Monthly Message, June 2022
Sacrament Meeting Talk
19 June 2022, Hillcrest 6th Ward
CC Riddle
My daughter, Elizabeth, and I moved into this ward a little over three years ago. We are grateful to have been warmly received. My dear wife of 70 years passed away six years ago, and I hope to join her soon. While she was alive we were blessed with thirteen children, filled four full-time missions, published ten books, served as temple ordinance workers for twenty years, and enjoyed filling many church callings. We are blessed with 42 grandchildren, 78 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren.
One of my regrets is that I do not yet know the names of many of you. When I was teaching at BYU, I memorized the names of all my students each semester. That power has now faded; so please forgive me if I do not know your name.
I specially address my remarks today to one special group here: those who are 12 to 20 years old. The rest of you may also be interested, but it is the rising generation that I most wish to speak to because the cause of Christ in the earth will soon be in your hands. I hope and pray you will mightily further that cause, because it is this world’s only real hope for the future and each of you can play a significant role in that cause, especially as mothers and fathers. Please remember that I speak by way of testimony. I will tell you what I know and believe. It is your task to hear me and accept only that which the Holy Spirit tells you to accept.
When I graduated from BYU in 1947, I went to work for my father in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he operated the Yellow Cabs of Nevada and Riddle Scenic Tours, a sightseeing company that took people on limousine tours principally of Death Valley and the Utah Parks. I found that I did not especially like that business, having to work most Sundays, so I decided to go to graduate school and study philosophy. I was admitted to Columbia University in New York City to enroll in the Fall Semester of 1949.
In the summer of 1949 I was assigned to drive a passenger in a limousine from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. The passenger turned out to be a member of the philosophy faculty at Columbia University. When I told him that I had been admitted to begin study in his department, my passenger invited me to call him that fall to arrange to have dinner at his home. So that fall I did call and was invited to dinner.
This professor’s residence was a lush apartment near Columbia University, for he was a very wealthy man, having inherited much from his business tycoon father. There were three of us at the dinner, the third person being another professor at Columbia. After dinner the two of them engaged in a lively discussion about a movement they were engaged in. This movement they said was to destroy the influence of Christianity throughout the world and to replace it with the philosophy of Humanism. They recounted the success the movement was having and that soon all forms of Christian religion would be either captured or rendered useless. They talked of the success that Humanism was enjoying in taking over the universities, the public schools and the media, and they said they could see the time in the near future when their project would be a complete success. They emphasized that Christian morality was a real detriment to the enjoyment of life which all humans should experience. I did not enter into the conversation and they largely ignored me. But they opened my eyes to what was and is going on in the world.
Humanism is the philosophy and religion that there is no God, that the smartest humans ought to reign over all the others, that so-called moral scruples are a detriment to mankind, that science gives the only reliable answers to questions. If you would like to know more about humanism, look on the internet to find Humanist Manifestos Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Humanism is the philosophy behind both Communism and Fascism for the far left and the far right meet each other as you go around the circle.
So there is an operating program to destroy morality, the family, the U S Constitution, and to bring all mankind into slavery except for the elite who have power and govern things. This program is in nearly total control in China and Russia and is gaining ground everywhere else, even in Utah.
But enough of the negative. The negative must exist for the work of Jesus Christ to be meaningful. That’s why there was a Fall of Adam, to give foil and choice to all mankind. Let us now recount and rejoice in the work of Jesus Christ to save all mankind.
First of all, let us be clear just what we need to be saved from. The work of Christ is not to save us from humanism or any other persuasion. The work of Christ is to save us from ourselves, from the littleness, the selfishness, the worldliness that grasps at each of us. We need to be saved from ourselves so that we can reach our full potential. Being the literal children of the gods, our full potential is to become as the gods, to come to enjoy the full stature, nature and power that Jesus Christ has. Christ has been sent into this fallen world to make that growth possible.
So from the beginning, meaning from the Fall of Adam, mankind has had two basic choices: To become a disciple of Jesus Christ and become like him, or to yield to the temptations of Satan and become like Satan. Each of us has been granted the agency to choose either of these alternatives or to make our own personal mixture of the two. Satan is busy trying to hide the gospel of Jesus Christ from mankind, but our Savior sees to it that every human sooner or later will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and have the opportunity to become as He is. Satan stands for selfishness and Christ stands for righteousness.
Selfishness is using others to feather one’s own nest. Righteousness is taking the feathers from own nest to bless others. To actually bless someone else it is necessary to have both knowledge and power. We need knowledge to know what will actually help another person, then we need power to bring about that help to someone. Jesus Christ helps any person who wants to bless others to have the knowledge and power to actually bless other persons.
To help us in our desire to help others, Christ gives us commandments. The commandments are not arbitrary. Each commandment is there to help us in our quest to escape selfishness and to gain the power to bless others and is required by the nature of our social existence.
The basic commandments from Christ are known as the Ten Commandments. These ten are the things human beings must do and not do to live in a society where they can enjoy safety and prosperity. When a society exists where the majority of people honor these commandments, they enjoy peace and do prosper. The history of the United States of America is a testament to that prosperity. But now that the Ten Commandments are a hiss and a byword to many in our country and are under legal attack, this nation is in a downward spiral.
And only when a people first live the Ten Commandments can they enjoy and prosper under celestial law and principles. That is why Christ gave Moses the Ten Commandments after the children of Israel rejected the Celestial Law and the temple ordinances during their forty years in the wilderness after being freed from the Egyptians. The celestial law is the law that helps a human being to bless others, even unto blessing them the way Christ did and does. The celestial law is essentially embodied in the two great commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all of thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.” (D&C 59:5–6) To me, these are the most important verses in all of holy scripture.
Most importantly we must love God with all of our hearts. This means to want and treasure what He wants and treasures. He wants and treasures righteousness, which is blessing others. Blessing others is not giving them what we think will help them, but what He thinks will help them. Only as we treasure the guidance of the Holy Spirit can we be aware of what He thinks is good for someone. It is as his humble servants, not as self-appointed do-gooders that we actually make this world a better place. He would have us master kindness and real caring about others above the honors and acclamation of this world. He would have us care enough about those who do not know Him to serve difficult missions to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He would have us spend hour upon hour in genealogical searching and verifying personal data so that each departed soul may be given an opportunity to receive the freeing saving ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ even though they are now in the spirit prison. He would have us seek out the poor in health, the poor in wealth, the poor in knowledge and in courage, and to minister to them as He would. The heart that loves God with all its power is a busy heart, scanning the horizon each day for those in need and hastening to their support. And if the ministering person has attained that greatest gift of God, a pure heart, then their service is exactly what Christ would do if He were there doing the actual ministering Himself.
If we love God with all of our might, we will take the treasures of the earth with which we have been blessed, and all the powers of skill and knowledge we possess, and all of the influence we have with our neighbors, these being part of our might, and use that might to bless others as the Savior would have us do. It matters not whether our might is small or great. What counts is using all we have in the cause of relieving the suffering, misery and needs of those who have less might than we do. Our might also includes our power in the priesthood, which gives us greater opportunity to bless those in need. That power is not ours, it is the power of God. But if we have it and wield it to make this world a more habitable place or a less painful existence for those in need, we are using our might to love God.
To love God with all of our minds is to believe Him in everything He tells us and to take the Holy Spirit for our guide, being unwilling to believe in anything unless that Spirit tells us to do so. We human beings actually know very little of ourselves, for most of what we think we know is just what we believe. So it is vitally important that we take the Holy Spirit for our guide as to what we believe: “And by the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5)
We live in an ocean of propaganda and half-truths. Unfortunately, both our professors and our politicians often feed us what they want us to think rather than the way things really are. For instance, we are taught that organic evolution is a proven fact when in fact it is but a factually unsupported theory. We are taught critical race theory to assure the hatred of people of different skin colors for one another. The recent COVID epidemic has witnessed half-truths and suppressed truths mixed with real truths to thoroughly muddy the waters. Et cetera.
But if we love God with all of our mind we will ponder his scriptures daily, pay close attention to the words of our prophets and leaders, and pray about what we should and should not believe. This is holding to the rod of iron as we wade through the mists of darkness, and only by holding fast to that rod can we find the tree of life. The mists of darkness are the lies and half-truths with which we are bombarded in our schools and media.
Finally, to love God with all of our strength is to use our physical tabernacle to bring about Christ’s good in this world. This good can range from a neat and orderly home to a beautiful garden to painting and sculpture which increases faith in Christ. But the most important thing we do with our physical body is to have children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord, happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.” (Psalm 127:3–5). God’s work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39) and we get to partner with God in His great work by bringing children into this world, that they also may have the great opportunity each of us has to grow into the stature of Christ and become a blessing to many others.
Note that the scriptural order of these ways we may learn to love the Lord is heart, might, mind and strength, which is the order of importance. But the temple order is mind, heart, strength and might, which is the order in which they must be done.
All of this now brings us this Father’s Day to the Proclamation on the Family given to the Church 23 September 1995, a most important statement by the General Authorities of the Church. It is an example of the revelation which should be the rock upon which our faith in Christ is founded.
“We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” I understand that the reason for this is that God Himself is married and has children who are his principal concern. It is our privilege to be parents here as He and our Heavenly Mother are there, that we might demonstrate here that we are willing and able to be faithful parents in eternity by being faithful parents here.
Continuing the Proclamation: “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” This tells us that we should treasure our gender and make the most of it, for gender is a gift from God. Satan and his world would have us question our gender and be dissatisfied with it so that we might not fulfill the purpose God has given us in mortality. But knowing that our gender and roles are an eternal gift from God makes a big difference. Satan is especially active in trying to get women not to be mothers or to have few children.
The Proclamation: “In the pre-mortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” Having a physical tabernacle made in the image of God makes it possible to be parents in mortality. To bear and nurture children in the Lord is the most godly thing any human can do, and is the perfect training and preparation for godhood.
The Proclamation: “The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.” The world would have you think that the earth is overpopulated. But that is not true. This earth could sustain two or three times its present number of inhabitants if only they would cooperate and not hate one another. And the physical union of a husband and wife is a beautiful thing to be cherished and protected, not to be counterfeited by the many ways the world would popularize.
The Proclamation: “We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and its importance in God’s eternal plan.” Each child is a gift from God. Those who hate God have no trouble killing their children or preventing them from coming. Millions and millions of aborted children are a blemish on the escutcheon of this nation, and this must and will be answered for.
The Proclamation: “Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord.” (Psalm 127:3) Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives— mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.” It does not matter what the occupation of husband or wife is: the most important thing they will do in this life is to nurture children in the Lord and raise up strong saints. Raising children in love is maximized only where husband and wife have conquered selfishness and have learned to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which means to have mastered the steps to be able to manifest the pure love of Christ as they deal with each other, their children, and their neighbors. This mastery is attained only by pursuing the covenant path laid down by Jesus Christ, the same path that He followed to the end.
The Proclamation: “The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.” Each person on this earth is a child of God and has the potential to become a God. But each must choose and deliberately pursue the covenant path. There is no accidental exaltation nor is it possible to slide into the celestial kingdom on a parent’s coattails. That is because exaltation is a matter of character, and character can be built only by deliberate, personal choosing of right over wrong successively until one has finally eliminated the choosing of evil over good. Only then can one enjoy the powers of exaltation
The Proclamation: “We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” Most non-believers dismiss the idea that they will ever have to account for and stand for their choices in mortality. But each and every human being will know from God that they are responsible to God for their choices and actions and will have the opportunity to repent before they meet that final judgment. At the final judgment, everyone judged will admit that God is fair and that their judgment is just. And morality is not just a nicety for eternity. As the prophets have warned, those who ignore and break the commandments of God give power to Satan and bring upon themselves and others calamities and suffering, both from nature and from other men.
The Proclamation: “We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.” One way you and I can measure the governing authorities over us is how they treat the family. Those who try to lessen and destroy the family are evil, and those who try to strengthen and protect the family in Christ’s pattern are good. That is a simple test we all can use to measure those who have governing authority.
I conclude by bearing to you my testimony. I have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives. I know that righteous prayers are answered. I know there is power in the priesthood in this Church for I have seen it perform miracles and have used it to give real blessings. I know by the testimony of the Holy Spirit that we are presided over by men of God, and especially that President Russell M. Nelson is truly appointed to preside in this Church by Jesus Christ. I believe that any one of you can gain a rock-founded testimony of the truth of this latter-day work and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by following the covenant path, not just receiving the ordinances, but then doing the service and righteousness that we undertake in accepting the covenant path.
May I commend to you a regular study of the Book of Mormon. Reading it every day will bless your life, for it is the most correct book under heaven and the keystone of the religion of the Latter-day Saints. One marvelous thing about pondering the passages of the Book of Mormon is that that thinking provides a unique opportunity for further revelation. As we heed that additional revelation, it becomes an extension of the covenant path which leads to power in the priesthood and to exaltation itself.
It is my hope and prayer that everyone here today will gain and live by an unshakable testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Messiah who will soon return in glory, and that blessing our fellow-men under His direction is what the work of Christ is all about. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Material not read in Church because of exceeding time limits:
The most important thing each of us can do to be good Latter-day Saints is to get and keep with us the gift of the Holy Ghost. President Nelson has warned us that the only way to survive these Latter Days is to have that gift with us and to use it. I make now some suggestions for getting and keeping the companionship of the Holy Spirit.
First and foremost: Listen to your conscience. Your conscience is the light of Christ within you and is given to every human in this world who gains normal intelligence. The role of conscience is to help us know the difference between good and evil. Some individuals are born with a strong conscience, others with weak ones. But the gift is precious, strong or weak. As we accept and abide the advice of our conscience, it grows stronger. As we reject the advice conscience gives us it grows weaker. If we bash our conscience enough, it will eventually just go away, and we are left in the control of Satan. For there are only two directions to go: Further into the arms of Christ and his righteousness or back into the arms of Satan and his selfishness. Most of us wallow back and forth, first turning to good, then turning to evil. The way of intelligence is to steadfastly seek only the good.
If you have a problem and lack wisdom as to what to do, take the problem to the Lord in humble prayer, even as Joseph Smith did in the Sacred Grove. If we are truly humble, we will get an answer from the Lord. Often the answer will come with blazing speed, coming even before the prayer is finished. We have been told by the prophet Joseph Smith that nine times out of ten, the first flash of answer we receive is the correct one, from the Holy Spirit. Then the challenge is to act on that prompting without delay. We learn by sad experience that often we have known what we should do but were either lazy or timid about doing it, later to see our folly and to bask in remorse for not having seized the moment to do what we knew we should do.
Another clue as to how to receive the Holy Spirit is to pause and listen during a prayer. Let the prayer become a conversation, undertaken as a little child on our part. The Lord has told us that He loves to answer prayers: “Then shall you call upon me, and find me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12–13). In fact, the best way is to have a prayer in our hearts at all times, our daily experience being a constant conversation with the Lord.
And let us not neglect reading the Holy Scriptures, which includes the Standard Works and the Conference Reports. The greatest value of the scriptures in my experience is that reading them humbly and thoughtfully becomes an occasion for revelation as the Holy Spirit reveals special messages to us, some of them related to what we are reading and some of them totally unrelated to what we are reading. But each message from the Holy Spirit will bring us either greater understanding, which is seeing how things are related, or direction as to something we should do, or both.
One clue for dealing with temptation: When we are tempted to think and evil thought or if we come upon pornography, we get one chance to reject it and be unscathed. But if we delay and either look a second time at the pornography or savor the temptation, it grasps us and we lose the Holy Spirit. So, never give evil a second chance, for if we do, it takes possession of us and Satan gains power over us.
But after all is said and done, the main way to get inspiration from the Holy Spirit is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, seeking ways to bless our fellow beings. “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” (3 Nephi 12:6)
To make a long story short, to obey the Holy Spirit in the “right now” is the best way to have more of it.