(CES Symposium C.C. Riddle, 20 August 1982)
Comparison of Personal Characteristics of Persons on Rock and Persons on Sand
| On Rock | On Sand | |
| Faith | Loves the Lord with all | Says he loves the Lord, but |
| Heart | Has yielded heart to the Lord. Desires nothing for self. | Pursues his own desires |
| Might | Totally consecrated. | Perhaps pays minimum basic contributions. |
| Mind | Think in the Lord’s language, concepts, truth and understanding. | Thinks about everything, self and gospel included, in worldly understanding. |
| Strength | Every ounce of energy is language, concept, truth and spent in fulfilling each day’s mission. Looks to Jesus Christ alone for truth, guidance and help. | Divides strength between pleasure, earning a living, family, church, etc. Looks to the wisdom and learning help of men in most things. |
| Repentance | Constantly strives to perfect his love of the Lord in every feeling, action, thought and word. | Gave up gross sins long ago. |
| Covenant | Reviews the covenant daily, affirms it by ordinance weekly. | Takes the sacrament with mind wandering. |
| Companionship | Strives to be guided in all things by obeying every instruction he has received. Lives by conscience. | Desires not to be instructed and guided in all things, only wants revelation when he wants it. Defies his conscience frequently. |
| Enduring | Will not look on any of his own sins with the least degree of allowance. Without being hard on others, he constantly strives to become perfect in every way. | Has met the minimum requirements for a temple recommend and feels he is assured of exaltation. |
| RESULT | Lives Restored Gospel both outwardly and inwardly. | Lives Restored Gospel only outwardly. |
Comparison of Reactions of Persons on Rock and Persons on Sand to Korihor’s Arguments.
| Korihor | On Rock | On Sand |
| Hope in Christ is vain, cannot know the future. | Christ is a present reality in his life. | Believes in Christ, but no personal contact. Wonders. |
| Prophesies are foolish traditions; one knows only what one sees. | Has a personal witness of the prophesies. Has prophesied. | Wonders if some prophesies are man-made. |
| Idea of forgiveness of sins is a derangement. | Has experienced the debilitation of sin and the increase of power after forgiveness. | Hopes for forgiveness at the day of judgment. |
| No atonement for sin. of restitution and forgiveness in action. | Has felt the Savior’s power of the Atonement. | Doesn’t understand the how or why |
| Strong prosper, weak fail. | Sees might triumph over right only temporally and only short run. Knows the power of God to succor the righteous. | Sees might prevail over right. |
| When we die, that is the end; therefore, sin! | Sin causes us to die spiritually now, immediately. Does not want to die spiritually; enjoys spiritual life. | Hopes we won’t be held accountable for our sins. |
| Ordinances are foolish rituals. | Has gained great insight and power through the ordinances. | Doesn’t understand the ordinances; maybe they are foolish. |
| Children not guilty because of Adam. | Children not guilty but do sin because of Adam; then they are guilty. | Says: Why blame everything on the Fall and Satan. |
| Priest glut on labors of the people. | Knows priests are the servants of the people. | Wonders about these people who tell him to repent. |
| Priest pretends to have visions, revelations. | Also has visions, revelations which agree with those of priests. | Wonders if revelations are just wishful thinking. |
| Show me a sign! | Knows that Korihor has rejected the Spirit of the Lord. | Would like to see some signs, too. |
| RESULT: | ||
| Korihor believed his own lies. | Unmoved from the path of righteousness. | Swayed to commit sin. |
Conclusions.
- We sin because:
- we are ignorant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or
- we are on the sand, not having lived the Gospel yet, or
- we desire to sin
- Everyone will know the Gospel and have ample opportunity to found their house on a rock. Thus, eventually, the only cause of sin will be the desire to sin.
- We can help to decrease the sin in this world by
- getting ourselves upon the rock
- teaching the Gospel whenever, wherever we can
- encouraging those who know the Gospel to get upon the rock
- We cannot tell about other persons whether they sin because they are on the sand or because they desire to sin.
- We should treat all who know the Gospel and yet sin as if the cause is that they are yet on the sand.
- We are sure we ourselves will not fall only after we have lived the Gospel fully (are founded upon the rock).