the year 1688; there were many boys and girls from seven to twenty-five; they had strange fits, as in tremblings and faintings, which made them stretch out their legs and arms, as in a swoon; they remained awhile in trances, and coming out of them, uttered all that came in their mouths. [see Buck's Theological Dictionary]

Now God never had any prophets that acted in this way; there was nothing indecorous in the proceeding of the Lord's prophets in any age; neither had the apostles nor prophets in the apostles' day anything of this kind. Paul says, "Ye may all prophesy, one by one; and if anything be revealed to another let the first hold his peace, for the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets;" but here we find that the prophets are subject to the spirit, and falling down, have twitchings, tumblings, and faintings through the influence of that spirit, being entirely under its control. Paul says, "Let everything be done decently and in order," but here we find the greatest disorder and indecency in the conduct of both men and women, as above described. The same rule would apply to the fallings, twitchings, swoonings, shaking, and trances of many of our modern revivalists.

Johanna Southcott professed to be a prophetess, and wrote a book of prophecies in 1804, she became the founder of a people that are still extant. She was to bring forth, in a place appointed, a son, that was to be the Messiah, which thing has failed. Independent of this, however, where do we read of a woman that was the founder of a church, in the word of God? Paul told the women in his day, "To keep silence in the church, and that if they wished to know anything to ask their husbands at home;" he would not suffer a woman "to rule, or to usurp authority in the church;" but here we find a woman the founder of a church, the revelator and guide, the Alpha and Omega, contrary to all acknowledged rule, principle, and order.

Jemimah Wilkinson was another prophetess that figured largely in America, in the last century. She stated that she was taken sick and died, and that her soul went to heaven, where it still continues. Soon after, her body was reanimated with the spirit and power of Christ, upon which she set up as a public teacher, and declared that she had an immediate revelation. Now the Scriptures positively assert that "Christ is the first fruit, afterwards those that are Christ's at His coming, then cometh the end." But Jemimah, according to her testimony, died, and rose again before the time mentioned in the Scriptures. The idea of her soul being in heaven while her body was [living] on earth, is also preposterous. When God breathed into man's nostrils, he became a living soul, before that he did not live, and when that was taken away his body died; and so did our Savior when the spirit left the body, nor did His body live until His spirit returned in the power of His resurrection. But Mrs. Wilkinson's soul [life] was in heaven, and her body without the soul [or life] on earth, living [without the soul, or] without life!

Irvingites

The Irvingites are a people that have counterfeited the truth, perhaps the nearest of any of our modern sectarians. They commenced about ten years ago in the city of London, in England; they have churches formed in various parts of England and Scotland, and some few in Upper Canada. Mr. Irving, their founder, was a learned and talented minister of the Church of Scotland, he was a great logician, and a powerful orator, but withal wild and enthusiastic in his views. Moving in the higher circles, and possessing talent and zeal, placed him in a situation to become a conspicuous character, and to raise up a society similar to that which is called after his name.

The Irvingites have apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and angels. They profess to have the gift of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, and, in some few instances, to have the gift of healing.

The first prophetic spirit that was manifested was in some Misses Campbell that Mr. Irving met with, while on a journey in Scotland; they had [what is termed among their sect] "utterances," which were evidently of a supernatural agency. Mr. Irving, falling into the common error of considering all supernatural manifestations to be of God, took them to London with him, and introduced them into his church.

They were there honored as the prophetesses of God, and when they spoke, Mr. Irving or any of his ministers had to keep silence. They were peculiarly wrought upon before the congregation, and had strange utterances, uttered with an unnatural, shrill voice, and with thrilling intonations they frequently made use of a few broken, unconnected sentences, that were ambiguous, incoherent, and incomprehensible; at other times they were more clearly understood. They would frequently cry out, "There is iniquity! There is iniquity!" And Mr. Irving has been led, under the influence of this charge, to fall down upon his knees before the public congregation, and to confess his sin, not knowing whether he had sinned, nor wherein, nor whether the thing referred to him or somebody else. During these operations, the bodies of the persons speaking were powerfully wrought upon, their countenances were distorted, they had frequent twitchings in their hands, and the whole system was powerfully convulsed at intervals: they sometimes, however, (it is supposed) spoke in correct tongues, and had true interpretations.

Under the influence of this spirit the church was organized by these women; apostles, prophets, etc., were soon called, and a systematic order of things introduced, as above mentioned. A Mr. Baxter (afterwards one of their principal prophets) upon going into one of their meetings, says, "I saw a power manifested, and thought that was the power of God, and asked that it might fall upon me, and it did so, and I began to prophesy." Eight or nine years ago they had about sixty preachers going through the streets of London, testifying that London was to be the place where the "two witnesses" spoken of by John, were to prophesy; that (they) the church and the spirit were the witnesses, and that at the end of three years and a half there was to be an earthquake and great destruction, and our Savior was to come. Their apostles were collected together at the appointed time watching the event, but Jesus did not come, and the prophecy was then ambiguously explained away. They frequently had signs given them by the spirit to prove to them that what was manifested to them should take place. Mr. Baxter related an impression that he had concerning a child. It was manifested to him that he should visit the child, and lay hands upon it, and that it should be healed; and to prove to him that this was of God, he should meet his brother in a certain place, who should speak unto him certain words. His brother addressed him precisely in the way and manner that the manifestation designated. The sign took place, but when he laid his hands upon the child it did not recover. I cannot vouch for the authority of the last statement, as Mr. Baxter at that time had left the Irvingites, but it is in accordance with many of their proceedings, and the thing never has been attempted to be denied.

All This Is Wrong

It may be asked, where is there anything in all this that is wrong?

First. The church was organized by women, and God placed in the Church (first apostles, secondarily prophets,) and not first women; but Mr. Irving placed in his church first women (secondarily apostles,) and the church was founded and organized by them. A woman has no right to found or organize a church -- God never sent them to do it.

Second. Those women would speak in the midst of a meeting, and rebuke Mr. Irving or any of the church. Now the Scripture positively says, "Thou shalt not rebuke an Elder, but entreat him as a father;" not only this, but they frequently accused the brethren, thus placing themselves in the seat of Satan, who is emphatically called "the accuser of the brethren."

Third. Mr. Baxter received the spirit on asking for it, without attending to the ordinances, and began to prophesy, whereas the scriptural way of attaining the gift of the Holy Ghost is by baptism, and by laying on of hands.

Fourth. As we have stated in regard to others, the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets; but those prophets were subject to the spirits, the spirits controlling their bodies at pleasure.

But it may be asked how Mr. Baxter could get a sign from a second person? To this we would answer, that Mr. Baxter's brother was under the influence of the same spirit as himself, and being subject to that spirit he could be easily made to speak to Mr. Baxter whatever the spirit should dictate; but there was not power in the spirit to heal the child.

Satan May Give Manifestations in Tongues

Again it may be asked, how it was that they could speak in tongues if they were of the devil. We would answer that they could be made to speak in another tongue, as well as their own, as they were under the control of that spirit, and the devil can tempt the Hottentot, the Turk, the Jew, or any other nation; and if these men were under the influence of his spirit, they of course speak Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Italian, Dutch, or any other language that the devil knew.

Some will say, "try the spirits" by the word. "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God." 1 John 4:2, 3. One of the Irvingites once quoted this passage whilst under the influence of a spirit, and then said, "I confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." And yet these prophecies failed, their Messiah did not come; and the great things spoken of by them have fallen to the ground. What is the matter here? Did not the Apostle speak the truth? Certainly he did -- but he spoke to a people who were under the penalty of death, the moment they embraced Christianity; and no one without a knowledge of the fact would confess it, and expose themselves to death, and this was consequently given as a criterion to the church or churches to which John wrote. But the devil on a certain occasion cried out, "I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God!" Here was a frank acknowledgment under other circumstances that "Jesus had come in the flesh." On another occasion the devil said, "Paul we know, and Jesus we know"--of course, "come in the flesh." No man nor sect of men without the regular constituted authorities, the Priesthood and discerning of spirits, can tell true from false spirits. This power they possessed in the Apostles' day, but it has departed from the world for ages.

False Spirits in the Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also had its false spirits; and as it is made up of all those different sects professing every variety of opinion, and having been under the influence of so many kinds of spirits, it is not to be wondered at if there should be found among us false spirits.

Soon after the Gospel was established in Kirtland, and during the absence of the authorities of the Church, many false spirits were introduced, many strange visions were seen, and wild, enthusiastic notions were entertained; men ran out of doors under the influence of this spirit, and some of them got upon the stumps of trees and shouted, and all kinds of extravagances were entered into by them; one man pursued a ball that he said he saw flying in the air, until he came to a precipice, when he jumped into the top of a tree, which saved his life; and many ridiculous things were entered into, calculated to bring disgrace upon the Church of God, to cause the Spirit of God to be withdrawn, and to uproot and destroy those glorious principles which had been developed for the salvation of the human family. But when the authorities returned, the spirit was made manifest, those members that were exercised with it were tried for their fellowship, and those that would not repent and forsake it were cut off.

At a subsequent period a Shaker spirit was on the point of being introduced, and at another time the Methodist and Presbyterian falling down power, but the spirit was rebuked and put down, and those who would not submit to rule and good order were disfellowshiped. We have also had brethren and sisters who have had the gift of tongues falsely; they would speak in a muttering, unnatural voice, and their bodies be distorted like the Irvingites before alluded to; whereas, there is nothing unnatural in the Spirit of God. A circumstance of this kind took place in Upper Canada, but was rebuked by the presiding Elder; another, a woman near the same place, professed to have the discerning spirits, and began to accuse another sister of things that she was not guilty of, which she said she knew was so by the spirit, but was afterwards proven to be false; she placed herself in the capacity of the "accuser of the brethren," and no person through the discerning of spirits can bring a charge against another, they must be proven guilty by positive evidence, or they stand clear.

There have also been ministering angels in the Church which were of Satan appearing as an angel of light. A sister in the state of New York had a vision, who said it was told her that if she would go to a certain place in the woods, and angel would appear to her. She went at the appointed time, and saw a glorious personage descending, arrayed in white, with sandy colored hair; he commenced and told her to fear God, and said that her husband was called to do great things, but that he must not go more than one hundred miles from home, or he would not return; whereas God had called him to go to the ends of the earth, and he has since been more than one thousand miles from home, and is yet alive. Many true things were spoken by this personage, and many things that were false. How, it may be asked, was this known to be a bad angel? By the color of his hair; that is one of the signs that he can be known by, and by his contradicting a former revelation.

We have also had brethren and sisters who have written revelations, and who have started forward to lead this Church. Such was a young boy in Kirtland, Isaac Russell, of Missouri, and Gladden Bishop, and Oliver Olney of Nauvoo. The boy is now living with his parents who have submitted to the laws of the Church. Mr. Russell stayed in Far West, from whence he was to go to the Rocky Mountains, led by three Nephites; but the Nephites never came, and his friends forsook him, all but some of the blood relations, who have since been nearly destroyed by the mob. Mr. Bishop was tried by the High Council, his papers examined, condemned and burned, and he cut off the Church. He acknowledged the justice of the decision, and said "that he now saw his error, for if the had been governed by the revelations given before, he might have known that no man was to write revelations for the Church, but Joseph Smith," and begged to be prayed for, and forgiven by the brethren. Mr. Olney has also been tried by the High Council and disfellowshiped, because he would not have his writings tested by the word of God; evidently proving that he loves darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil.

True Doctrine

2008-12-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

True Doctrine
THE IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT TERMINOLOGY

Ezra Taft Benson, General Conference address, Ensign, 5/87, p. 84. "It is important that in our teaching we make use of the language of holy writ. Alma said, "I ... do command you in the language of him who hath commanded me" (Alma 5:61).

"The words and the way they are used in the Book of Mormon by the Lord should become our source of understanding and should be used by us in teaching gospel principles.

"God uses the power of the word of the Book of Mormon as an instrument to change people's lives...." [See Alma 31:5.]
"I am deeply concerned about what we are doing to teach the Saints at all levels the gospel of Jesus Christ as completely and authoritatively as do the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. By this I mean teaching the 'great plan of the Eternal God,' to use the words of Amulek (Alma 34:9).

"Are we using the messages and the method of teaching found in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures of the Restoration to teach this great plan of the Eternal God?"

(p. 85) "Are we accepting and teaching what the revelations tell us about the Creation, Adam and the fall of man, and redemption from that fall through the atonement of Christ?...

"Now, what should be the source for teaching the great plan of the Eternal God? The scriptures, of course -- particularly the Book of Mormon. This should also include the other modern-day revelations. These should be coupled with the words of the Apostles and prophets and the promptings of the Spirit."

Ezra Taft Benson, "The Gospel Teacher and His Message," address to religious educators in the Assembly Hall, 17 Sept 1976, pp. 5 ff. Always remember, there is no satisfactory substitute for the scriptures and the words of the living prophets. These should be your original sources. Read and ponder more what the Lord has said, and less about what others have written concerning what the Lord has said....

In 1938 President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., speaking for the First Presidency, pronounced a charge to you in an address entitled "The Charted Course of the Church in Education." All of you should have a copy of this address and read it at least at the beginning of each teaching year. I quote this statement from his address:

"... You are to teach this Gospel using as your sources and authorities the Standard Works of the Church, and the words of those whom God has called to lead His people in these last days. You are not ... to intrude into your work your own peculiar philosophy, no matter what its source or how pleasing and rational it seems to you ...

"You are not ... to change the doctrines of the Church or to modify them, as they are declared by and in the Standard Works of the Church and by those whose authority it is to declare the mind and will of the Lord to the Church....

"You are not to teach the philosophies of the world.... Your sole field is the Gospel...." (Clark, "Charted Course," p. 9, italics added by Elder Benson.) ...

A problem occurs on occasion when, in the pursuit of higher degrees, one becomes so imbued with the terminology and methodology of a secular discipline that, almost without realizing it, he compromises the gospel message. The simple principles of the gospel, not the disciplines of men, should always be our basis for truth.

When a teacher feels he must blend worldly sophistication and erudition to the simple principles of the gospel or to our Church history so that his message will have more appeal and respectability to the academically learned, he has compromised his message.... let us not forget that disaffection from the gospel and the Lord's church was brought about in the past by the attempts to reconcile the pure gospel with the secular philosophies of men....

Sometimes gospel principles are written with such erudition that the gospel is hardly recognizable in them. Worldly phraseology and authorities replace the scriptures and the prophets.... Be careful of blending your worldly training with the gospel courses you teach lest you be guilty of diluting the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and end up teaching the philosophy of men mingled with a few scriptures.

President Clark's counsel to you on this matter is plain, "You do not need to disguise religious truths with a cloak of worldly things...." ("The Charted Course," p. 9.) We ought to adopt the attitude of the Prophet Joseph Smith: "It mattereth not whether the principle [of the gospel] is popular or unpopular, I will always maintain a true principle, even if I stand alone in it." (History of the Church 6:223.) On another occasion he said, "It is our duty to concentrate all our influence to make popular that which is sound and good, and unpopular that which is unsound." (HC 5:286.) ...

May I further restate something I said earlier this year at the Brigham Young University devotional assembly as it pertains to teaching Church history. I said then, "There have been and continue to be attempts to bring [a humanistic] philosophy into our own Church history.... the emphasis is to underplay revelation and God's intervention in significant events, and to inordinately humanize the prophets of God so that their human frailties become more evident than their spiritual qualities." (Twelve-Stake Fireside, BYU, 28 March 1976.)

We would warn you teachers of this trend, which seems to be an effort to reinterpret the history of the Church so that it is more rationally appealing to the world....
I would again remind you that your sole duty is to teach the gospel. You are not "to intrude into your work your own peculiar philosophy, no matter what its source or how pleasing or rational it seems to you...." (Clark, "Charted Course," p. 9.) Your teaching should not be the "enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith [and the faith of your students] should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:4-5. Italics added by Elder Benson.)

Earnest L. Wilkinson, editor, BYU: First 100 Years 2:380-383, Including a letter to Franklin L. West, 17 Feb 1940, First Presidency Papers, Church Historical Department. As in 1937 and 1938, the First Presidency was concerned about the religious doctrines being taught in the Church schools, institutes, and seminaries in 1940. They also showed continuous concern that employees of the Church, including Brigham Young University faculty members, should be living examples of the principles they were expected to teach, including the payment of tithing.
In February 1940, writing for the First Presidency, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., sent Commissioner West "another letter of the kind we have sent to you heretofore," reporting on the problem of the teaching of false doctrines in the Church Educational System. President Clark commented:

Quite obviously one affirmative statement that false doctrine has been taught is worth a ream of statements that they never have heard false doctrine false doctrines taught. It is like the story that they tell about the Dutch judge who acquitted a man because, while six men saw the accused commit murder, he produced ten who did not see him do it.
The First Presidency was deeply concerned about the orthodoxy of doctrine being taught in Church schools. President Clark accordingly prepared a memorandum to Commissioner West establishing guidelines for religious instruction in Church schools, seminaries, and institutes. Speaking for the First Presidency, the memorandum said,

As forecast by President Clark, speaking for the First Presidency at Aspen Grove on August 8, 1938 ["The Charted Course"], the First Presidency has, after careful and mature deliberations, reached the following conclusion:

Institutes and Seminaries will hereafter confine themselves exclusively to the follow work:

a.Fostering and promoting the work of the auxiliary organizations of the Church ...

b.Teaching the principles of the Gospel, as set out in the doctrines of the Church. In this work the teachers will use

The Old and New Testaments
The Book of Mormon
The Doctrine and Covenants
The Pearl of Great Price

These four constitute the "Standard Works of the Church," and are the ultimate authority on all matters of doctrine, save where the Lord shall have given or shall give further revelation through the prescribed source for such -- the President of the Church ...

Teachers will do well to give up indoctrinating themselves in the sectarianism of the modern "Divinity School Theology." If they do not, they will probably bring themselves to a frame of mind where they will be no longer useful in our system. The most brilliant of them will find enough in the Gospels to tax all their brilliancy, even genius. The heights and depths of the Gospel have yet to be sounded.

The teachers will not teach ethics or philosophy, ancient or modern, pagan or so-called Christian; they will as already stated teach the Gospel and that only, and the Gospel as revealed in these last days.

In their teaching, the teachers will use the verbiage and terminology which have become classic in the Church. They will not use terms and concepts which, though in one sense, are susceptible of being applied to the Church and Church doctrines, yet which, in another sense, are completely misleading. For example, no teacher should speak of either the Church ideology or Christian ideology, which if the teacher intends to say what he is in fact saying and if the student understands what the teachers is saying and intends to say, places the Gospel in the same category with any and every pagan religion or theology, and characterizes them all as "a science that treats of the history and evolution of human ideas." This concept, reduced to its lowest terms, may be expressed as conceiving that religion is man-made, that man makes his God, not God his man -- a concept which is coming to be basic to the whole "Divinity School Theology," but which is contrary to all the teachings of the Church and to God's revealed word.

The Gospel should be spoken of as the Gospel, God's revealed truth; it is not and must never be spoken of or treated as a "history and evolution of human ideas." No student must ever be permitted to get this point of view from the teachers' work; and if the student does get it, it is the teachers' place to bring the student to a proper view....

PROTECTION BY THE STANDARD WORKS

D&C 18:2-4.
2 Behold, I have manifested unto you, by my Spirit in many instances, that the things which you have written are true; wherefore you know that they are true.
3 And if you know that they are true, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that you rely upon the things which are written;
4 For in them are all things written concerning the foundation of my church, my gospel, and my rock.

D&C 52:9.
9 And let them journey from thence preaching the word by the way, saying none other things than that which the prophets and apostles have written, and that which is taught them by the Comforter through the prayer of faith.

Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, 5/86, pp. 34-36. Only by searching the scriptures, not using them occasionally as quote books, can we begin to understand the implications as well as the declarations of the gospel.... do not be surprised when non-doers scoff. Do not be surprised, either, if these doctrines unsettle some.... The only cure for doctrinal illiteracy of those who murmur will be to learn doctrine.

THE STANDARD WORKS VIS A VIS THE GENERAL AUTHORITIES

J. Reuben Clark, Jr., "When Are the Writings or Sermons of Church Leaders Entitled to the Claim of Scripture?" [Quoting Brigham Young in Journal of Discourses 9:150.] "I am more afraid that his people have so much confidence in their leaders that they will not inquire for themselves of God whether they are led by Him. I am fearful they settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken that influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way. Let every man and woman know, by the whispering of the Spirit of God to themselves, whether their leaders are walking in the path the Lord dictates, or not."
There have been rare occasions when even the President of the Church in his teaching and preaching has not been "moved upon by the Holy Ghost." You will recall the Prophet Joseph declared that a prophet is not always a prophet. [Teachings, p. 278.]

To this point runs a simple story my father told me as a boy, I do knot know on what authority, but it illustrates the point. His story was that during the excitement incident to the coming of Johnston's Army, Brother Brigham preached to the people in a morning meeting a sermon vibrant with defiance to the approaching army, and declaring an intention to oppose and drive them back. In the afternoon meeting he arose and said the Brigham Young had been talking in the morning, but the Lord was going to talk now. He then delivered an address, the tempo of which was the opposite from the morning talk.

I do not know if this ever happened, but I say it illustrates a principle -- that even the President of the Church, himself, may not always be "moved upon by the Holy Ghost," when he addresses the people. This has happened about matters of doctrine (usually of highly speculative character) where subsequent Presidents of the Church and the people themselves have felt that in declaring the doctrine, the announcer was not "moved upon by the Holy Ghost."

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 3:203-204. (Italics in original.) It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man's doctrine.

You cannot accept the books written by the authorities of the Church as standards in doctrine, only in so far as they accord with the revealed word in the standard works.
Every man who writes is responsible, not the Church, for what he writes. If Joseph Fielding Smith writes something which is out of harmony with the revelations, then every member of the Church is duty bound to reject it. If he writes that which is in perfect harmony with the revealed word of the Lord, then it should be accepted.

Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 765. (Quoted in the Teachings of the Living Prophets manual, p. 18.) The books, writings, explanations, expositions, views, and theories of even the wisest and greatest men, either in or out of the Church, do not rank with the standard works. Even the writings, teachings, and opinions of the prophets of God are acceptable only to the extent they are in harmony with what God has revealed and what is recorded in the standard works. When the living oracles speak in the name of the Lord or as moved upon by the Holy Ghost, however, their utterances are then binding upon all who hear, and whatever is said will without any exception be found to be in harmony with the standard works. The Lord's house is a house of order, and one truth never contradicts another.

Harold B. Lee, Improvement Era, Jan. 1969, p. 13; Living Prophets for a Living Church, p. 60. All that we teach in this Church ought to be couched in the scriptures. It ought to be found in the scriptures. We ought to choose our texts from the scriptures. If we want to measure truth, we should measure it by the four standard works, regardless of who writes it. If it is not in the standard works, we may well assume that it is speculative, man's own personal opinion; and if it contradicts what is in the scriptures, it is not true. This is the standard by which we measure all truth.

Harold B. Lee, "Viewpoint of a Giant," address to religious educators, BYU, 18 July 1968, p. 6. How do we measure whether or not one's teachings are true or false? If anyone teaches beyond what the scriptures teach, we may put it down as speculation except one man who has the right to bring forth any new doctrine -- that is the one man who holds the keys -- the prophet, seer, and revelator who presides in that high place. And no one else. If anyone presumes to bring forth what he claims to be new doctrine you may know that it is purely his own opinion and you label it as such regardless of his position in the Church. If it contradicts something that is in the scriptures, you may label it immediately that it is false. That is why we call the scriptures, our four Standard Church Works. They are the standards by which we measure all doctrine and if anything is taught which is contrary to that which is in the scriptures, it is false. It is just that simple.

Harold B. Lee, "The Place of the Living Prophet, Seer, and Revelator," The Charge to Religious Educators, p. 141. It is not to be thought that every word spoken by the General Authorities is inspired, or that they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost in everything they speak and write. Now you keep that in mind. I don't care what his position is, if he writes something or speaks something that goes beyond anything that you can find in the standard church works, unless that one be the prophet, seer and revelator -- please note that one exception [when he is speaking as the prophet, from earlier in the paragraph] -- you may immediately say, "Well, that is his own idea." And if he says something that contradicts what is found in the standard works (I think that is why we call them "standard" -- it is the standard measure of all that men teach), you may know by that same token that it is false, regardless of the position of the man who says it.

Harold B. Lee, First Presidency Message, Ensign, December 1972, p. 2. ... Some time ago the secretary of a well-known philosophical society, deploring the lack of inspiration in our day, described the present age as "an age of the government of the uninspired." There is on all sides much evidence to support his contention. In the realm of art, generally speaking, as he explained, the bizarre tendencies in modern painting, the grotesque figures of modern sculpture, the cacophonies of modern music, and the eccentricities of modern poetry witness the fact that this is an age lacking inspiration. One might add that modern religion, with its readiness either "to be carried about with every wind of doctrine" or to content itself with ritualism in place of spirituality, is another symptom of the same fact.

The man, as nearly as I recall, went on to explain that the trouble undoubtedly lies in the fact that today the source of the needed inspiration, the Bible, is no longer considered by much of the world as reliable, with the result that the Christ of the Bible has become to many a vague, shadowy personality who may or may not have spoken the words attributed to him.

It is only as we forsake the traditions of men and recover faith in the Bible, the truth of which has been fully established by recent discovery and fulfillment of prophecy, that we shall once again receive that inspiration which is needed by rulers and people alike.

The Lord has said to us, "But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men, and others of devils." (D&C 46:7.)

I say that we need to teach our people to find their answers in the scriptures. If only each of us would be wise enough to say that we aren't able to answer any question unless we can find a doctrinal answer in the scriptures! And if we hear someone teaching something that is contrary to what is in the scriptures, each of us may know whether the things spoken are false -- it is as simple as that. But the unfortunate thing is that so many of us are not reading the scriptures. We do not know what is in them, and therefore we speculate about the things that we ought to have found in the scriptures themselves. I think that therein is one of our biggest dangers today....

The Lord has given us in the standard works the means by which we should measure truth and untruth. May we all heed his word: "Thou shalt take the things which thou hast received, which have been given unto thee in my scriptures for a law, to be my law to govern my church." (D&C 42 :59.)

Theodore M. Burton, Ensign 11/74, p. 55. In citing this verse, I am reminded of a concept President Lee taught the General Authorities. He warned us not to place our trust nor build our sermon on one single verse of scripture. He said that God is the greatest of all teachers and understands the value of repetition. If an idea is true, we will find that concept repeated again and again throughout the scriptures. Instructions are not confined to any one generation but are given repeatedly, often in other words so we will not miss their true meaning. However, we must not take ideas out of context. The truth that persons were chosen for certain work before this earth was formed is found in many places in the scriptures.

Church News Editorial, 17 April 1983, "We Need To Be Orthodox." It seems that there always has been a tendency on the part of some to speculate concerning our doctrines and to "enlarge on them" with their own private notions, thus leading others astray.

Teachers have no right to mislead anyone by introducing unorthodox notions. And how do we define that which is orthodox? It is doctrine approved by the First Presidency of the Church. The prophet, seer, and revelator determines what is true doctrine. Those who advocate teaching contrary to those approved by the First Presidency place themselves and others in an untenable position.

How shall we know what is truth? The scriptures are the foundation of our teachings, and they do not change. President Joseph Fielding Smith once said, "If I say anything that is contrary to the scriptures, the scriptures prevail." That is the way it must be with all of us. The scriptures prevail!

Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p. 515-516 (also quoted in Robert L. Millet, "Looking Beyond the Mark," in The Joseph Smith Translation, Monte S. Nyman & Robert L. Millet, eds, p. 208.) Many great doctrinal revelations come to those who preach from the scriptures. When they are in tune with the Infinite, the Lord lets them know, first, the full and complete meaning of the scriptures they are expounding, and then he ofttimes expands their views so that new truths flood in upon them, and they learn added things that those who do not follow such a course can never know.

FALSE DOCTRINE IN THE CHURCH

Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 373. WHERE TO EXPECT FALSE DOCTRINE. Among the Latter-day Saints, the preaching of false doctrines disguised as truths of the gospel, may be expected from people of two classes, and practically from these only; they are:
First -- The hopelessly ignorant, whose lack of intelligence is due to their indolence and sloth, who make but feeble effort, if indeed any at all, to better themselves by reading and study; those who are afflicted with a dread disease that may develop into an incurable malady -- laziness.
Second -- The proud and self-vaunting ones, who read by the lamp of their own conceit; who interpret by rules of their own contriving; who have become a law unto themselves, and so pose as the sole judges of their own doings. More dangerously ignorant than the first.
Beware of the lazy and the proud; their infection in each case is contagious; better for them and for all when they are compelled to display the yellow flag of warning, that the clean and uninfected may be protected.

Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 38. (Quoted by Harold B. Lee, Ensign, Dec. 1972, p. 2, "A Message from the Prophet") Our young people are diligent students. They reach out for truth and knowledge with commendable zeal, and in so doing they must necessarily adopt for temporary use, the theories of men. As long, however, as they recognize them as scaffolding useful for research purposes, there can be no special harm in them. It is when these theories are settled upon as basic truth that trouble appears, and the searcher then stands in grave danger of being led hopelessly from the right way. [Italics added.]

Stephen L Richards, Conference Report, Oct. 1951, pp. 116-117. A part of the propaganda is that there is no warrant for official interpretation of the doctrines and standards of the Church, that everyone may read and interpret for himself, and adopt only so much of the doctrine as he chooses, and that he may classify the revelations as essential or non-essential. These propagandists are either ignorant of or ignore the Lord's declaration that "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." (2 Peter 1:20.) They disparage orthodoxy as such and pride themselves on liberal thinking. Many of them maintain their loyalty to the Church, and some may honestly believe they are doing the Church a favor and a service in advocating their so-called broad-minded concepts.

Unfortunately, some people within the Church subscribing to these views do not realize that they are falling into a trap themselves. They are giving aid and comfort to the foe; they are undermining their own testimonies and those of others. I warn the Church against them, and I warn them against themselves; and I plead with them to desist, to abandon their agnostic discussion ...

Stephen L Richards, BYU, 26 Feb 1957. A moment's reflection will convince you of the rather serious regard in which we hold counsel. While it is true that we characterize infraction of the law as sin and we do not apply quite that drastic a terminology to failure to follow counsel, yet in the Church, under the priesthood, counsel always is given for the primary purpose of having the law observed, so that it does occupy a place of standing and importance, almost comparable to that law of the gospel.

Boyd K. Packer, "A Dedication to Faith," Speeches of the Year, BYU, 1969, p. 6; Living Prophets for a Living Church, p. 112. There is almost a universal tendency for men and women who are specialists in an academic discipline to judge the Church against the principles of their profession. There is a great need in my mind for us, as students and as teachers, to consciously and continually subjugate this tendency and relegate our professional training to a position secondary to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In other words, rather than to judge the Church and its programs against the principles of our profession, we would do well to set the Church and its accepted program as the rule, then judge our academic training against this rule. This posture is remarkably difficult to achieve and sometimes more difficult to maintain.

Boyd K. Packer, "From Such Turn Away," General Conference Address, Ensign, May 1985, p.35. A member, at any given time, may not understand one point of doctrine or another, may have a misconception, or even believe something is true that in fact is false.

There is not much danger in that. That is an inevitable part of learning the gospel. No member of the Church should be embarrassed at the need to repent of a false notion he might have believed. Such ideas are corrected as one grows in light and knowledge.

It is not the belief in a false notion that is the problem, it is the teaching of it to others. In the Church we have the agency to believe whatever we want to believe about whatever we want to believe. But we are not authorized to teach it to others as truth....

There is another area where caution means safety. There are some who, motivated by one influence or another, seek through writing and publishing criticisms and interpretations of doctrine to make the gospel more acceptable to the so-called thinking people of the world.

They would do well to read very thoughtfully the parable of the tree of life in the eighth chapter of 1 Nephi, and to ponder very soberly verse twenty-eight:

"And after" [meaning after they were members of the Church] after "they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost." (Italics added by Elder Packer.)

If their spirits are pure and their motives worthy, they will do no harm either to themselves or to others. If they are not, we would all do well to follow Paul's admonition and "from such turn away."

Boyd K. Packer, CR, Ensign, November 1991, p. 21. Recently the Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles issued a statement alerting members of the Church to the dangers of participating in circles which concentrate on doctrine and ordinances and measure them by the intellect alone.
If doctrines and behavior are measured by the intellect alone, the essential spiritual ingredient is missing, and we will be misled....

There is safety in learning doctrine in gatherings which are sponsored by proper authority. Some members, even some who have made covenants in the temple, are associating with groups of one kind or another which have an element of secrecy about them and which pretend to have some higher source of inspiration concerning the fulfillment of prophecies than do ward or stake leaders or the General Authorities of the Church. Know this: There are counterfeit revelations which, we are warned, "if possible ... shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant." (JS-M 1:22.)

Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, March 1985, pp. 8-10. There are principles of the gospel underlying every phase of Church administration. These are not explained in the handbooks. They are found in the scriptures. They are the substance of and the purpose for the revelations.

Procedures, programs, the administrative policies, even some patterns of organization are subject to change. We are quite free, indeed, quite obliged to alter them from time to time. But the principles, the doctrines, never change.

If you over-emphasize programs and procedures that can change, and will change, and must change, and do not understand the fundamental principles of the gospel, which never change, you can be misled.

Now, listen carefully. I do not imply that you should ignore the handbooks or manuals, not for one minute would I say that. What I do say is this: there is a spiritual ingredient not found in handbooks that you must include in your ministry if you are to please the Lord.

When you know the gospel, you will have a loyalty toward the instruction in the handbooks that you cannot have otherwise. By so doing, you will save yourself the innovations that cannot work.

Because the Church is growing so fast, there is a temptation to try to solve problems by changing boundaries, altering programs, reorganizing the leadership, or providing more comfortable buildings. What we really need is a retrenchment such as we have read about in Church history. What we really need is a revival of the basic gospel principles in the lives of all the Latter-day Saints. The true essence of priesthood administration is not in procedure -- it is in principle, in doctrine!

The prophet Joseph Smith gave us the key. He said, with reference to administration, "I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves." ...
But the principles are overlooked -- the gospel is overlooked, the doctrine is overlooked. When that happens, we are in great danger! We see the evidence of it in the Church today.

I wish to raise a voice of solemn and sober warning! We live in a day of great opposition, not just in the United States, but worldwide. It grows by day and by night all across the world. Enemies from without, reinforced by apostates from within, challenge the faith of the rank and file members of the Church. It is not the programs of the Church they challenge. They are, in fact, quite complimentary of them. It is the doctrines they focus on. It's the doctrines they attack, and we notice that many leaders seem to be at a loss to how to answer doctrinal questions.... If our members are ignorant of the doctrines, we are in danger, notwithstanding efficient programs and buildings....

It is so important that every member, particularly every leader, understand and know the gospel.

It is not easy to find time to study the gospel. It is harder for the stake president to do it and infinitely harder for the bishop to do it, but it is necessary and it is possible. Brethren must attend the classes as often as they can; bishops and stake presidents should find some way to attend at least a good share of the Gospel Doctrine classes and the appropriate priesthood quorum lessons.

We must see that the generations that follow us learn the gospel. It is our duty to deliver to them, the generations that follow us, intact, the principles and the ordinances of the gospel and the authority of the priesthood.

Foster those programs which are designed to teach the gospel. Primary, Sunday School (incidentally, I have heard of local leaders who have recommended that Sunday School be discontinued; that would be very, very foolish of us indeed), the priesthood lessons, the auxiliary lessons, Relief Society Spiritual Living lessons, the Aaronic Priesthood and Young Women programs, and sacrament meetings can be powerful, if we will use them to preach the gospel. Sacrament meetings should be gospel oriented. And I do not see how a bishop or stake president could rest until seminary was operating for his young people and the teacher training program that makes these programs of the finest quality receives some attention. All of these deserve watch care and endorsement....
The Lord is our example. It would be hard to describe the Lord as an executive. Let me repeat that. It would be hard to describe the Lord as an executive. He was a teacher! That is the ideal, the pattern.

Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, May 1974, p. 95. There are those who have made a casual, even an insincere effort to test the scriptures and have come away having received nothing, which is precisely what they have earned and what they deserve. If you think it will yield to a casual inquiry, to idle curiosity, or even to well-intentioned but temporary searching, you are mistaken. It likewise will not yield to the overzealous or to the fanatic.

Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1942, pp. 17f.; Living Prophets for a Living Church, p. 79. I desire to call your attention to the principle of loyalty, loyalty to the truth and loyalty to these men whom God has chosen to lead the cause of truth. I speak of "the truth" and these "men" jointly, because it is impossible fully to accept the one and partly reject the other.

I raise my voice on this matter to warn and counsel you to be on your guard against criticism.... It comes, in part, from those who hold, or have held, prominent positions. Ostensibly, they are in good standing in the Church. In expressing their feelings, they frequently say, "We are members of the Church, too, you know, and our feelings should be considered."

They assume that one can be in full harmony with the spirit of the gospel, enjoy full fellowship in the Church and at the same time be out of harmony with the leaders of the Church and the counsel and directions they give. Such a position is wholly inconsistent, because the guidance of this Church comes, not alone from the written word, but also from continuous revelation, and the Lord gives that revelation to the Church through His chosen leaders and none else. It follows, therefore, that those who profess to accept the gospel and who at the same time criticize and refuse to follow the counsel of the leaders, are assuming an indefensible position.

Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1942, pp. 19-20. [Italics added.] I assure you, however, that the Spirit of the Lord will never direct a person to take a position in opposition to the counsel of the Presidency of His Church.

... all who are out of harmony in any degree with the Presidency have need to repent and seek the Lord for forgiveness and to put themselves in full harmony.

Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, Apr. 1955, pp. 94f.; Living Prophets for a Living Church, pp. 79f. There is the man who, to satisfy his own egotism, took a stand against the Authorities of the Church. He followed the usual pattern, not apostasy at first, only superiority of knowledge and mild criticism. He loved the brethren, he said, but they failed to see and interpret as he would like. He would still love the Church, he maintained, but his criticism grew and developed into everwidening circles. He was right, he assured himself; he could not yield in good conscience; he had his pride. His children did not accept his philosophy wholly, but their confidence was shaken. In their frustration, they married out of the Church, and he lost them. He later realized his folly and returned to humbleness, but so very late. He had lost his children.

Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, April 1948, p. 109; in Life & Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles, p. 424. Apparently there were in the early church those who taught for doctrines the sophistries of men. There are those today who seem to take pride in disagreeing with the orthodox teachings of the Church and who present their own opinions which are at variance with the revealed truth. Some may be partially innocent in the matter; others are feeding their own egotism; and some seem to be deliberate. Men may think as they please, but they have no right to impose upon others their unorthodox views. Such persons should realize that their own souls are in jeopardy.

Bruce R. McConkie, BYU, June 1, 1980. I have sought and do now seek that guidance and enlightenment which comes from the Holy Spirit of God. I desire to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost so that my words will be true and wise and proper. When any of us speaks by the power of the Spirit, we say what the Lord wants said, or, better, what he would say if he were here in person.

... I want to state temperately and accurately the doctrinal principles involved and to say them in a way that will not leave room for doubt or for question. I shall speak on some matters that some may consider to be controversial, though they ought not to be. They are things on which we ought to be united, and to the extent we are all guided and enlightened from on high we will be. If we are so united -- and there will be no disagreement among those who believe and understand the revealed word -- we will progress and advance and grow in the things of the Spirit...

Now let me list some axioms (I guess in academic circles we call these caveats [explanations to prevent misinterpretations]):

There is no salvation in believing a false doctrine.
Truth, diamond truth, truth unmixed with error, truth alone leads to salvation.
What we believe determines what we do. [And are.]
No man can be saved in ignorance of God and his laws.
Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge of Jesus Christ and the saving truths of his everlasting gospel.
Gospel doctrines belong to the Lord, not to men. They are his. He ordained them, he reveals them, and he expects us to believe them.
The doctrines of salvation are not discovered in a laboratory or on a geological field trip or by accompanying Darwin around the world. They come by revelation and in no other way.
Our sole concern in seeking truth should be to learn and believe what the Lord knows and believes. Providentially he has set forth some of his views in the holy scriptures.
Our goal as mortals is to gain the mind of Christ, to believe what he believes, to think what he thinks, to say what he says, to do what he does, and to be as he is.
We are called upon to reject all heresies and cleave unto all truth. Only then can we progress according to the divine plan. As the Lord has said

Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. (D&C 130:18-19.)

Please note that knowledge is gained by obedience. It comes by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. In the ultimate and full sense it comes only by revelation from the Holy Ghost. There are some things a sinful man does not and cannot know. The Lord's people are promised: "By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moro 10:5.) But if they do not seek the Spirit, if they do not accept the revelations God has given, if they cannot distinguish between the revealed word and the theories of men, they have no promise of gaining a fulness of truth by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3:70-71, 75-77, 82,83-84, 106. Teachers in the Church represent the Lord in their teaching. The Church is the Lord's; the doctrine is the Lord's. Teachers speak at the invitation of the Lord and are appointed to say what he wants said, nothing more and nothing less. There is no freedom to teach or speculate contrary to the revealed will. Those who desire to express views contrary to gospel truth are at liberty to find other forums or to organize churches of their own. But in God's Church, the only approved doctrine is God's doctrine.

The Church is not a debating society; it is not searching for a system of salvation; it is not a forum for social or political philosophies. It is, rather, the Lord's kingdom with a commission to teach his truths for the salvation of men. Anything contrary to or short of this standard is not of God. "I give unto you a commandment," he says, "that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand." (D&C 88:77-78.)

Since the things of God are and can be known only by the power of the Spirit, they remain forever hidden, unknown, and mysterious to the carnal mind, to the mind enlightened by reason but not by revelation.... [1 Tim 1:3-4.]

19-20. Apostates exhibit varying degrees of indifference and of rebellion, and their punishment, in time and in eternity, is based on the type and degree of apostasy which is involved. Those who become indifferent to the Church, who simply drift from the course of righteousness to the way of the world, are not in the same category with traitors who fight the truth, and with those whose open rebellion destines them to eternal damnation as sons of perdition. All apostates are turned over to the buffetings of Satan in one degree or another, with the full wrath of Satan reserved for those who are cast into outer darkness with him in that kingdom devoid of glory.

In this dispensation, those saints who broke the covenant of consecration by which they were bound in the united order were turned over to the buffetings of Satan. (D. & C. 78:3-12; 82:15-24; 104:1-10.) Those whose callings and elections have been made sure, and who then rebel against the truth, are so assigned, "that they might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." They are "sealed by the spirit of Elijah unto the damnation of hell until the day of the Lord, or revelation of Jesus Christ." (Teachings, pp. 338-339; 301; D. & C. 132:26.) Those whose traitorous conduct causes them to become sons of perdition are so cursed eternally. (Teachings, p. 128.)

With reference to the nature and course of apostates and the need to exclude them from the fellowship of the saints, the Prophet Joseph Smith said: "The Messiah's kingdom on earth is of that kind of government, that there has always been numerous apostates, for the reason that it admits of no sins unrepented of without excluding the individual from its fellowship. Our Lord said, 'Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, 1 say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.' And again, many are called, but few are chosen. Paul said to the elders of the Church at Ephesus, after he had labored three years with them, that he knew that some of their own number would turn away from the faith, and seek to lead away disciples after them. None, we presume, in this generation will pretend that he has the experience of Paul in building up the Church of Christ and yet, after his departure from the Church at Ephesus, many, even of the elders turned away from the truth; and what is almost always the case, sought to lead away disciples after them.

"Strange as it may appear at first thought, yet it is no less strange than true, that notwithstanding all the professed determination to live godly, apostates after turning from the faith of Christ, unless they have speedily repented, have sooner or later fallen into the snares of the wicked one, and have been left destitute of the Spirit of God, to manifest their wickedness in the eyes of multitudes.

"From apostates the faithful have received the severest persecutions. Judas, was rebuked and immediately betrayed his Lord into the hands of his enemies, because Satan entered into him. There is a superior intelligence bestowed upon such as obey the gospel with full purpose of heart, which, if sinned against, the apostate is left naked and destitute of the Spirit of God, and he is, in truth, nigh unto cursing, and his end is to be burned. When once that light which was in them is taken from them, they become as much darkened as they were previously enlightened, and then, no marvel, if all their power should be enlisted against the truth, and they, Judas like, seek the destruction of those who were their greatest benefactors.

"What nearer friend on earth, or in heaven, had Judas than the Savior? And his first object was to destroy him. Who, among all the saints in these last days, can consider himself as good as our Lord? Who is as perfect? Who is as pure? Who is as holy as he was? Are they to be found? He never transgressed or broke a commandment or law of heaven -- no deceit was in his mouth, neither was guile found in his heart. And yet one that ate with him, who had often drunk of the same cup, was the first to lift up his heel against him. Where is one like Christ? He cannot be found on earth. Then why should his followers complain, if from those whom they once called brethren, and considered as standing in the nearest relation in the everlasting covenant they should receive persecution?

"From what source emanated the principle which has ever been manifested by apostates from the true Church to persecute with double diligence, and seek with double perseverance, to destroy those whom they once professed to love, with whom they once communed, and with whom they once covenanted to strive with every power in righteousness to obtain the rest of God? Perhaps our brethren will say the same that caused Satan to seek to overthrow the kingdom of God, because he himself was evil, and God's kingdom is holy." (Teachings, pp. 66-68.) [1 Tim 1:18-20.]

Why is it that many men do not believe and accept the gospel? Why are there so few, among the many, who actually know and understand the doctrines of salvation? How is it that only a handful out of the billions of earth's inhabitants know the truth about God and his laws? Why is religion a hidden mystery to mankind generally?

One of the main reasons is that religion is not a matter of reason alone; it is not based on or comprehended by the power of intellectuality. Because a man has a bright mind, because he is a profound scholar, because he knows or has discovered great truths in any of a hundred fields, does not mean he knows or understands religious truths.

True religion comes from God by revelation. It is manifest to and understood by those with a talent for spirituality. It is hidden, unknown, and mysterious to all others. To comprehend the things of the world, one must be intellectually enlightened; to know and understand the things of God, one must be spiritually enlightened. One of the great fallacies of modern Christendom is turning for religious guidance to those who are highly endowed intellectually, rather than to those who comprehend the things of the Spirit, to those who receive personal revelation from the Holy Ghost.... [1 Tim 3:14-16.]

'In the Church there are people of all kinds: good and evil, clean and unclean, righteous and wicked. So live that you shall be numbered with the sanctified who shall thereby gain salvation.' [2 Tim 2:20-21.]

Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:362. No man by his own intellect and reason can understand the things of the spirit; the wisdom of the world standing alone, profiteth nothing in comprehending the things of God. And there are some among you who rely on your own wisdom rather than the whisperings of the spirit.

Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 3:362-363. RE: 2 Pet 2:17-19.

17. Wells without water] Delinquent church members, from whom the waters of life should flow freely, but who instead have dried up spiritually, so their teachings can no longer quench the throats fo those who "thirst after righteousness." (Mt 5:6.)

Clouds that are carried with a tempest] Faithless church members, whose duty it is to reain righteousness upon mankind, but who instead are themselves driven about by the tempests of false doctrine.

To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever] Having forsaken the effulgent gospel light, they are now overshadowed by the mists of spiritual darkness, in which state they shall remain forever unless they repent. In his dream of the tree of life, Lehi saw "that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceeding great mist of darkness , insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost." Others, however, as he beheld, "did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree." (1 Ne 8:23-24.) And then, by way of interpretation, Nephi said: "The mists of darkness are the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men, and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish and are lost." (1 Ne 12:17.)

18-19. 'They teach false doctrines that have their roots in the lusts of the flesh, doctrines which promise freedom from church restrictions, but which in fact bring those who accept them into the bondage of sin.' In similar vein, many modern ministers teach, openly and officially and iwth seeming sincerity, that illicit sexual relations are not always evil; that there are situations in which adultery is not a breach of the divine law; that homosexual perversions between consulting adults carry no divine condemnation; that church members may choose to worship on a week day so as to keep the Sabbath free for hunting, fishing, or other recreational activities; that there will be no Second Coming of the Son of Man at which the wicked shall be destroyed, for he has already come in the hearts of those who believe; and so on and so on through the ten thousand times ten thousand vagaries of the current brand of false religion.

Bruce R. McConkie, Church News, 24 January 1976, p. 4. (Emphasis added.) I think that people who study the scriptures get a dimension to their life that nobody else gets and that can't be gained in any way except by studying the scriptures. There's an increase in faith [revelation] and a desire to do what's right and a feeling of inspiration and understanding that comes to people who study the gospel -- meaning particularly the Standard Works -- and who ponder the principles, that can't come in any other way.

Harold B. Lee, Regional Representatives Seminar, Oct. 3, 1968. We are facing a tremendous challenge in maintaining the doctrinal purity within the Church....

Our best hope of maintaining doctrinal purity rests with a membership that knows and understands doctrinal implications because they have "witnessed for themselves" ...

One of our brethren who was asked to speak in a Sacrament meeting made a statement I would wish could be trumpeted throughout this entire Church. This brother said: "No person has a right to occupy the pulpits of this Church in our Sacrament meetings unless he is there to preach the Gospel." I wish that could be understood -- that the very purpose of the invitation is to preach the Gospel.

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct. 1968, pp. 59-60 [B/M Inst. manual, p. 522]. One of the greatest threats to the work of the Lord today comes from false educational ideas. There is a growing tendency of teachers within and without the Church to make academic interpretations of gospel teachings -- to read, as a prophet-leader has said, "by the lamp of their own conceit." Unfortunately, much in the sciences, the arts, politics, and the entertainment field, as has been well said by an eminent scholar, is "all dominated by this humanistic approach which ignores God and his words as revealed through the prophets." This kind of worldly system apparently hopes to draw men away from God by making man the "measure of all things," as some worldly philosophers have said.

That this danger would be among us today was foreshadowed by the ancient prophets, who gave us a sure measure by which we might know that which is of God and that which emanates from evil sources.

[Quotes from Moro 7:16-17.] . . .

You will note that this statement makes no distinction as to whether it be labeled as religion, philosophy, science, or politics, or ugly dress patterns of today, or the world of so-called entertainment.

True Christians who know the word of God understand that there are invisible forces which are waging war against God and his people who are striving to do his will.

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, 3 October 1968. "We need to spend more time teaching our members the awfulness of sin rather than to spend all our time merely teaching the doctrine of repentance." (Quoting Elder Charles A. Callis)

We are facing a tremendous challenge in maintaining doctrinal purity within the Church. Our best hope of maintaining doctrinal purity rests with a membership that knows and understands doctrinal implications because they have "witnessed for themselves."

No person has a right to occupy the pulpits of this Church in our Sacrament meetings unless he is there to preach the Gospel. I wish we could remember, that this day, the flattery of the world sometimes we listen to will be our undoing.

Harold B. Lee, in Conference Report, Apr. 1970, p. 54; or Improvement Era, June 1970, pp.63-64. Now it is about the enemies that come in the night I want just to make one reference.

The term "elder," which is applied to all holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood, means a defender of the faith. That is our prime responsibility and calling. Every holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood is to be a defender of the faith.

There are insidious forces among us that are constantly trying to knock at our doors and trying to lay traps for our young men and women, particularly those who are unwary and unsophisticated in the ways of the world. I speak of the battle against liquor by the drink, gambling, prostitution, pornography, and our efforts to aid Christian people who desire to have one day dedicated to keeping the Sabbath day holy. All we have to do is to remember what the Lord said in order to impress the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy: "And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day." (D&C 59:9.) Defenders of the faith should he alert, then, to see to it with all their influence that there is an opportunity given to the working man, the boy and the girl, the husband and the wife to have one day in the week when they can be with their families and have one day consecrated as a day of rest. Watchmen, be alert to the "dangers of the night"!

It never ceases to amaze me how gullible some of our Church members are in broadcasting sensational stories, or dreams, or visions, or purported patriarchal blessings, or quotations, or supposedly from some person's private diary.

For instance, there is one vicious story to the effect that one of our General Authorities is allegedly being urged to present himself to lead the Church contrary to the Lord's revelation and to make people think there is some division among the authorities of the Church. Investigations have indicated that the named writer of these forged letters is fictitious and does not exist--can't be found in the records of the Church or anywhere. Addresses [CR, 56] given are spurious, and yet the amazing thing is that we find that these spurious writings and some of these purported revelations, which we found upon investigation are absolutely false, are finding their way into our Relief Society meetings, into priesthood quorums, firesides, institutes, and seminaries.

Brethren of the priesthood, you defenders of the faith, we would wish that you would plead with our Saints to cease promoting the works of the devil. Spend your time promoting the works of the Lord, and don't allow these things to be found among those under your charge, for they are the works of Satan, and we are playing his game whenever we permit such things to be heralded about and repeated and passed about on every side.

One of our brethren is supposed to have had a patriarchal blessing saying that he would preside over the Church when the Savior came. This is, of course, false. Another one among us has been said to have declared that there are some living today who will see the Savior when he comes. This again is fictitious. Well, the Master said that the time of his coming would be as a thief in the night, that of the time of his coming not even the angels of heaven would know. If we would stop to think of it, nobody with any authority would ever say that such a declaration could be authentic.

So we could go on and on. One of our brethren was reported to have said that the people of California should move up to the tops of the Rocky Mountains, that only there would be safety. Contrary to that, we are constantly saying to our people that safety is where the pure in heart are, and that there is just as much safety wherever you are, if you are living and keeping the commandments of God.

Brethren, I repeat, don't allow the works of the devil to be paraded in our midst and become the subject of discourses or lesson materials. Speak of the works of righteousness, and the power of the devil will begin to cease among you.

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct. 1970, p. 152. We have some tight places to go before the Lord is through with this church and the world in this dispensation, which is the last dispensation, which shall usher in the coming of the Lord. The gospel was restored to prepare a people ready to receive him. The power of Satan will increase; we see it in evidence on every hand. There will be inroads within the Church. There will be, as President Tanner has said, "Hypocrites, those professing, but secretly are full of dead men's bones." We will see those who profess membership but secretly are plotting and trying to lead people not to follow the leadership that the Lord has set up to preside in this church.

Now the only safety we have as members of this church is to do exactly what the Lord said to the Church in that day when the Church was organized. We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through his prophet "as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me;
. . . as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith." (D&C 21:4-5.) There will be some things that take patience and faith. You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord himself, with patience and faith, the promise is that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory." (D&C 21:6.)

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Apr. 1971, pp. 89-94. As an answer to those who may be wandering aimlessly, searching for something to satisfy their need and to end their state of confusion and emptiness, I would like to introduce a few thoughts by relating a remarkable vision which came to an ancient prophet by the name of Lehi -- 600 years before Christ. . . .

The rod of iron as seen in the vision interpreted was the word of God, or the gospel of Jesus Christ, which led to the tree of life that the Master explained to the woman at the well in Samaria was as "a well of [living] water springing up into everlasting life." [sic] (John 3 :16-17.)

Those, as seen in the vision, who were across the river pointing fingers of scorn represented the multitudes of the earth which are gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lamb of God. The scorners, so the Lord revealed, represented the so-called wisdom of the world, and the building itself in which they were gathered was the "pride of the world." (See 1 Ne 11:12.)

If there is any one thing most needed in this time of tumult and frustration, when men and women and youth and young adults are desperately seeking for answers to the problems which afflict mankind, it is an "iron rod" as a safe guide along the straight [strait] path on the way to eternal life, amidst the strange and devious roadways that would eventually lead to destruction and to the ruin of all that is "virtuous, lovely, or of good report."

These conditions as they would be found in the earth when these scriptures, now called the Book of Mormon, were to be brought forth were foreseen by the prophets. As I read some of these predictions, I would have you think of conditions with which we are surrounded today:

"And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts; unto . . . envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities . . . because of the pride of your hearts.
". . . behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted." (Morm 8:36-37.) . . .

There are many who profess to be religious and speak of themselves as Christians, and, according to one such, "as accepting the scriptures only as sources of inspiration and moral truth," and then ask in their smugness: "Do the revelations of God give us a handrail to the kingdom of God, as the Lord's messenger told Lehi, or merely a compass?"

Unfortunately, some are among us who claim to be Church members but are somewhat like the scoffers in Lehi's vision -- standing aloof and seemingly inclined to hold in derision the faithful who choose to accept Church authorities as God's special witnesses of the gospel and his agents in directing the affairs of the Church. There are those in the Church who speak of themselves as liberals who, as one of our former presidents has said, "read by the lamp of their own conceit." (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p. 373.) One time I asked one of our Church educational leaders how he would define a liberal in the Church. He answered in one sentence: "A liberal in the Church is merely one who does not have a testimony."

Dr. John A. Widtsoe, former member of the Quorum of the Twelve and an eminent educator, made a statement relative to this word liberal as it applied to those in the Church. This is what he said:

"The self-called liberal [in the Church] is usually one who has broken with the fundamental principles or guiding philosophy of the group to which he belongs.... He claims membership in an organization but does not believe in its basic concepts; and sets out to reform it by changing its foundations ....

"It is folly to speak of a liberal religion, if that religion claims that it rests upon unchanging truth." And then Dr. Widtsoe concludes his statement with this: "It is well to beware of people who go about proclaiming that they are or their churches are liberal. The probabilities are that the structure of their faith is built on sand and will not withstand the storms of truth." ("Evidences & Reconciliations," Improvement Era, vol. 44 [1941], p. 609.)

Here again, to use the figure of speech in Lehi's vision, they are those who are blinded by the mists of darkness and as yet have not a firm grasp on the "iron rod." Wouldn't it be wonderful if, when there are questions which are unanswered because the Lord hasn't seen fit to reveal the answers as yet, all such could say, as Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have said, "I accept all I read in the Bible that I can understand, and accept the rest on faith." How comforting it would be to those who are the restless in the intellectual world, when such questions arise as to how the earth was formed and how man came to be, if they could answer as did an eminent scientist and devoted Church member. A sister had asked: "Why didn't the Lord tell us plainly about these things?" The scientist answered: "It is likely we would not understand if he did. It might be like trying to explain the theory of atomic energy to an eight-year-old child."

Wouldn't it be a great thing if all who are well schooled in secular learning could hold fast to the "iron rod," or the word of God, which could lead them, through faith, to an understanding, rather than to have them stray away into strange paths of man-made theories and be plunged into the murky waters of disbelief and apostasy? I heard one of our own eminent scientists say something to the effect that he believed some professors have taken themselves out of the Church by their trying to philosophize or intellectualize the fall of Adam and the subsequent atonement of the Savior. This was because they would rather accept the philosophies of men than what the Lord has revealed until they, and we, are able to understand the "mysteries of godliness" as explained to the prophets of the Lord and more fully revealed in sacred places. There were evidently similar questions and controversies in the Master's time. In one terse answer, he gave the essential ingredients to safety amidst the maze of uncertainty: To settle an apparent controversy among his disciples as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God, he said: ". . . except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom ..." (Matt. 18:3.) . . .

Conversion must mean more than just being a "card carrying" member of the Church with a tithing receipt, a membership card, a temple recommend, etc....
The Lord issued a warning to those who would seek to destroy the faith of an individual or lead him away from the word of God or cause him to lose his grasp on the "iron rod," wherein was safety by faith in a Divine Redeemer and his purposes concerning this earth and its peoples. The Master warned: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better . . . that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." (Matt 18:6.) The Master was impressing the fact that rather than ruin the soul of a true believer, it were better for a person to suffer an earthly death than to incur the penalty of jeopardizing his own eternal destiny. . . .

Speaking to the learned and highly sophisticated generation in his time, the prophet Jacob said something which seems to be so often needed to be repeated today: ". . . When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not.

. . . But to be learned is good if they hearken to the counsels of God." (2 Ne 9:28-29.)

. . . the Lord addressed his revelation to all others who may not have faith: ". . . seek learning, even by study and also by faith." (D&C 88:118.) One might well ask: How does one get "learning by faith"? One prophet explains the process: First, one must arouse his faculties and experiment on the words of the Lord and desire to believe [the words having come by revelation from God directly, through prophets, or from scriptures, etc.]. Let this desire work in you until ye believe in a manner that you can give place even to a portion of the word of the Lord; then, like a planted seed, it must be cultivated and not resist the Spirit of the Lord, which is that which lighteneth everyone born into the world; you can then begin to feel within yourselves that it must be good, for it enlarges your soul and enlightens your understanding and, like the fruit of the tree in Lehi's vision, it becomes delicious to the taste. (See Alma 32.) . . .

Let no one think that "learning by faith" contemplates an easy or lazy way to gain knowledge and ripen it into wisdom. From heavenly instructions and added to which are the experiences of almost anyone who has sought diligently for heavenly guidance, one may readily understand that learning by faith requires the bending of the whole soul through worthy living to become attuned to the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the calling up from the depths of one's own mental searching, and the linking of our own efforts to receive the true witness of the Spirit.

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct. 1971, pp. 58-59. Never has there been a greater need in the Church for training in leadership and in effective teaching to offset the clever and diabolical methods of evil powers that "pacify, and lull them away into carnal security," stirring them up to anger, saying that all is well and with flattery telling them there is no hell nor is there a devil, for this is the way, as the ancient prophets have warned, that "the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell." (See 2 Ne 28:20-22.)

It was frightening to observe that in places where there was the greater prosperity, there was the unmistakable evidence that, like the peoples of other dispensations, when they prospered they forgot God. They were seemingly rich in things that money could buy, but they were devoid of most of the precious things money could not buy. The prophets have issued a clear signal of warning to those who are lifted up in the pride of their hearts because of their ease and their exceeding great prosperity: "Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people . . . yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One -- yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceeding great prosperity." (Hela 12:2.) And so do we, as we witness these things, lament with those who have gone before us: "Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom's paths!" (Hela 12:5.)

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Apr. 1972, p. 118. Now I want to impress this upon you. Someone has said it this way, and I believe it to be absolutely true: "That person is not truly converted until he sees the power of God resting upon the leaders of this church, and until it goes down into his heart like fire." Until the members of this church have that conviction that they are being led in the right way, and they have a conviction that these men of God are men who are inspired and have been properly appointed by the hand of God, they are not truly converted.

So I bear you my witness that I know with all my soul . . . that those whom the Lord chooses are the ones he needs for a particular time. I heard Elder Orson F. Whitney, a member of the Twelve, say from this pulpit that he didn't believe that these men are necessarily the best living men in the Church, but that there may be many others who live just as righteous lives, or maybe more so, but one thing he did know: that when there is a vacancy and the Lord has need for a person, he looks around and finds the person who is best qualified to fill the position at a given time. I have lived long enough now in these 31 years as a member of the General Authorities to know that is true . . .

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct. 1972, pp. 63-64. Now a final word about one of the great dangers of some of the widely disseminated doctrines of the enemies of freedom, which in essence have been characterized by our beloved prophet-statesman, President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., as but "a clumsy attempt of Satan to counterfeit the Lord's plan of the United Order, as defined in the Holy Scriptures." Our present welfare plan could well be the "setting-up" exercises to see how prepared this church is to live this plan, so that, as was the joyous realization of a people on this continent, as recorded in an ancient scripture we call the Book of Mormon, after they were all converted to the Lord, "there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all -- partakers of the heavenly gift" and "surely there could not be a happier people" on the face of the earth (4 Ne 1:3, 16), by living fully the law of sacrifice and consecration.

There are some well-intentioned persons within the Church who seem to have taken upon themselves to substitute for the great principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God what some have characterized as "cults"--the results of which, no matter how sincere, have caused confusion by using other organized bodies than those of the priesthood of God to combat these dangers. In doing so they have set brothers against brothers in the Church and thus weakened the unity of the greatest weapon the Lord has already provided against these evils, through the priesthood organizations of the Church and kingdom of God. Some such groups, by adopting counterfeit measures and procedures, have been led away and have apostatized and been excommunicated from the Church.

If we follow the leadership of the priesthood, the Lord will fulfill his promise contained in the preface to his revelations, when Satan would have power over his own dominion. This was his promise: ". . . the Lord shall have power over his saints, and shall reign in their midst, and shall come down in judgment upon . . . the world." (D&C 1:36.)

I earnestly urge all our people to unite under the true banner of the Master, to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ so powerfully that no truly converted person could ever be aligned with these controversial concepts and procedures contrary to the Lord's plan of salvation.

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct 1972, pp. 125-131. [Italics added.] There are some as wolves among us. By that, I mean some who profess membership in this church who are not sparing the flock. [See Acts 20 :28-30.] And among our own membership, men are arising speaking perverse things. Now perverse means diverting from the right or correct, and being obstinate in the wrong, willfully, in order to draw the weak and unwary members of the Church away after them. And as the apostle Paul said, it is likewise a marvel to us today, as it was in that day, that some members are so soon removed from those who taught them the gospel and are removed from the true teachings of the gospel of Christ to be led astray into something that corrupts the true doctrines of the gospel of Christ into vicious and wicked practices and performances. These, as have been evidenced by shocking events among some of these splinter groups, have been accursed, as the prophets warned; and they are obviously in the power of that evil one who feeds the gullible with all the sophistries which Satan has employed since the beginning of time.

I should like now to make reference to some of these. The first is the spread of rumor and gossip (we have mentioned this before) which, when once started, gains momentum as each telling becomes more fanciful, until unwittingly those who wish to dwell on the sensational repeat them in firesides, in classes, in Relief Society gatherings and priesthood quorum classes without first verifying the source before becoming a party to causing speculation and discussions that steal time away from the things that would be profitable and beneficial and enlightening to their souls.

Just an example: I understand that there is a widely circulated story that I was alleged to have had a patriarchal blessing (I don't know whether any of you have heard about that) that had to do with the coming of the Savior and the ten tribes of Israel. In the first place, a patriarchal blessing is a sacred document to the person who has received it and is never given for publication and, as all patriarchal blessing, should be kept as a private possession to the one who has received it. And second, with reference to that which I was alleged to have had, suffice it to say that such a quotation is incorrect and without foundation in fact.
The First Presidency in August 1913 issued a warning to the members of the Church which could bear repeating today. Let me read you a few things that were said then: "To the officers and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

"From the days of Hiram Page (D&C 28), at different periods there have been manifestations from delusive spirits to members of the Church. Sometimes these have come to men and women who because of transgression became easy prey to the Arch-Deceiver. At other times people who pride themselves on their strict observance of the rules and ordinances [laws] and ceremonies [rites] of the Church are led astray by false spirits, who exercise an influence so imitative of that which proceeds from a Divine source that even these persons, who think they are 'the very elect,' find it difficult to discern the essential difference. Satan himself has transformed himself to be apparently 'an angel of light.' [2 Cor 11:14.]

"When visions, dreams, tongues, prophecy, impressions or an extraordinary gift or inspiration convey something out of harmony with the accepted revelations of the Church or contrary to the decisions of its constituted authorities, Latter-day Saints may know that it is not of God, no matter how plausible it may appear. Also, they should understand that directions for the guidance of the Church will come, by revelation, through the head. All faithful members are entitled to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for themselves, their families, and for those over whom they are appointed and ordained to preside. But anything at discord with that which comes from God through the head of the Church is not to be received as authoritative or reliable. In secular as well as spiritual affairs, Saints may receive Divine guidance and revelation affecting themselves, but this does not convey authority to direct others, and is not to be accepted when contrary to Church covenants, doctrine or discipline, or to known facts, demonstrated truths, or good common sense. No person has the right to induce his fellow members of the Church to engage in speculations or take stock in ventures of any kind on the specious claim of Divine revelation or vision or dream, especially when it is in opposition to the voice of recognized authority, local or general. The Lord's Church 'is a house of order.' It is not governed by individual gifts or manifestations, but by the order and power of the Holy Priesthood as sustained by the voice and vote of the Church in its appointed conferences.

"The history of the Church records many pretended revelations claimed by impostors or zealots who believed in the manifestations they sought to lead other persons to accept, and in every instance, disappointment, sorrow and disaster have resulted therefrom. Financial loss and sometimes utter ruin have followed."

This is something that is recurring time and time again, and we call upon you holders of the priesthood to stamp out any such and to set to flight all such things as are creeping in, people rising up here and there who have had some "marvelous" kind of a manifestation, as they claim, and who try to lead the people in a course that has not been dictated from the heads of the Church. As I say, it never ceases to amaze me how gullible some of our Church members are in broadcasting these sensational stories, or dreams, or visions, some alleged to have been given to Church leaders, past or present, supposedly from some person's private diary, without first verifying the report with proper Church authorities. If our people want to be safely guided during these troublous times of deceit and false rumors, they must follow their leaders and seek for the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord in order to avoid falling prey to clever manipulators who, with cunning sophistry, seek to draw attention and gain a following to serve their own notions and sometimes sinister motives. [See D&C 42:11.] . . .

Now, if one comes claiming that he has authority, ask him, "Where do you get your authority? Have you been ordained by someone who has authority, who is known to the Church, that you have authority and have been regularly ordained by the heads of the Church?" If the answer is no, you may know that he is an imposter. This is the test that our people should always apply when some imposter comes trying to lead them astray.

Now there is another danger that confronts us. There seem to be those among us who are as wolves among the flock, trying to lead some who are weak and unwary among Church members, according to reports that have reached us, who are taking the law into their own hands by refusing to pay their income tax because they have some political disagreement with constituted authorities.

Others have tried to marshal civilians, without police authority, and to arm themselves to battle against possible dangers, little realizing that in so doing they themselves become the ones who, by obstructing the constituted authority, would become subject to arrest and imprisonment.

We have even heard of someone claiming Church membership in protest against pornographic pictures being displayed in theaters, having planted bombs, and therefore becoming subject to punishment by the law and subsequently standing judgment before the disciplinary bodies of the Church.

While we must stand solidly behind those who are trying to stamp out the filthy and provocative display of so-called pornographic materials, we have but one answer to all those who thus take such radical measures, and this is the word of the Lord: [D&C 58:20-22].

I want to warn this great body of priesthood against that great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, which has been labeled as a sin second only in seriousness to the sin of murder. I speak of the sin of adultery, which, as you know, was the name used by the Master as he referred to unlicensed sexual sins of fornication as well as adultery; and besides this, the equally grievous sin of homosexuality, which seems to be gaining momentum with social acceptance in the Babylon of the world, of which Church members must not be a part.

While we are in the world, we must not be of the world. Any attempts being made by the schools or places of entertainment to flaunt sexual perversions, which can do nothing but excite to experimentation, must find among the priesthood in this church a vigorous and unrelenting defense through every lawful means that can be employed.

The common judges of Israel, our bishops and stake presidents, must not stand by and fail to apply disciplinary measures within their jurisdiction, as set forth plainly in the laws of the Lord and procedures as set forth in plain and simple instructions that cannot be misunderstood. Never must we allow supposed mercy to the unrepentant sinner to rob the justice upon which true repentance from sinful practices is predicated.

One more matter: There are among us many loose writings predicting the calamities which are about to overtake us. Some of these have been publicized as though they were necessary to wake up the world to the horrors about to overtake us. Many of these are from sources upon which there cannot be unquestioned reliance.

Are you priesthood bearers aware of the fact that we need no such publications to be forewarned, if we were only conversant with what the scriptures have already spoken to us in plainness?

Let me give you the sure word of prophecy on which you should rely for your guide instead of these strange sources which may have great political implications.

Read the 24th chapter of Matthew--particularly that inspired version as contained in the Pearl of Great Price. (Joseph Smith 1 [JSM 1].)
Then read the 45th section of the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord, not man, has documented the signs of the times.

Now turn to section 101 and section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants and hear the step-by-step recounting of events leading up to the coming of the Savior.
Finally, turn to the promises the Lord makes to those who keep the commandments when these judgments descend upon the wicked, as set forth in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 38.

Brethren, these are some of the writings with which you should concern yourselves, rather than commentaries that may come from those whose information may not be the most reliable and whose motives may be subject to question. And may I say, parenthetically, most of such writers are not handicapped by having any authentic information on their writings....

Now brethren, I have spoken plainly to you in this priesthood session. Let what has been said by all the brethren tonight, and in this conference, not fall on deaf ears. Let these admonitions be received as the Lord directed they should be received, in an early revelation to which President Tanner has already made reference, "as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith." (D&C 21:5.)

Only by so doing can we be truly one as a body of priesthood, by following the leadership that the Lord has established in our day in order that we may be one. And he warns us if we are not one, we are not his, as he has declared in the Doctrine and Covenants. [Sec. 38.]

There are one or two things I should like to say about myself and this present responsibility. Never had I thought of myself as one day becoming the President of the Church. As a boy in my rural community, I used to hear the brethren talk about a "pillar" in the Church. I wondered what in the world it meant. It must be something great to be a pillar in the Church. Well, now, maybe I am beginning to realize something about what that means, but I know this: those who try to guess ahead of time as to who is going to be the next President of the Church are just gambling as they might be on a horse race, because only the Lord has the time table.

I remember one time Elder Charles A. Callis in a Council of the Twelve meeting. There was a rather spirited discussion on some questions. One of the Brethren said, "You had better listen to Brother George Albert Smith, the President of the Twelve, because he may be the next President of the Church."

Brother Callis smiled and said, "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure. Three times in my life I have chosen the next President of the Church, and all three of them died before they came to the presidency." The Lord only knows, and for us to speculate or to presume is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord.

I have one other thought I should like to express. Brigham Young was a great defender of the Prophet Joseph Smith. There were Judases in the ranks in the Savior's day, and just as we have today, some who are members of the Church who are undercutting us, who are betraying their trusts. We are shocked when we see the places from which some of these things come.

Brigham Young was invited by some of these men who were trying to depose the Prophet Joseph from his position as President of the Church; but they made a mistake by inviting President Brigham Young into their circle. And after he had listened to what their motives were, he said something to this effect: "I want to say something to you men. You cannot destroy the appointment of a prophet of God, but you can cut the thread that binds you to the prophet of God, and sink yourselves to hell."

There was a pugilist [boxer, fighter] there by the name of Jacob Bump, so the story goes, who doubled up his fists and started toward President Young, who replied to this man's threats: "I would like to lay hands on a man like you in defense of the Prophet Joseph Smith."

Remember that, brethren. You cannot destroy the appointments of the prophets of God. The Lord knows whom he wants to preside in his church, and sometimes it takes a lot of practicing, guiding, testing, before he may know whether or not one of us is prepared for the present assignment.

Now I think it is folly for one to compare one President of the Church with another. No one takes the place of another President of the Church. Each President has his own place. I had a lesson taught me some years ago when, in company with one of the brethren, I had reorganized the presidency of the Ensign Stake. We had named the bishop of one of the wards as stake president. It was near the end of the year, and he elected to remain as bishop, along with his first counselor, who was a bishop, until they had closed the books at the end of the year.

Six weeks after they were sustained, the stake president suddenly passed away.

Then I began to receive a barrage of letters. Where in the world was the inspiration for you to call a man whom the Lord was going to let die in six weeks? They invited me to talk at his services, and some seemed to be expecting me to try to explain why I had appointed a man that the Lord was going to take home in six weeks.

President Joseph Fielding Smith sat on the stand and heard my attempt to satisfy these people, and he said to me, "Don't you let that bother you. If you have called a man to a position in this church and he dies the next day, that position would have a bearing on what he will be called to do when he leaves this earth."
I believe that. I believe that every President of this church, every apostle of this church, every bishop, every stake president, every presiding position will have a bearing on what one is called to do when he leaves this earth.

And so, when you think of one President taking the place of another, he doesn't. That President maintains his own place. We shouldn't try to compare one as being greater than this one or greater than the other, because each one is, in the eyes of the Lord, in his own time the one most needed for that particular time. You may be sure of that.

Now, just one final thought. I sat in a class in Sunday School in my own ward one day, and the teacher was the son of a patriarch. He said he used to take down the blessings of his father, and he noticed that his father gave what he called "iffy" blessings. He would give a blessing, but it was predicated on "if you will not do this" or "if you will cease doing that." And he said, "I watched these men to whom my father gave the 'iffy' blessings, and I saw that many of them did not heed the warning that my father as a patriarch had given, and the blessings were never received because they did not comply."

You know, this started me thinking. I went back into the Doctrine and Covenants and began to read the "iffy" revelations that have been given in the Church. If you want to have an exercise in something that will startle you, read some of the warnings that were given through the Prophet Joseph Smith to Thomas B. Marsh, Martin Harris, some of the Whitmer brothers, William E. McLellin--warnings which, had they heeded, some would not have fallen by the wayside. But because they did not heed, and they didn't clear up their lives, they fell by the wayside, and some had to be dropped from membership in the Church.

Now, there is one thing that I think we should all be mindful of. I was with a group of missionaries in the temple one day. A question was asked by one of the sisters about the Word of Wisdom, concerning the promise made that if one would keep the Word of Wisdom he should run and not be weary and should walk and not faint. And she said, "How could that promise be realized if a person were crippled? How could he receive the blessings that he could run and not be weary, and walk and not faint, if he were crippled?"

I answered her, "Did you ever doubt the Lord? The Lord said that."

The trouble with us today, there are too many of us who put question marks instead of periods after what the Lord says. I want you to think about that. We shouldn't be concerned about why he said something, or whether or not it can be made so. Just trust the Lord. We don't try to find the answers or explanations. We shouldn't try to spend time explaining what the Lord didn't see fit to explain. We spend useless time.

If you would teach our people to put periods and not question marks after what the Lord has declared, we would say, "It is enough for me to know that is what the Lord said."

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, Oct. 1972, p. 176. We have announced time and again the great coverage of this conference. Millions have been listening. You know we are being judged by what emanates from this tabernacle. I held a meeting with some new missionaries recently. Their attention was called to something that I may have the temerity [cheek, gaul, recklessness] to mention to you today. The Lord said here in a great revelation, "Therefore, cease from all you light speeches, from all laughter, from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and lightmindedness, and from all your wicked doings." (D&C 88:121.)

I wonder sometimes if we forget that all we say in this sensitive building is going out over the air from a sacred assembly. It doesn't mean that we should be long-faced, should not show our joy, but we ought to couch our expressions of joy not with the audible expression that swells up to a great crescendo that might be mistaken by those who are listening on the outside. I think it would be well for us to remember that, with a sense of our responsibility to the most high God. We should be an example of what the Lord in this revelation has counseled us to be when we are in his service.

Harold B. Lee, Conference Report, April 1973, pp. 126 129. Ensign, July 1973, pp. 97-98. I have a letter from some man who seemingly has found something in the hieroglyphics of some discovery that is the answer to a lot of the things that lay ahead for the world. And interestingly enough, as I looked at this, my mind reflected back to an address I heard delivered from this pulpit by President Anthony W. Ivins of October 4, 1931. Just why I thought of that--I suppose it was intended that I should--is because he gave an address at that conference and used as his text the recently published booked called Our Bible in Stone. Many of you remember this treated principally the erection, the symbolism, and the prophetic character of the pyramid of Gizeh, or in Greek, the Cheops. Students of the pyramid, after a study of the measurements, symbols, and the record of the pyramid, if it had a record, said that the year 1928 would witness the beginning of a period of great tribulation, which would culminate with intensity in 1936. That period, according to the reckoning of the students, would close with the advent of the Lord and the establishment of a period of peace, happiness, and goodwill among men.

Then President Ivins gave these wise words of counsel with reference to this book: "Now, my brethren ... I have referred to this little book and its contents as I desire that you might understand. It will undoubtedly go into the mission field and our elders may make use of it. I simply want to warn you against sensationalism of any kind.... I do not say that his conclusions are wrong, but I do say that they do not come to us as the voice of the Church, nor are they to be accepted as such."

Then he said something that seems very significant to me. He said: "Brother J. Golden Kimball told us yesterday that he was a great believer in dreams that came true." I wish you would think of that. That accords with my feelings. I am a great believer in dreams that have come true. "I am reminded of the fact," he said,, "that immediately after the close of the World War [I] these students of the Pyramids announced and published it that according to their measurements and calculations there would begin in the year 1928 a period which would bring tribulation and sorrow to the people of the world; that they would be required to humble themselves before the Lord, and that that period of tribulation would continue until the year 1936.... We all know that a part of this dream at least has come true."

After commenting on the financial condition throughout the nations at that time, in the 1930s, President Ivins then concluded his remarks with these profound words of wisdom: "Well, now, my brethren and sisters, what about it all? Just be calm and turn to the Lord.... I pleaded with the people to put their houses in order and get out of debt, for I knew this was coming, because God himself through his Only Begotten Son had declared it. Now, my brethren and sisters, if the Church has anything to say to you it will come from them direct and not from the writings of other men. It will come to you in a manner that you will understand it. It will not be speculative. It will come to you philosophically, truthfully, and governed by common sense...." (Conference Report, Oct. 1931, pp. 87-94.)

Now this is something that needs repeating to this great body of priesthood, because we have a rash of writings by certain persons who claim to be of good standing in the Church, going into considerable detail as they recite their past and present Church affiliation and activities in the forward, interlude, and advertising. There are sensational predictions and observations, and to make their writings appear to have Church sanction, they use quotations and addresses from Church leaders, past and present, taken out of context in such a way as to make it appear as though these quotations were the endorsement of they book they wish to sell to Church members, who may thereby be induced to accept their writings as from unquestioned sources.

Now we have also had some who claim to be in good standing in order to take advantage of the gathering of the Saints at some of our general conferences, and who have gone so far as to program group meetings for their own interest, with the obvious hope that by doing so, many of our conference visitors may be urged to attend their meetings, even if it may have necessitated their absence from vitally important instructional sessions of the conference.

Furthermore, some designing individuals have solicited opportunities to speak at Church gatherings, firesides, priesthood quorums, sacrament meetings. Now, brethren, we feel it is of the utmost importance to lift a warning voice so that our people will be safeguarded against such tactics as an all too obvious self-seeking opportunity to spread their own propaganda for their own interests.

We must urge that priesthood leaders use careful discretion in screening out those whose motives may be subject to serious question.

Now a word about magnifying the priesthood....

The other night I had a group of young Cub Scouts, who are about the age to become ordained deacons, and I said to these young men, "When you get to be deacons, what will be the duties of a deacon?"

And they all said, "The duty of the deacon is to pass the sacrament."

And I said, "Now I would like you to think of this a little differently. That isn't the way to explain the duty of a deacon. What does it mean to pass the sacrament? When a deacon carries the emblems of the bread and water which have been blessed to the good of those to whom it shall be passed, it is then a renewal of a covenant that if they will keep the commandments of God and remember the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom those emblems stand, they will have the Spirit of the Lord to be with them."

A deacon, then, has the responsibility of representing the Lord to carry these emblems and thus be the Lord's agent in submitting these to the body of the Church.

When you ask a teacher what are his duties, he may answer, "Well, it's to do home teaching." But suppose you say to him, "When you do home teaching you are representing the Lord, to visit the home of each member, to see that they are doing their duty, and to see that they are all keeping the commandments of God." The duties of a priest: "The priest is to preach, teach, expound, exhort, and baptize, and administer the sacrament; and to visit the house of each member, and exhort them to pray vocally and in secret and attend to all family duties." (D&C 20:46-47.) They should have in mind when they are acting in those capacities it is as though they were acting for and responsible to the Lord.

When we officiate in the name of the Lord, as holders of the priesthood, we are doing it in the name and in behalf of our Heavenly Father. Priesthood is the power by which our Heavenly Father works through men, through deacons, through teachers, through priests, and I have a feeling that we are not impressing that upon our young men. They are not taking the understanding of their priesthood as seriously as they might. If they did, they would always want to appear as President Tanner has said of Bishop Featherstone. They would always want to appear at their best when they are exercising their priesthood. Their hair would be properly groomed; their clothing and appearance would reflect the sanctity they should feel in the performance of their priesthood duties. I have had that same feeling. I have never performed an ordinance, such as administering to the sick, without first excusing myself, if I were out in the garden or somewhere, until I was properly clothed, to make the best appearance I could, because I felt in so doing I was drawing close to the Lord himself, and I want to appear at my best in his presence.

Brethren, I am afraid that some of our elders do not understand this, that when they are officiating as elders of the Church, or as seventies or as high priests, it is as though when they perform the ordinance, the Lord through them is acting upon the heads of those for whom they minister. I have often thought one of the reasons why we are not magnifying our priesthood is because we don't understand that as holders of the priesthood, He is working through us by the power of the holy priesthood, and I would wish that we could all have that feeling, and so teach our young people what it means to hold the priesthood and to magnify it.

Mark E. Petersen, Ensign, Jan. 1973, p. 116 (from General Conference). [God] follows a particular method of transmitting knowledge to man. It is an unchanging pattern, which is, that he always speaks to the people through living prophets.

Ezekiel 13:3. [Emphasis added.]

. . . Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

Parley P. Pratt, HC 6:23. Many suppose they must get direct revelation from God for themselves. Not so. He has a prophet, and he says the Church shall give heed to the words of the Prophet, as he is to hold the keys of the kingdom of God in this life and in the world to come.... You can put every confidence in the Book of Mormon and in Joseph Smith; and if you are not satisfied, go to God.

Joseph Smith, HC 1:339; Teachings, p. 22, see also pp. 72-73. And again we never inquire at the hand of God for special revelation only in case of there being no previous revelation to suit the case ... It is a great thing to inquire of the hands of God, or to come into his presence; and we feel fearful to approach Him on subjects that are of little or no consequence, to satisfy the queries of individuals, especially about things the knowledge of which men ought to obtain in all sincerity before God, for themselves, in humility by the prayer of faith; and more especially a teacher or a High Priest in the Church.

Joseph Smith, Jr., HC 3:395-396. Be careful that you teach not for the word of God the commandments of men, nor the doctrines of men, nor the ordinances of men, inasmuch as you are God's messengers. Study the word of God, and preach it and not your opinions, for no man's opinion is worth a straw. Advance no principle but what you can prove, for one scriptural proof is worth ten thousand opinions.

Joseph Smith, Teachings, p. 331. But there has been a great difficulty in getting anything into the heads of this generation. It has been like splitting hemlock knots with a corn-dodger [piece of cake] for a wedge, and a pumpkin for a beetle [hammer]. Even the Saints are slow to understand.

I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions: they cannot stand the fire at all. How many will be able to abide a celestial law, and go through and receive their exaltation, I am unable to say, as many are called, but few are chosen. [HC 6:183-185.]

J. Reuben Clark, Jr., Conference Report, Oct. 1944, pp. 117-118; in The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles (Institute NT manual), p. 439.
There is creeping into our midst, and I warn you brethren about it, and I urge you to meet it, a great host of sectarian doctrines that have no place amongst us. The gospel in its simplicity, is to be found in the revelations, the teachings of the Prophet and the early leaders of the Church. We shall make no mistake if we follow them. We shall make mistakes ... if we try to harmonize our simple beliefs with the philosophy and the speculations of sectarian doctrines. When you can hear in our Sunday Schools in some of our most prominent wards, that we do not need to worry much about or think much about the first vision, we do not need to think very much about the atoning sacrifice of Christ -- that is a mystery; ... we would better be careful.

We must not "liberalize," and I put that term in quotes, our teachings; we must accept them as God gave them to us and there must be amongst us unity in faith.

J. Reuben Clark, Jr., "The Charted Course of the Church in Education," quoted in Boyd K. Packer, Teach Ye Diligently, p. 317. For any Latter-day Saint psychologist, chemist, physicist, geologist, archaeologist, or any other scientist,

to explain away
or misinterpret
or evade
or elude,
or most of all
to repudiate
or to deny,

the great fundamental doctrines of the Church [e.g., "the nature of the Godhead, the origin of man, the reality of Satan, the purpose of mortality, the necessity of obedience, the need for repentance, the workings of the Holy Spirit, the ordinances and performances that pertain to salvation, the destiny of the earth, the future condition of man after the resurrection and the judgment, the eternity of the marriage relationship, and the eternal nature of the family."....Taken from the "Explanatory Introduction" of the 1981 edition of the Doctrine & Covenants] in which he professes to believe, is to give the lie to his intellect, to lose his self-respect, to bring sorrow to his friends, to bring shame to his parents, to besmirch the Church and its members, and to forfeit the respect and honor of those whom he has sought, by his course, to win as friends and helpers.

Elder Dean L. Larsen, Sixth Annual Book of Mormon Symposium, Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center Newsletter, 5/91, (emphasis added) God allows us to bring afflictions upon ourselves so that we will not drift away from Him, Elder Larsen said.

We must guard against the drifting that occurs to the Saints in the book of Alma. The fact that the Lord has promised no universal apostasy in our day does not indicate that individual members will not fall, said Elder Larsen. As Harold B. Lee said, in the last days "there will be a great sieve, a sifting time."

Apostasy in the book of Alma began with individuals wilfully sinning, then seeking to justify their behavior by associating with similar people. As we compare consequences of this behavior with our own day, said Elder Larsen, we must realize that spiritual drifters among us pose a threat to our spirituality. "Drifting is most dangerous when drifters associate with true believers," he said.

We must also remember the command to "be ye separate," he said, for the book of Alma teaches us the importance of avoiding worldly contamination.

Gordon B. Hinckley, BYU 1967, in Life & Teachings of Jesus, (Institute1970s), p. 125. The price of adherence to conscience is loneliness. The price of adherence to principle is loneliness."

Hugh Nibley, Old Testament & Related Studies, pp. 7-8. . . . in their ways of disbelief the clergy have led the field. This can be seen in Marneck's final definition of a "religion without faith," for in the end he recommends "to the non-believing person access to religious feelings through the substitution ... of religious feelings by like feelings of a non-religious nature." These "non-religious" feelings which are accessible to the complete "non-believer" are found in

[1]social good works,
[2]aesthetic experience,
[3]brotherly love,
[4]the psychological search for the deeper self, and
[5]the Ethical Gospel.

The Bible, a sealed Book

2008-12-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

The Bible, a Sealed Book
Bruce R. McConkie, BYU, 1984.

I am pleased and honored to be here, and I pray for a
rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all of us as we
now consider some matters of surpassing import where
our work as teachers is concerned.
I shall speak about the sealed book, which contains many
of the mysteries of the kingdom. These are things that
are of great worth unto all who teach the gospel. My
specific subject is the Bible, a sealed book, but my
approach and handling of this subject may not fit the
normal pattern.
There are many things that need to be said, and I shall
speak plainly, hoping to edify and not to offend.
These rather well-known words may have some
application to what I am about to say:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods?
(Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Horatius,” lines
219-24, in The Lays of Ancient Rome, 1842)
There is a plainer translation, which I think, however, is
either colloquial, or apocryphal, or pseudopigraphic. It is
to this effect: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. So
be it.
Both Isaiah and John tell us about a book that is sealed.
Isaiah’s prophecy speaks of taking words from the
unsealed portion of the book to one of great learning, to
a might tower of intellectual power, who asked to receive
the book itself.
Being told that some two-thirds of the book was sealed,
the intellectual giant, skilled in all the linguistic learning
of the world, said, “‘I cannot read a sealed book,’”
(Joseph Smith–History 1:65). This prophecy was fulfilled
when Martin Harris took some of the characters, copied
from the Book of Mormon plates, to Professor Charles
Anthon in New York City (see Isaiah 29; 2 Ne 27;
JS–History 1:63–65).
John the Revelator saw in the hands of the Great God a
book sealed with seven seals. “It contains,” as our
revelations tell us, “the revealed will, mysteries, and the
works of God; the hidden things of his economy
concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of
its continuance, or its temporal existence” (D&C 77:6),
each seal covering a period of one thousand years. As
John saw, no one but the Lord Jesus — “the Lion of the
tribe of Juda, the Root of David” (Revel 5:5) — had the
power to loose these seven seals.
This same knowledge is contained in the sealed portion
of the Book of Mormon. For aught we know the two
sealed books are one and the same. Of this much we are
quite certain: When, during the Millennium, the sealed
portion of the Book of Mormon is translated, it will give
an account of life in the premortal existence; of the
creation of all things; of the Fall and the Atonement and
the Second Coming; of temple ordinances, in their
fullness; of the ministry and mission of translated
beings; of life in the spirit world, in both paradise and
hell; of the kingdoms of glory to be inhabited by
resurrected beings; and many such like things.
As of now, the world is not ready to receive these truths.
For one thing, these added doctrines will
completely destroy the whole theory of organic
evolution as it is now almost universally taught
in the halls of academia. For another, they will set
forth an entirely different concept and time
frame of the creation, both of this earth and all
forms of life and of the sidereal heavens
themselves, than is postulated in all the theories
of men. And sadly, there are those who, if forced
to make a choice at this time, would select
Darwin over Deity.
Our purpose in referring to the sealed book or books
spoken of by Isaiah and John is to set the stage for a
consideration of the sealed book — the Holy Bible — that
is now in our hands. As the Lord Jesus alone has power
to loose the seven seals of John’s book, so the coming
forth of the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon
depends upon our faith and righteousness.
When we rend the damning veil of unbelief that now
shuts us out from perfect communion with Gods and
angels and when we gain faith like that of the brother of
Jared, then we will gain the knowledge that was his. This
will not occur until after the Lord comes. (See Ether 4.)
The Book of Mormon came forth and was translated by
the gift and power of God. The scholarship and learning
of wise men were not involved. It was not brought forth
by intellectual giants who had been trained in all the
linguistic wisdom of the world. It came forth by the
power of the Holy Ghost. The translator said, “I am not
learned” (2 Ne 27:19). The Lord replied, “The learned
shall not read” the account on the plates (2 Ne 27:20).
There is a great key in this. The Book of Mormon is
translated correctly because an unlearned man did it by
the gift and power of God. It took him less than sixty
translating days. The Bible abounds in errors and
mistranslations, in spite of the fact that the most learned
scholars and translators of the ages labored years on end
over the manuscripts of antiquity to bring it forth.
The key to an understanding of Holy Writ lies not in the
wisdom of men, not in cloistered halls, not in a
knowledge of Greek and Hebrew — though special
intellectual insights may result from all of these — but
the things of God are known and understood only by the
power of the Spirit of God (see 1 Cor 2). Thus saith the
Lord: “I call upon the weak things of the world, those
who are unlearned and despised” to do my work (D&C
35:13).
How well Paul said: “Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? hath not God
made foolish the wisdom on this world? … Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness
of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise.” (1 Cor 1:20, 25–27.)
Of course we should learn all we can in every field; we
should sit with Paul at the feet of Gamaliel; we should
gain a knowledge of kingdoms and countries and
languages (see D&C 88:76–81). “To be learned is good,”
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Jacob tells us, if we harken unto the counsels of God” (2
Ne 9:29).
But above all this — more important than all of it
combined, more important than all the wisdom ever
gained by the power of the intellect by all the wise men of
all the ages — above it all is the need for the guidance of
the Spirit in our study and in our teaching. The way the
Book of Mormon came forth — by the power of God, who
used an unlearned man — sets the tone for all of us in all
our work in the kingdom. The Lord can do his work
through us if we will let him.
Now, it is my considered judgment, and I firmly believe,
that the Bible as we now have it is a sealed book. It does
not have the Jaredite seal, which can only be removed by
faith and righteousness; the Bible is for men in our day,
both the righteous and the wicked. And it is not sealed
with seven seals but with two. These we shall name and
show how they can be removed. The Bible should
become an open book — a book that is read and believed
and understood by all men on earth.
But first we must tell what the Bible is and show its
relationship to gaining salvation and to other inspired
writings. Everyone knows that the Bible is the book of
books; that it is a volume of holy scripture; that it
contains the mind and will and voice of the Lord to all
men on earth; and that it has had a greater effect on the
civilization of the world, up to this time, than any other
book every written.
There are no people on earth who hold the Bible in such
high esteem as we do. We believe it, we read and ponder
its sayings, we rejoice in the truths it teaches, and we
seek to conform our lives to the divine standard it
proclaims. But we do not believe, as does evangelical
Christianity, that the Bible contains all things necessary
for salvation; nor do we believe that God has now taken
upon himself the tongue of the dumb which no longer
speaks, nor reveals, nor makes known his will to his
children.
Indeed, we know that the Bible contains only a sliver, a
twig, a leaf, no more than a small branch at the most,
from the great redwood of revelation that God has given
in ages past. There has been given then thousand times
ten thousand more revelation than has been preserved
for us in our present Bible. It contains a bucket, a small
pail, a few draughts, no more than a small stream at
most, out of the great ocean of revealed truth that has
come to men in ages more spiritually enlightened than
ours.
And even the small portion of truth preserved for us in
our present Bible has not come down to us in its original
plainness and perfection. An angel told Nephi, with
repetitive emphasis, that the Bible — including both the
Old Testament and the New Testament — contained the
knowledge of salvation when first written; that it then
went through the hands “of that great and abominable
church, which is most abominable above all other
churches” (1 Ne 13:26); that many plain and precious
parts and many covenants of the Lord were taken away;
and that as a result an exceedingly great many did
stumble and did not know what to believe or how to act.
(See 1 Ne 13.)
And yet, with all this, we cannot avoid the conclusion
that a divine providence is directing all things as they
should be. This means that the Bible, as it now is,
contains that portion of the Lord’s word that a
rebellious, wicked, and apostate world is entitled to and
able to receive.
We doubt not also that the Bible, as now constituted, is
given to test the faith of men. It prepares men for the
Book of Mormon. Those who truly believe the Bible
accept the Book of Mormon; those who believe the Book
of Mormon accept the Doctrine and Covenants and the
Pearl of Great Price; and those so enlightened strive so to
live that they can receive the greater light and knowledge
in those sealed books that are yet to come to light —
those books, we repeat, which shall come forth from
unlearned men as they are guided by the Holy Ghost.
Providentially the Bible is so written that all men,
however slight their spiritual endowment may be, can
gain truth and enlightenment from it, whereas those who
have the power of discernment can learn from it the deep
and hidden things reserved for the Saints alone.
By way of perspective, as far as gaining salvation is
concerned, the Bible is far excelled — immeasurably so
— by the Book of Mormon and the other latter-day
revelations. These modern scriptures are in fact the ones
that must be believed and accepted in order for us to be
saved. If it came right down to it, those of us who live in
the dispensation of the fulness of times could be saved if
there were no Bible at all, because the gospel truths and
powers have all been given anew to us by direct
revelation.
Also by way of having all things in perspective, we should
be aware that there are approved and inspired writings
that are not in the standard works. These writings also
are true and should be used along with the scriptures
themselves in learning and teaching the gospel. Next to
the standard works five of the greatest documents in our
literature are —
1. The “Wentworth Letter.” (See History of the
Church, 4:535–41.) Written by the Prophet Joseph
Smith, it contains an account of the coming forth of
the Book of Mormon, of the ancient inhabitants of
the Americas, of the organization, and of the
persecutions suffered by the early Latter-day Saints.
The thirteen Articles of Faith are part of this letter.
2. Lectures on Faith. These lectures were prepared by
and under the direction of the Prophet Joseph
Smith and were taught by him and by others in the
School of the Prophets. The Prophet said they
embraced “the important doctrine[s — sic] of
salvation” (Preface to D&C, 1835 edition; reprint,
Independence, MO: Herald House, 1971).
3. The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by
the First Presidency and the Twelve. (See James R.
Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6
vols. [SLC: Bookcraft, 1965–75], 5:26–34; see also
5:23–25.) This exposition sets forth the status and
relationship of the Father and the Son, shows those
ways in which Christ is the Father, and through its
various recitations lays to rest the false and heretical
view that Adam is our Father and our God.
4. The “King Follett Sermon” and the “Sermon in the
Grove.” (See History of the Church, 6:302–17;
6:473–79.) These two sermons, one in thought and
content, set forth the doctrine of the plurality of
Gods and of becoming joint heirs with Christ. They
show that man may become as his Maker and reign
in celestial exaltation forever.
5. “The Origin of Man,” by the First Presidency of the
Church. (See Clark, Messages of the First
Presidency, 4:200–206; see also 4:199.) This
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inspired writing sets forth the official position of
the Church on the origin of man and therefore
impinges on the evolutionary fantasies of biologists
and their fellow travelers. As might be expected, it
arouses great animosity among intellectuals whose
testimonies are more ethereal than real.
Now to our modern sealed book — the Holy Bible — the
book that prepares men for the further light and
knowledge the Lord has in store for them. What are the
seals that hide its wonders from the world?
They are two in number and are the opposite extremes of
a swinging pendulum. They are the seals of Satan and
have been forged with devilish cleverness. In fact, I
cannot think of two seals that could more effectively
destroy the value and use of the Bible than these two.
They are the seal of ignorance and the seal of
intellectuality. A word about each is in order.
As to the seal of ignorance — this seal kept the Bible
away from almost every living soul on earth for nearly
fifteen hundred years. If ever there was a sealed book, it
was the Bible all during the Dark Ages. The dominant
church neither used it nor taught it but followed instead
the traditions of the Fathers, hence such doctrines as the
three-in-one spirit God; the worship of Mary and
images; the intercession of saints; masses for the
salvation of the living and the dead; the sale of
indulgences; purgatory; infant baptism; the justifying of
the persecution and slaying of heretics, as in the Spanish
Inquisition; and so on — for none of which is there one
shred of proper scriptural justification.
The Renaissance and the Reformation that grew out of it
were, in large measure, movements to translate and use
the Bible. Many is the truth seeker who was burned at
the stake for the mere possession of an unauthorized
Bible. We need not dwell more on this. There are shelves
of books in every good library that tell the dire and dark
story.
Today the seal of ignorance remains only insofar as the
generality of Christendom, and the rest of the world in
general, have no real interest in studying the Bible.
Modern ministers are sociologists, not theologians. And
in Catholic nations there is almost no encouragement or
incentive to own or read the biblical word.
As to the seal of intellectuality — this is quite another
matter. It is imposed, no doubt unwittingly in many
cases, by “the wise, and the learned,… who are puffed up
because of their learning, and their wisdom” — these are
Jacob’s words — and who do not know they are thereby
numbered with those “whom” the Holy One of Israel
“despiseth” (2 Ne 9:42).
We shall show the fallacy of relying on learning and
intellectuality, rather than upon the Spirit and upon an
overall understanding of the plan of salvation, as we now
set forth the keys of understanding that will enable us to
remove the seals from the sealed Bible.
Some of these keys of understanding are of almost
infinite import; others are so insignificant that if they are
ignored, no one will ever miss them. Even these
insignificant ones, however, must be mentioned so as to
keep the important items in perspective. We shall take
the liberty of rating each key on a scale of one to ten.
And so we say of the Bible, as Parley P. Pratt said of the
Book of Mormon: “Remove the seals, be wide unfurled /
Its light and glory to the world” (“An Angel from on
High,” Hymns, no. 224.).
Key One: Read the Bible
Could any key be more obvious than this? Simply read
the book itself. Unless and until we do, nothing else will
fall into place. We cannot do other than rate this key as a
ten on our scale. All biblical scholarship and
understanding begin with reading the basic source
material.
One of our problems is that we read what others have
said about the Bible; we read a book of Old Testament
stories; we get something the Reader’s Digest publishes
under the biblical name that leaves out the genealogies
and supposedly hard parts.
Read the book itself. “Search the scriptures” (Jn 5:39).
Treasure up the Lord’s word. Go to the source. The
words are sacred. Insofar as they have come down to us
as originally penned, they were inspired by the Holy
Ghost. They are to be read over and over again as long as
we live.
But in my opinion they are not all of equal worth. The
Gospels, particularly the Gospel of John, are worth their
weight in gold. Acts is not far behind them. Paul’s
epistles, Romans being the chief and Philemon the least,
are treasure houses of doctrine and wise counsel. The
writings of Peter and James, plus 1 John, rank as though
written by angels; 2 and 3 John are of no special
moment; Jude is worthwhile, at least; and for those with
gospel understanding, Revelation is a foundation of
divine wisdom that expands the mind and enlightens the
soul.
In the Old Testament, Genesis is the book of books — a
divine account whose worth cannot be measured.
Exodus and Deuteronomy are also of surpassing worth.
Numbers, Joshua, Judges, the Samuels, the Kings, and
the Chronicles are all essential history, interwoven with
deeds of faith and wonder that form a background for an
understanding of the Christian faith. Leviticus has no
special application to us and, except for a few passages,
need not give us permanent concern. Ruth and Esther
are lovely stories that are part of our heritage. The
Psalms contain marvelous poetry, and the portions that
are messianic and that speak of the last days and the
Second Coming are of great import. Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and Lamentations are interesting books;
Job is for people who like the book of Job; and the Song
of Solomon is biblical trash — it is not inspired writing.
Ezra, Nehemiah, Obadiah, and Jonah are the least of the
prophets; and all the rest of the prophets — Isaiah above
them all — each in his place and order set forth the
doctrinal and prophetic word that must be studied in
depth.
Key Two: Know Hebrew & Greek
There is certainly no objection to knowing Hebrew and
Greek, but it does have some hazards. Joseph Smith and
some of our early Brethren studied some Hebrew. When
a knowledge of ancient languages is used properly — as a
means of gaining inspiration about particular passages —
it merits a rating of, say, one or one and two-tenths.
Improperly used — as an end in itself — its value sinks
off the scale to a minus five or a minus ten, depending
upon the attitude and spiritual outlook of the user.
Those who turn to the original tongues for their doctrinal
knowledge have a tendency to rely on scholars rather
than on prophets for scriptural interpretations. This is
perilous; it is a sad thing to be numbered with the wise
and the learned who know more than the Lord.
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Certainly none of us should be troubled or feel inferior if
we do not have a working knowledge of the languages in
which the Bible was first written. Our concern is to be
guided by the Spirit and to interpret the ancient word in
harmony with latter-day revelation.
Key Three: Use Biblical Commentaries &
Dictionaries
Anything to be said under this heading is more of a
warning than an endorsement. On historical and
geographical matters, these uninspired writings rate as
one or two; on doctrinal matters they drop off the scale
to a minus ten, a minus one hundred, a minus one
thousand, depending on the doctrine.
The wise and the learned know so infinitesimally little
about doctrine that it is almost a waste of time to read
them. All their creeds are an abomination in the Lord’s
sight. They teach for doctrines the commandments of
men. They twist and pervert the scriptures to conform to
their traditions; and if they get anything right, it is an
accident.
One says Jesus did not walk on the water, for that is
impossible; rather, he waded in the surf.
Another says He did not feed the five thousand by
multiplying loaves and fishes, for that is contrary to all
nature; rather, many in the congregation carried food in
their knapsacks but were afraid to take it out lest they
would have to share it with others. Jesus merely taught
them to share.
Yet another says we need not look for the Second
Coming in the literal sense, for surely Christ is no longer
a man who can dwell again among men; rather, the
Second Coming takes place whenever Christ dwells in
the heart of a man.
What can the commentaries of the world teach us about
the personal nature of God; about the premortal
existence, the war in heaven, and the eternal plan of
salvation; about the fall of man with its temporal and
spiritual death; about the paradisiacal creation that is to
be restored during the Millennium; about the
Melchizedek Priesthood and its various offices; about the
literal gathering of Israel and the restoration of the ten
tribes upon the mountains of Israel; about the preaching
to the spirits in prison and the doctrine of salvation for
the dead; about temples and celestial marriage and the
continuation of the family unit in eternity; about gifts
and signs and miracles; about a universal apostasy, a
glorious day of restoration, and the coming forth of the
Book of Mormon; about the atonement of Christ, which
makes salvation available on conditions of obedience;
about the three degrees of glory; about exaltation in the
highest heaven of the celestial world where men will be
joint heirs with Christ; about almost every basic doctrine
of salvation?
My fellow teachers, all these things, and ten thousand
more, have come from God in heaven to us in this final
dispensation of grace by direct revelation. They are the
truths that make salvation available,a nd they are not to
be found in the tomes of the scholars of the world.
Key Four: Learn of Local Customs & Traditions
This has some considerable advantage. It rates a two or a
three. The words of scripture often take on a new and
added meaning when read in the light of the local
conditions that called them forth.
When we learn that the counsel of Jesus to beware of
false prophets, who come to us in sheep’s clothing but
inwardly are ravening wolves, had reference to the rabbis
and scribes and Pharisees of his day, we realize that its
modern application is to the ministers of false churches
who teach false doctrines.
When we learn that the call of the meek Nazarene to
come unto him, take his yoke upon them, and learn of
him, for his yoke was easy and his burden light, and he
would give them rest to their souls, was an invitation to
leave the ritualistic, formalistic, burdensome
performances of the Mosaic law and to accept the
simplicity of gospel worship, it places an entirely new
light on the call to leave the sin-laden burdens of the
world and accept the holy gospel.
When we learn that every group of travelers in Palestine
camped out at caravanerais, in which rooms called inns
surrounded a courtyard where their animals were
tethered, we get an entirely new vision of the place where
the Lord Jesus was born.
When we read that Jesus excoriated the Jewish teachers
because their traditions made the law of God of none
effect, that he arraigned them for their utterly inane
Sabbath restrictions, that he condemned them for their
ceremonial acts of washings and purifyings, it is of
considerable help to know what the traditions, the
restrictions, and the ceremonial acts were.
Nephi quotes “the words of Isaiah” and says “they are
plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of
prophecy” (2 Ne 25:4). As a supplemental way of
understanding the words of the prophets, he says men
must be “taught after the manner of the things of the
Jews” (2 Ne 25:5).
Authors such as Edersheim, Farrar, and Geike, writing
more than a hundred years ago when men had more
faith and when they believed in the divine sonship, give
us much good data on these ancient customs and ways of
life.
Key Five: Study All Scripture in Context
The context of every passage of scripture is important;
let us rate it as a two or a three on our scale. God is no
respecter of persons. Anything he has or will say to one
person, he will say to another who is similarly situated.
And he may give what seem to be conflicting commands
to different persons differently situated.
If the scripture says, “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13),
what is to stop the Lord from telling Nephi to slay Laban
as that Jewish leader lies in a drunken stupor? If the
scripture says members of the church who commit
murder are denied eternal life, does this apply also to the
heathen nations? If we need a passage to teach the
separation of Church and state, will we find it in the Old
Testament when the people were ruled theocratically or
in the New Testament when they were required to render
unto Caesar the things that were his? If we are studying
Levitical performances, will we turn to the Book of
Mormon, among which people there were no Levites?
And so on and so on. Obviously scriptures have limited
for general application according to the context.
Key Six: Rightly Distinguish between Literal &
Figurative Passages
This is difficult to do, it requires considerable experience
and discernment, and it surely rates as a three or a four.
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In general we are safer in taking things literally, although
the scriptures abound in figurative matters.
Literal occurrences include speaking with God face to
face as a man speaketh with his friend; man’s being
made in the image of God, both physically and
spiritually; the coming of Christ as the Only Begotten in
the flesh; the Lord Jesus himself dwelling in Enoch’s
Zion; His personal reign during the Millennium; the
resurrection of all men from the dead with corporeal
bodies of flesh and bones; and so on.
Figurative matters include Enoch’s walking with God,
the Lord Jehovah dwelling with ancient Israel, Christ
being the living bread that came down from heaven,
eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the
sacramental ordinance, and so on.
Key Seven: Use the King James Version of the
Bible
As far as the Bibles of the world are concerned, the King
James Version is so far ahead of all others that there is
little comparison. It rates as an item of five or six on our
scale. It is the Bible that came into being to prepare the
way for the translation of the Book of Mormon and to set
a literary pattern and standard for the revelations in the
Doctrine and Covenants. It is the official Bible of the
Church. Reference might well be made to Why the King
James Version? Why the King James Version? by
President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. (SLC: Deseret Book Co.,
1956) for an extensive consideration of this matter.
Key Eight: What of the Other Translations of the
World?
In answer we say: Forget them; they are of so little value
that it is almost a waste of time to delve into them. We
take a generous view to even rate them as one on our
scale. They are not binding upon us, and in general they
simply set forth the religious predilections of their
translator. Some, for instance, have Christ born of a
young woman rather than a virgin.
There may be an occasional instance in which one of
these alien translations throws some light on a particular
point; they are not all bad, but there are so many things
to study and learn that I question the wisdom of
treasuring up the translation views of the wise and the
learned who really have nothing in the inspired sense to
contribute to an understanding of eternal truth.
Key Nine: Use the Rely on the Joseph Smith
Translation, the So-called Inspired Version
This counsel rates an eight or a nine. It can scarcely be
stated with too great an emphasis. The Joseph Smith
Translation, or Inspired Version, is a thousand times
over the best Bible now existing on earth. It contains all
that the King James Version does, plus pages of
additions and corrections and an occasional deletion. It
was made by the spirit of revelation, and the changes
and additions are the equivalent of the revealed word in
the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.
For historical and other reasons there have been, among
some members of the Church in times past, some
prejudice and misunderstanding of the place of the
Joseph Smith Translation. I hope this has now all
vanished away. The Latter-day Saint edition of the Bible
footnotes many of the major changes made in the
Inspired Version and has a seventeen-page section that
sets forth excerpts that are too lengthy for inclusion in
the footnotes.
Reference to this section and to the footnotes themselves
will give anyone who has spiritual insight a deep
appreciation of the revelatory work of the Prophet
Joseph Smith. It is one of the great evidences of his
prophetic call.
And I am pleased to say that here at Brigham Young
University we have the world’s foremost authority on the
Joseph Smith Translation. His contributions in this field
of gospel scholarship rank with the best works published
in our dispensation. He is of course Brother Robert J.
Matthews, the dean of Religious Education. His
published work, “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s
Translation of the Bible, a History and Commentary
(Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1975), is
deserving of your careful study.
Key Ten: Use the Teaching Aids in the LDS
Edition of the Bible
I received a letter from a seminary teacher in which he
criticized our new scriptural publications because they
had footnotes, cross-references, and teaching aids. He
argued that these were crutches which kept people from
that intensive study in which they would make their own
cross-references.
Well, I for one need these crutches and recommend them
to you. They include the Joseph Smith Translation items,
the chapter headings, the topical guide, the Bible
dictionary, the footnotes, the gazetteer, and the maps.
None of these are perfect; they do not of themselves
determine doctrine; there have been and undoubtedly
now are mistakes in them. Cross-references, for instance,
do not establish and never were intended to prove that
parallel passages so much as pertain to the same subject.
They are aids and helps only. Certainly they rate a four
or five in importance. Use them consistently.
Key Eleven: Use Inspired & Interpreting
Translations of the Scriptures
It seems to me that most of us are almost unaware of the
great enlightenment that is available to us from inspired
and interpreting translations of biblical passages. For
those with spiritual insight, these inspired
interpretations rate an eight or nine on our scale; for
those with less spiritual maturity, all they do is raise
doubts and questions.
As all of you know, almost every New Testament
quotation of Old Testament scripture varies from the
original Hebrew text as it has been translated in our
Bible. Why? There are two reasons. One reason is that
many quotations came from the Greek Septuagint and
not from the Hebrew text that has become our Old
Testament. The Septuagint had many deficiencies
because it incorporated the doctrinal views of the
translators.
More important, the Jews in the days of Jesus spoke
Aramaic and not Hebrew, but their scriptures were
written in Hebrew. Hence, it was the practice in their
synagogue worship for one teacher to read texts from the
Hebrew and for another to translate or paraphrase these
passages into Aramaic — or as they said, make these
passages targums — so they could be understood by the
people.
When these Targums were made by Jesus and the
Apostles, all of whom taught regularly and consistently
in the synagogues, they were inspired and hence throw
great floods of light upon whatever scripture is involved.
Many Old Testament passages take on new meanings
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because of the way they are quoted in the New
Testament.
For all practical purposes Nephi often did much the
same thing when quoting Isaiah or Zenos. He gave, not a
literal, but an inspired and interpreting translation. And
in many instances his words give either a new or a
greatly expanded meaning to the original prophetic
word.
As a matter of fact, Moroni did this same thing in his
1823 appearances to Joseph Smith. For instance, he so
improved upon the promise of Elijah’s return that it is
like stepping from a pleasant twilight into the brilliance
of the noonday sun. And yet years later, with a full
knowledge of the more perfect translation, Joseph Smith
retained the King James language in the Book of
Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants and his
inspired rendition of the Bible.
Sure there is a message here. For one thing, it means
that the same passage of scripture can be translated
correctly in more ways than one and that the translation
used depends upon the spiritual maturity of the people.
Similarly, the Sermon on the Mount in the Book of
Mormon preserves, with a few improvements, the
language of the King James Version of the Bible. But
later, the Joseph Smith Translation renders much of this
sermon in a way that excels even the Book of Mormon.
So simple a passage as John 17:3 has a limited meaning
for all men, but it is a celestial beacon of blazing light to
us. From it we learn that to know God and Christ is to be
like them — thinking what they think, speaking what
they speak, doing what they do — all of which knowledge
is beyond the capacity of an unenlightened mind to
receive.
As rapidly as we learn the plan of salvation and get
ourselves in tune with the Holy Spirit, the scriptures will
take on an entirely new meaning for us. No longer will
we be limited, as are the small minds of the worldly wise,
but our whole souls will be filled with light and
understanding beyond anything of which we can now
conceive.
Key Twelve: Modern Scripture Unveils the
Ancient Scripture
I cannot lay too much stress on this key. It rates a ten or
more. In the real and true sense of the word, the only
way to understand the Bible is first to gain a knowledge
of God’s dealings with men through latter-day revelation.
We could be saved without the Bible, but we cannot be
saved without latter-day revelation. Ours is a restored
kingdom. The doctrines, laws, ordinances, and powers
were all restored. God and angels gave them anew. We
believe what we believe, and have the truths we possess,
and exercise the keys and powers in us vested, because
they have come by the opening of the heavens in our day.
We do not look back to a dead day or a past people for
salvation.
As it happens — it could not be otherwise with an
unchangeable God — what we have conforms to what the
ancient Saints had. Any agreeing truths and practices
they had stand as a second and supplemental witness of
gospel verities. But our knowledge and powers come
directly from heaven.
Hence, the imperfect and partial accounts of the Lord’s
dealings with his ancient Saints, as found in the Bible,
must conform to and be read in harmony with what we
have received. It is time we learned, not that the Book of
Mormon is true because the Bible is true, but just the
reverse. The Bible is true, insofar as it is, because the
Book of Mormon is true.
The everlasting gospel; the eternal priesthood; the
identical ordinances of salvation and exaltation; the
never-varying doctrines of salvation; the same Church
and kingdom; the keys of the kingdom, which alone can
seal men up unto eternal life — all these have always
been the same in all ages; and it shall be so everlastingly
on this earth and all earths to all eternity. These things
we know by latter-day revelation.
Once we know these things, the door is open to an
understanding of the fragmentary slivers of information
in the Bible. By combining the Book of Mormon, the
Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, we
have at least a thousand passages that let us know what
prevailed among the Lord’s people in the Old World.
Did they have the fullness of the everlasting gospel at all
times? Yes. There was not a period of ten minutes from
the days of Adam to the appearing of the Lord Jesus in
the land Bountiful when the gospel — as we have it, in its
eternal fulness — was not on earth.
Do not let the fact that the performances of the Mosaic
law were administered by the Aaronic Priesthood
confuse you on this matter. Where the Melchizedek
Priesthood is, there is the fulness of the gospel; and all of
the prophets held the Melchizedek Priesthood.
Was there baptism in the days of ancient Israel? The
answer is in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible
and in the Book of Mormon. The record of the first six
hundred years of Nephite history is simply a true and
plain account of how things were in ancient Israel from
the days of Moses downward.
Was there a Church anciently, and if so, how was it
organized and regulated? There was not so much as the
twinkling of an eye during the whole so-called pre-
Christian Era when the Church of Jesus Christ was not
upon the earth, organized basically in the same way it
now is. Melchizedek belonged to the Church; Laban was
a member; so also was Lehi, long before he left
Jerusalem.
There was always apostolic power. The Melchizedek
Priesthood always directed the course of the Aaronic
Priesthood. All of the prophets held a position in the
hierarchy of the day. Celestial marriage has always
existed. Indeed, such is the heart and core of the
Abrahamic covenant. Elias and Elijah came to restore
this ancient order and to give the sealing power, which
gives it eternal efficacy.
People ask, Did they have the gift of the Holy Ghost
before the day of Pentecost? As the Lord lives, they were
so endowed — such is part of the gospel — and those so
gifted wrought miracles and sought and obtained a city
whose builder and maker is God.
I have often wished the history of ancient Israel could
have passed through the editing and prophetic hands of
Mormon. If so, it would read like the Book of Mormon,
but I suppose that was the way it read in the first
instance anyway.
General Key: Ponder, Pray, & Seek the Spirit
This is the conclusion of the whole matter. This key
removes the seal. This is the only way the pure and sweet
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and hidden truths of the Bible may be known in full. And
it is rated above all others.
We all know that we must treasure up the words of life;
that we must live by every word that proceedeth forth
from the mouth of God; that we must ponder the things
of righteousness by day and, with Nephi, water our
pillows by night — all as we let the solemnities of eternity
sink into our souls.
We all know we must ask the Lord for guidance and
enlightenment. “Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it
shall be opened” (D&C 4:7). “If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given unto him” (Jas 1:5).
“And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of
faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach”
(D&C 42:14). For, “No prophecy of the scripture is of any
private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Pet 2:20–21.)
Now, much more might be said; we have but opened the
door to investigation. However great the darkness may
be in the world among the wise and the learned, we need
not be confused nor uncertain. The gospel trump sounds
no uncertain tones. We have power to remove the seals
from the sealed book and to bask in the light that shines
forth from its pages.
May I, by way of conclusion, doctrine, and testimony,
give you four simple directions:
1. Teach from the source. Use the scriptures themselves;
our tendency often is to study texts about the Bible
rather than to take the divine word in its purity.
Streams of living water flow from the Eternal Fountain,
and they flow in scriptural channels prepared by the
prophets. Here is a bit of wisdom most of you will
understand: Don’t drink below the horses, particularly
the horses of sectarianism.
2. Teach doctrine in preference to ethics. Read again
your instructions as given by President J. Reuben Clark,
Jr., in The Charted Course of the Church in Education
(address delivered to religious educators, 8 Aug. 1938;
see also Charge to Religious Educators [SLC: The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981]). As he
sets forth, if we teach ethics and nothing more, we fail; if
we teach the great and eternal doctrines of salvation, we
succeed, and the ethical principles will thereby take care
of themselves.
3. Teach by the Spirit. This is axiomatic. It has been true
from the beginning and will be so everlastingly. Have
you caught the vision of that great proclamation made in
the Adamic day as to how and in what manner the gospel
must be preached?
The scripture saith: “Believe on his Only Begotten Son,
even him whom he declared should come in the
meridian of time, who was prepared from before the
foundation of the world” (Moses 5:57). That is, believe in
Christ and conform to the great and eternal plan of
salvation.
Then come these words: “And thus the Gospel began to
be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy
angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his
own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Moses
5:58).
The gospel is and must be and can only be taught by the
gift of the Holy Ghost. That gift is given to us as the
Saints of the Most High and to none other. We stand
alone and have a power the world does not possess. Our
views on religious and spiritual matters are infinitely
better than theirs because we have the inspiration of
heaven.
This is the reason the call to teach, the call to be a
teacher — and I speak now of teachers of both sexes — is
the third greatest position in the Church. Truly Paul said:
“God hath set some in the church, first apostles,
secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments,
diversities of tongues” (1 Cor 12:28). Apostles, prophets,
teachers — in that order. Then the moving of mountains
and the raising of the dead.
Apostles and prophets are also teachers, and what
greater commission can anyone have from the Lord than
to stand in His place and stead, saying what he would say
if he personally were present, and doing it because the
words uttered flow forth by the power of the Holy Ghost?
4. Become a gospel scholar. With such a great
commission, how can we do other than become gospel
scholars and then so live as to enable the Spirit to draw
from our acquired treasures of truth those portions
needed in the very hour?
In the very nature of things every teacher becomes an
interpreter of the scriptures to his hearers. It could not
be otherwise. We are to preach, teach, expound, and
exhort. But our explanations must be in harmony with
prophetic and apostolic utterances, and they will be if
they are guided by the Spirit. Remember that these are
the chief officers placed in the Church to see that we are
not “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind
of doctrine” (Eph 4:14.)
Now, one final word: In the Church we are all brethren;
the Lord is no respecter of persons; it is not a church
position that saves but obedience and personal
righteousness.
The gospel has been restored so “that every man might
speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of
the world” (D&C 1:20). We are all entitled to the spirit of
inspiration. As the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “God
hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what He will
make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint
may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them”
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph
Fielding Smith [SLC: Deseret Book Co., 1938), p. 149.
The gifts of the Spirit are available to all of us. Indeed, it
is our privilege — the privilege of every elder in the
kingdom — to strip ourselves of jealousies and fears,
and to humble ourselves before the Lord, until “the veil
shall be rent” and we shall see him and know that he is
(D&C 67:10).
The work is true; the Lord’s hand is in it; it will come off
triumphant. And all of us who do our part will receive
peace and joy in this life and be inheritors of eternal life
in the world to come. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, amen.

2008-11-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

Repentance: To Gethsemane and Back

Vaughn J. Featherstone, Stockholm Area Conference, Official Report, August 17, 1974, 71–73.
My beloved young friends, you have just heard from one of the
great holy prophets on the earth. [Ezra Taft Benson.] What will you
do with his words?
Since I received this assignment, I have asked myself dozens of
times: “What would the Savior say if he were here and had this
opportunity to address you? What would he have you hear, and
what would he have you leave knowing?” I have spent a great deal
of time in prayer, and I hope that I might deliver that which you
should receive.
I think first the Savior would have you know that he cares. I
believe he would want you to learn and gain strength from him and
give your soul unto him.
To Gethsemane and back
A few months ago, a little over a year, I had the opportunity of
going to Mesa, Arizona, and there at a stake conference I
interviewed a young man. The young man had committed a major
transgression and needed to be interviewed by a General Authority
before going on a mission, as any young man going on a mission, if
he has committed a transgression, must be interviewed by a
General Authority. So I interviewed this young man. . . .
As I got into the interview, I said to him, “Now, my dear young
friend, there must have been something in your life that caused you
to have this interview. Would you mind telling me what that was? I
want you to be very honest and frank with me.” And then he kind
of laughed, and he said there was not anything he had not done.
And I said, “Well then, let me be more specific. Have you had
sexual relations?” Then he very haughtily said, “Yes, I told you
I’ve done everything.” I said, “How many times?” And he said,
again sarcastically, “Do you think I numbered them?” And I said to
him, “My dear young friend, I would to God you could if you
can’t.” He said, “Well, I can’t.” I said, “How about
homosexuality?” He said, “Yes. I told you I’ve done everything.” I
said, “Drugs?” He said, “Everything.”
So I said, “Why do you think you are going on a mission?” He
said: “I’m going on a mission because my patriarchal blessing says
I’m going on a mission. I have repented. I don’t do those things
anymore. I haven’t done them for the past year. I’ve been living the
law of tithing; I’ve attended my meetings; and I’ve repented. And I
know I’m going on a mission.”
I said: “My dear young friend, do you suppose that we could
send you out into the mission field with all those fine young men
who have never violated the moral code? Do you suppose we could
send you out to have you brag and boast about the things that
you’ve done? You haven’t repented. You’ve just stopped doing
something. And I said, “As far as we’re concerned, we just cannot
permit you to go out in the mission field.
And then he started to cry, and I guess he cried for several
minutes. Finally, when he finished crying (and I did not say a word
while he cried) he said, “I guess that’s the first time I’ve cried since
I was five years old.”
I said: “If you had cried like that the first time you were tempted
to break the moral code, maybe tonight you would be going on a
mission. But I’m sorry; we just cannot send you out.” I said: “You
need to go to Gethsemane and back first. Once you have been to
Gethsemane and understand how the Savior suffered for those
things which you so haughtily laughed about and sarcastically
responded to my questions, after you have been to Gethsemane,
you will understand what repentance is. You haven’t repented,” I
said, “and I’m surprised they ordained you an elder, after this track
record you’ve had.” And then I said, “Besides this, I’m not sure but
what they should have held a Church court [now called a
disciplinary council] for you.”
“Now,” I said, “they have ordained you, and all those things
have taken place, and repentance is possible. But you find a girl
and forget about a mission; you find a girl, and then hopefully she
will marry you. But you tell her about your past, because it isn’t a
very pleasant one. And after you have married and you have
children, try to spend the rest of your life proving to the Lord that
you are repentant.”
And he looked up at me, and he said, “There is no way that I can
go on a mission?” And I said, “No way at this time. I’m sorry, but
that’s just the way it is. I want you to know we love you, and we do
care about you. And someday you will thank me for making sure
you had to go to Gethsemane and back.”
Well, he left, and I am sure he felt that I was one of the cruelest
people in the world, because I had kept him from that thing which
he had desired. He had told his friends that he was going on a
mission, and I had deprived him of this great thing. I told the stake
president and the bishop to hold his mission call and to suggest
other courses of action for this young man. Then I left.
About six months later I was back down in that same
community again. I remember as I went down into the community
and spoke at the Henry Eyring lecture series in the institute there,
after I had finished speaking, several of the young adults came
down the aisle, and I stood shaking hands many minutes. All of a
sudden I looked up, and I saw this young man in line.
Now I remembered him, and I remembered his sarcasm; I
remembered his haughtiness; I remembered how he had laughed
and joked about this thing. All of those thoughts, every single
particle and detail of that interview, went back through my mind.
Now, if I interviewed any of you and you had truly repented, and I
saw you two or three weeks later, I would not recall the interview, I
would not remember it because the Lord said, “I, the Lord,
remember [their sins] no more.” (D&C 58:42.) And those that have
repented, he takes it from our hearts, and he takes it from the hearts
of the leaders, and he will take it from your heart. But because this
young man had not repented, I guess that is the reason I
remembered every particle and detail as though it had happened
just a few moments before.
As he got to me, I bent down over the front of the stand like this
and shook hands with him. Tears came to his eyes, streamed down
his cheeks; almost a holy glow was in his countenance. I said to
him, “You’ve been there haven’t you?” And then, as he cried, he
said, “I have been to Gethsemane and back, and I’m more grateful
to you than I could ever tell you. Thanks so much for what you
have done for me.”
Well, I wept somewhat in my heart. Now if it had not been for
the Savior and the miracle of forgiveness, this young man would
have carried those transgressions down through eternity. We ought
to love the Savior. We ought to serve him for this reason alone.
Now, if you make a serious mistake like this young man did,
chalk one up against yourself. But you had better chalk one up
against Mom, because she failed. And you better chalk one up
against Dad and the bishop. Chalk one up against the stake
president, because each one of them failed you, and they all care
about you….

2008-11-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

This was given to anyone who works for Ford motor company, the church is going places forseen by the prophets in all ages. Any publicity is GOOD!!

L.D.S Facts from Ford Motor Company
An interesting article written by Ford Motor Company for their employees from the 'Ford Interfaith' group as a message about the Church. The Ford Interfaith group promotes unity by sharing information from all faiths and features these types of articles about all religions and faiths from time to time.QUICK FACTS & INTERESTING TIDBITS About The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsFleeing continued mob attacks, 158 years ago today the first Mormon pioneers desperately started their Westward trek from Illinois in the dead of winter. Of the 70,000 who began this 1300-mile journey, 6,000 were buried along the way, including many children. The following are quick facts and interesting tidbits about this now flourishing church.OVERVIEW* Named "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"; informal nicknames are "LDS" or "Mormon."* Believes it's the Lord's restoration of original Christianity as foretold to occur before Christ's Second Coming.* Core focus is that Christ and His teachings bring happiness in this life and exaltation in the next.HISTORY* In 1820 14-yr-old Joseph Smith told of a vision of God and Christ foretelling a church restoration.* Organized in New York in 1830, the church moved to near Cleveland, then near Kansas City, then Illinois.* Fleeing Illinois, Mormon pioneers founded Salt Lake City in Utah and over 600 other Western communities.SALT LAKE CITY* Temple Square in Salt Lake has over 5 million annual visitors, more than the Grand Canyon.* The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the world's most famous and has the world's oldest radio program.* The Salt Lake Temple is the most famous, but there are 128 other temples built or underway.* Home of the world's largest genealogy database; visit it online or through 3,700 free branch libraries.ACTIVE CONGREGATIONS* Sunday services entail a three-hour block of three meetings; about 27,000 congregations exist worldwide.* Highly vibrant programs exist for youth, children, singles, men, and women; very strong family focus.* Everyone has a calling; some surveys show LDS have the highest U.S. attendance and service rates.* Families receive personal fellowship visits at home from other members on a monthly basis.FINANCES* Members tithe 10 percent, plus donate generously to the needy the first Sunday of each month.* Clergy and all other congregational positions are unpaid (however, much of the janitorial is paid).* The church has no debt; all buildings are paid for in cash (average of two new congregations a day).* The paid positions in Salt Lake are famously low-salaried; funds are frugally used and tightly audited.HEALTH CODE* With a health code from 1833, LDS avoid alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, coffee, and tea (herbal tea is ok).* This 1833 code also teaches grains (especially wheat), fresh fruits and vegetables, and sparing use of meat.* A UCLA study showed that active LDS live longer than most Americans, men by 11 years, women by 8.* Utah is 50th in smoking, alcohol consumption, drunk driving, heart disease, cancer, and sick days.EDUCATION* With four colleges, Utah's BYU with 30,000 students is the largest single-campus private college.* BYU Independent Study with 130,000 students is North America (340 web courses, 530 via mail).* Seminary, a daily class usually held around 6:00 A.M., serves 376,000 high school students.* There are Institutes of Religion at 1,950 colleges worldwide that serve 367,000 college students.* The church operates schools in parts of the Pacific Ocean and Mexico for 10,000 students.* Utah is 50th in spending per pupil, but first in adults that graduated from high school and attended college.WOMEN* In 1842 the "Relief Society" was organized; it's the largest women's organization in the world.* Wyoming was first to allow women to vote; Utah was second, two months later, in 1870.* Women preach from the pulpit and serve as organization presidents, teachers, committee chairs, etc.SHARING CHRIST'S GOOD NEWS* 61,000 missionaries serve in 165 countries; 93 percent are college-age; 22 percent are female.* Unpaid and paying their own way, most work 65 hours a week for two years, often in a new language.MEMBERSHIP DISTRIBUTION* LDS are 70 percent of Utah, 30 percent of Idaho; after Catholics, LDS are the largest sect in 10 states.* The church has 5.5 million members in the U.S., making it the fourth largest individual U.S. denomination.* Some memberships: New Zealand 95k, Japan 115k, UK 175k, Philippines 500k, Brazil 900k, Mexico 925k.* Worldwide 51 percent are female; about 55 percent are not Caucasian; about 70 percent are converts.MEMBERSHIP GROWTH* For the last 15 years, every day an average of 800+ people worldwide joined the LDS church.* Half of the growth is in Latin America, but the rate of growth is highest in Africa and the former Soviet bloc.* Worldwide membership just passed 12 million, a tenfold increase in 50 years.* In 1984 a non-LDS professor estimated 265 million members by 2080; so far growth has been faster.* As this growth has been steady, he said it will be the "first 'new' major world religion since Islam."CHARITY/SERVICE* Members in need obtain welfare from the LDS Church (thus Utah government welfare spending is very low).* LDS donate time at 220 welfare storehouses or canneries and about 400 farms (a FL ranch is 312k acres).* There are 210 employment centers placing over 175,000 people annually, and 64 family service centers.* The church operates 46 thrift stores, in part to provide employment for the disadvantaged.* The 61,000 missionaries spend half a day each week doing non-proselytizing community service.HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE* Over 200 million pounds of food, clothing, and medicine were donated in the last 20 years in 147 countries.* Almost all of this help is to non-LDS; LDS charities also work with and donate to many non-LDS charities.* Very rapid disaster relief has been given in 144 major disasters since 1986.* Almost 3,000 welfare "missionaries" work without pay in 55 countries (farm instructors, doctors, teachers...).* LDS charities fund a wide variety of projects like drilling water wells or funding small business startup loans.* New in 2001, members in poor areas can get low-rate college loans; 10,000 loans have been made to date.GRAB BAG* Utah is first in: charitable giving, scientists, household computers, children with two parents, and birth rate.* Noted LDS included five senators, the Osmonds, Gladys Knight, Steve Young, and the inventor of TV.* LDS played a key role in the 2002 Winter Olympics; the chair is now the governor of Massachusetts.* Hawaii's #1 tourist site is the LDS Polynesian Cultural Center (Tonga and the Samoas are one-third LDS).* LDS have sponsored Boy Scout troops since 1913; 23 percent of all Scout troops are LDS.* The BYU Women's Cross Country were national champions or in second place each of the last seven years.DETROIT AREA* The Detroit metro area has 30 congregations; the Dearborn chapel is on Rotunda by Ford's Building #5.* Detroit has a temple, storehouse, cannery, employment and family service office, and family history libraries.* LDS include former Governor Romney, three former Lions quarterbacks, and hundreds of Ford employees.

2008-11-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

Amazing paper I had to write when I interviewed a baptist preacher.
Chris Isaacs

I have to say that when I received this assignment, I thought of people that would be easy to get a hold of just to do the assignment. Then I remembered how sincere our teacher Brother Embry was about perception checking. So I thought about what matters more to me than anything in the world, which is my religious belief. I went to the Rexburg chamber of commerce to get a list of local churches. I called many of them with no luck. Finally I spoke to pastor Chris Isaacs, of the Upper Valley Bible Church in Saint Anthony, Idaho. In this paper I will be explaining Chris Isaacs and his background, why he holds the view he holds and my feelings about meeting with him.
Chris Isaacs was born in Idaho. Believe it or not Chris was born and raised a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. He explained that his family was never really active members of the church but they did attend on occasion. Religion had never meant very much to Chris, until he was in a jail for his third DUI. He was at the lowest point in his life. Following this experience he went on a quest to find truth. He knew that two people couldn’t both be right. He read the bible while meeting with the local pastor of the Upper Valley Bible Church. After studying the Bible, he felt as if he were called to the work of God or approved to do his work! Chris Isaacs pinpointed that the Bible was one hundred percent truth.
He then explained to me his beliefs. The Holy Bible is the truth we have on the earth. It is unchangeable and all we need to know the will of God. You cannot have faith if you do not have the Bible as the foundation of your belief. What about the people that never hear the truth? Chris used the scripture Rom 2:11-12 and Rom. 13:8 to explain his belief. No one can be saved by their works, we are only saved by Jesus Christ when we accept his will and accept him as our lord Rom 9:30. There is absolutely no way that any works you or I do can save us in the kingdom of God. He believes that no one can obtain perfection. Implying that God was once a man as we are is false, and any one who believes that is not Christian! We will never become perfect if we accept Jesus because then we would be with him but never perfect. He then began to tell me why he believed that the LDS faith couldn’t be right. The people on the American continent are not from Jerusalem descent, which has been proven by scientists. God would never call another prophet as described in Heb 5: 1. He now speaks to us through the Bible and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is not absolute for you to be saved in the kingdom of God. Joseph Smith was a fraud and the things that he did were wrong. A true prophet would never do them. At the end of the discussion Chris was determined that I understand that the Bible can never be added to for any reason. He does not believe in continuing revelation. In conclusion he said there were three core beliefs he has.
1. Jesus is God.
2. Salvation can only come by grace.
3. The Bible is unchanging truth. " Meaning it has not changed."
I tried hard to understand why Chris believes the way that he does. It is hard to feel hard feelings for someone who truly and sincerely believes something. Even though Chris and I hold different views on a lot of things. I have come to the conclusion that Chris was at a very low point in his life. He wanted something greater and he grabbed a hold of the first piece of truth he could find. I think many of us do this often with small things in our daily lives. Chris holds the views he holds because he studied the Holy Bible and interpreted it in his own way. I respected that the Bible was the foundation of everything he believed. I was so grateful for the opportunity I had to meet Chris and to be able to better understand why he believes the things he does. When I First sat down with Chris it was so hard to not say anything when he would read a scripture and it would be a completely different interpretation than I had. It truly takes humility to listen to someone else’s views on something that means so much to you. No wonder in Mormon it states that, "Charity never faileth." I came to understand what it means to first seek to understand. For the first time in my life I was able to just listen to what someone believed with out having to make sure they knew the way that I thought it should be. I realized how prideful I am when I won’t listen to anything unless they are willing to hear my point of view first. Overall this was an amazing experience; it changed the way I will communicate with people for the rest of my life. Chris Isaacs is a great man with great faith in Jesus Christ. I close with D&C 123: 12
" For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it."
Thank you Brother Embry you will never know how this assignment help me understand the importance of seeking to understand people and their views. This gave me a reality check, or as the book states a perception check.

Repentence a gift from God !

2008-11-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, I cannot believe that repentance is taught seventy-one times in the Doctrine and Covenants, that is amazing how one can read something and not even catch something that is stressed seventy-one times. I also looked up the definition of mechanism. “The sequence of steps in a chemical reaction,” I really enjoyed this definition, as I thought of repentance like this. I was reminded that we have to complete all of the steps in order for the chemical reaction to work. For example, without faith, the first principle of the gospel, we would have no desire to repent and so on. A great scripture that was mentioned was D&C 15: 6 and D&C 16:6 . I remember so many times during my mission when I was discouraged or even let down by someone we had been teaching. Turning to this scripture gave me comfort to know that when it is all said and done I was doing what would be of the most worth to me. To be honest since I have been off my mission I have not been as good as I should be at declaring repentance to those around me. I have to remember that it will always be my duty to declare repentance to those I come in contact with. I sure am glad that the Lord feels so strong about repetition; I can be so forgetful at times I am happy to come across the same things over and over again. I believe that repetition is how we personally keep ourselves in check. I feel just as Elder Burton on this subject, how you can say that you have repented of your sins but you still feel guilt and sorrow. It must be the natural instinct of men to feel this way when we know we are hurting someone who cares about us. We have to remember that the lord promises that he will forgive us and remember our sins no more, “D&C: 19.” I know that when God makes a promise he keeps it no matter what. Therefore, when we truly repent, God will completely forgive us and our guilt will be swept away. I personally believe that the second step is the hardest part only because normally you hurt people that you love the most. To go and tell them what you have done often is relieving and peaceful. But how does the person that you have hurt for so long feel? I also believe that restitution should take place with every little sin. This is the second step. What do you think about this? I believe that the lord is just and fair, and that is why it takes more effort and is harder to repent for more serious transgressions. I just loved the example Elder Burton used with a cut on your arm. I know that we have to be patient during this process and we have to look forward to the day when we will again be free from the guilt that weighs us down. We must not dwell on our sins because it will only make us feel unworthy and feel that God does not care about us and no longer loves us. I also believe that as we learn to always abound in good works and strive to make good choices we will begin to live as a true disciple of Christ and put off the natural man. A question I have about the last step is: when we meet someone we care about and love and will possibly spend the rest of our life’s with, at what point do you tell them things you have done before in your life that could affect them? I do believe that our Father in Heaven loves and cares about the smallest things in our life. He wants to reach out and help us overcome our sin.
Repentance- A Gift From God. President Benson had some great insights. I never thought that Godly sorrow could be one of the gifts of the spirit. Now that I take a second to think about it, why would it not be. The Lord only gives us gifts to help us progress while in this earthly state. I just do not understand how that gift would be used? Would you be able to help others feel Godly sorrow as part of your gift? Wow, I loved when he said, “Godly sorrow is a prerequisite for repentance.” There is a lot of meaning behind that sentence. Do you have any insights? And/or what are your thoughts on those insights? What is President Smith implying when he says, “He has lost something which can never be regained.” Another great sentence is, “how many people that live in their sins try to hide behind them.” Do we really think that we can hide from God? We might be rich and loved in this world for being a sinner and a liar. But there will truly be no reward in our Father’s house. I believe the sinner will be with the sinners and will be unhappy and will in every sense of the word be dammed. Now I know what you are thinking you can’t say that. Let’s think about it when something it dammed it cannot move, it is stopped in one spot. If we fail to repent we will not be able to progress; we truly will be stuck and will be dammed. We must also do all we can to live like the prophets. We cannot just do well because we will face this great punishment if we do not obey. We must follow the Saviors example and be obedient because we love God and strive to be with him and with our families forever.
Repentance Makes Us Free. I believe that we are all guilty of making excuses for ourselves when we sin. I know that I am guilty of this. I have so many times said, “if only my body didn’t make me do that;” when really my body was strong the whole time. I want to share an example of this; I do this in all humility. During my mission I was given an assignment to watch over others missionaries. During this time we had wonderful missionaries in our mission that for the most part tried to do what was right. There was one elder that I was always worried about. I would wake up in the middle of the night worried about him. One night I awoke at three in the morning with a horrible feeling that we needed to go down to this elder’s apartment. He had been doing things that jeopardized his missionary service. Him and the mission president worked things out. Then two weeks later I started waking up in the middle of the night again, worried about this Elder, and again we caught him doing the same thing that had jeopardized his missionary service weeks before. I spent every minute with that Elder until he got on a plan to go home. I asked him why he gave in to the temptations he told me that he was physically being an Elder by going out working during the day. In other words his body was strong. Then at night his spirit gave into the temptations. He explained it as if his body knew the whole time he should not be involved in what he was doing. Truly the body is strong it is only when we first give in through the spirit. It goes right along with repenting in the spirit world. We are told it will be harder first of all because we will not have our physical bodies. I don’t completely understand this so if you have any insights I would love to hear them. If you want to read more about this a great talk is second chance theory by Elder Bruce R. McConkie look it up, it has a great explanation. I completely agree that no unclean thing can be in the presence of God the Father. If there is any desire to live with your Father in the life to come we must repent now and put off the natural man. I am reminded that God knows all, and strives for us to be with him and our families. We must repent now in order to live with him, which we know is the greatest gift God has to offer his children!
Repentance: To Gethsemane and back: First, what a great story of the healing power of the lord Jesus Christ. The general authority that told the boy the truth had such great courage. That young boy would have gone on a mission and it would have done him no good. I believe that repentance takes a lot longer than we sometimes think. I also believe that when we walk to Gethsemane and back, and truly forsake our sins, the healing power takes place. I do not know of a more powerful experience then the one shared. Lets make sure that we apply it into our lives by repenting and doing all we can to live like the Lord would live. One last story I have was when I got into the mission field. I was excited and enthusiastic about the gospel. I went into my first area and the members did not want to help us with missionary work. My companion and I set up appointments with all the members to stop by for a short visit. We read everything we could about the Atonement. We came across a quote by Elder Eyring that said, “If you are talking about anything that matters you are talking about the Atonement.” We then tied missionary work into the Atonement. We committed members to repent of all of their sins, with emphasis on missionary work. There were mixed feelings among the members in the ward. Some chose to be angry when we told them to repent. When we spoke with the bishop he thanked us and told us that the members should have been telling one another to repent. We must warn all for the kingdom of God is at hand.

2008-11-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

Monday November 10 2008,

This weekend was amazing, Tyler and I went to the federal reserve caves with all of our F.H.E sisters on Friday we all piled into my 3 setter truck. Six people in a small truck is not the best idea but it all worked out. On Saturday we watched a movie with some friends, what really happened was everyone was watching a movie and I was taking a test online that ended up taking me almost 2 hours I had to write six essays about different communication skills,than answer 30 multiple choice questions. I think I did good but even if I don't my teacher will let me do some extra credit. Only because I took Marks advice and became his best friend he loves me and I am aways stopping by during the day just to chat for a minute.Thanks for the advice Mark. On Sunday our F.H.E sisters had Tyler and me over for dinner it was way better than what Tyler and I cook. Another great weekend in Rexburg Idaho!

2008-11-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

To day will be the second day i have a blog! This week school was great I was able to get caught up in all my classes I only have to take 2 tests this next week so I am happy about that. I am going to take an interpersonal comm. test today some time.

I pretty much can't com plane about my life its great!!

2008-11-07T11:42:00.001-08:00

My first blogg we will see how it works