Author: Chauncey Riddle

After many years of teaching in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and at Brigham Young University I have sometimes lamented that the best kept secret in the Church is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I say this with sorrow out of the many conversations with members of the Church focusing on two issues: 1. What is faith in Jesus Christ? 2. What is repentance?

When I ask members what their concept of faith in Jesus Christ is, I often have them quote to me the scripture: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Then I say, “What does that mean?” and they usually admit that they do not know. And they usually do not recognize that that quotation from Paul is a description of faith, telling us something about it rather than being a definition of what faith is.

Or I might turn to the dictionary found in our standard LDS edition Bibles. Under the heading of “Faith” is the following: “Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true (Heb. 11:1, Alma 32:21), and must be centered in Jesus Christ in order to produce salvation. To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone.” I submit that one can have full confidence in Christ until the day they die and still not have an ounce of faith in Christ. If I am wrong, please labor with me and set me straight.

To me the burden of the Holy Scriptures is this: Faith in Jesus Christ is willing and immediate obedience to some message I have received from Jesus Christ. The message may come through another person, from the scriptures, from my conscience, as well as from our Savior Himself. What all these messages will have in common is that they will be given to me by the power of the Holy Ghost. I must obey, for faith is to do something, and that something almost always will involve doing some act which helps another person to fill some need they have. Faith without such works is dead. (James 2:17) It must be willing obedience, not as the devils who must obey. It must be immediate, the more immediate the better, for to delay is to try to find a substitute for faith in Christ. To have true faith in Christ one must have learned about our Savior from some source, like what he is learning, be instructed to do something, and respond with an action doing that something as directed by the Holy Spirit.

I recognize that a person may exercise faith in Christ without being able to define what that faith is. But would it not be better to have a firm mental hold on what faith in Christ is and be fully conscious of exercising it? Faith in Christ is something one deliberately does, not something one sort of has.

When I ask members of the Church to tell me what repentance is, they often will quote to me the four R’s: Recognition, Remorse, etc. What they do not recognize is that one can do the R’s without one ounce of faith in Jesus Christ. Doing the four R’s may be a good thing to do, but I think that is surely not what our Savior intended when He told us to repent.

Again we may look to the dictionary entry for “Repentance” found in our standard LDS Bible. There we read: “The Greek word of which this is the translation denotes a change of mind, i.e., a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world. Since we are born into conditions of mortality, repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined.” I submit that one can change his or her mind and turn his or her heart to God and disapprove of sinning without performing a shred of repentance.

To me, the burden of the Holy Scriptures on repentance is this: Replace every act of your life which is not an act of faith in Jesus Christ with an act of faith in Jesus Christ. To replace one act is to begin to repent. But one has not repented until one has replaced every act, or, in the Savior’s words, one has become completely faithful to Christ (3 Nephi 12:48, Moroni 10:32).

I see people who have committed serious sins and then they receive a temple recommend. That may be a beginning of repentance, but is of itself not full repentance. I see people who try to keep the standards of the Church unto repentance, but I see almost no recognition of that if we have not repented of all our sins, we are not yet fully on the strait and narrow path.

There surely is a lot of repenting going on among members of the Church. But I personally perceive very little understanding of what repentance is and the necessity of completing it. Would it not be better for members of the Church if they had a true and correct and full understanding of what repentance is supposed to be in the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Is it possible that the clear and precise concepts of faith in Christ and repentance in Christ are withheld because the way is so strait and so narrow, out of fear that members of the Church would become discouraged and fall away into lax ways and more sinning? I submit that regardless of what is taught, many members will find the way too strait and too narrow and will fall away.

But the purpose of the Church as I understand it is to establish Zion. Zion cannot and will not be established with watered down definitions of faith and repentance. They are the crux of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope that my lament will be answered somehow with clearer understanding of what true faith in Jesus Christ and repentance in Jesus Christ are on the part of those who care about the cause of Christ in the earth.

The purpose of this essay is to set forth a special understanding of the nature and processes of human learning considered in and LDS frame of reference. We begin with a review of the theology essential to this topic.

The Nature of Man.

Man is a dual being. He has a spirit body into which he was begotten by our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. He has a physical body into which he was begotten by his earthly father and earthly mother. He received these two bodies that he might have the opportunity to learn to be like our heavenly parents.

The spirit body of man has two aspects important to note. One is the heart. The spiritual heart is the seat of the desires of a person, and from that heart come feelings and choices. The second aspect of the spiritual body is the mind. It is the business of the mind of man to perceive the world (to identify what is out there), to understand the world (to relate to things that are out there to each other), and to create options for action (different things the person can try in the attempt to fulfill the desires of the heart).

The physical part of man also has two main aspects important to note here. The first is the strength of the body. It is the movement of the body to act according to the choices of the heart in the paths or options created by the mind as translated to the physical body through the brain and nervous system of the physical body. One special part of this strength of the physical body is the power to beget children. The other main aspect of the physical nature of man is his might. Might is what a person influences or controls in the world outside of his body using words and his physical strength.

Man then has two natures, a spiritual one and a physical one. The essential aspects of these are his heart, his might, his mind, and his strength. The spiritual nature of man has a spiritual has a spiritual environment. In that environment, man’s spirit encounters the Spirit of the Lord, which entices him to do good; the spirit of Satan, which entices him to do evil; and the spiritual influence of other human spirits, which entice him to do good or evil, depending on whether the other human spirit has yielded to God or Satan. The physical nature of man has a physical environment. It contains other human physical bodies, plants, animals, the earth, and every other physical part of the universe which man can perceive.

Every man has a mortal life and a probation. The mortal life is the dwelling of his spirit body in his physical body for a short time. This sojourn entitles man to a physical body in the resurrection which he will enjoy to all eternity. The probation is a proving of each man’s spirit to see if, after being born into mortality, he will obey God or Satan. The purpose of God in creating man spiritually and physically is that each might learn to become a god himself if he so desires.

The Kinds of Learning.

The learning which qualifies a man to become a god is to learn to love and serve his God with all of his heart, might, mind and strength. Only thus can any person learn the ways of godliness. As a person loves his God, the knowledge and power of God flow to him that he might learn and enjoy ever good (godly) thing.

To be godly, the mind of man must learn to see the hand of God in all things. The mind must learn to separate truth from error and to use that truth in all thinking. The mind must learn to be creative and agile in perception, understanding and problem-solving. The tutelage for this learning is constant contact with another mind which is already godly, one’s God.

To be godly the heart of man must learn to choose the way of godliness above all else. It must learn to love with that pure love of Christ. It must learn to forget self and to abhor selfishness in the quest of helping others to be as happy as they can be, even at the price of sacrifice of one’s own goods. The tutelage for this learning is to bask continually in the warmth of God’s love, returning that love in choosing complete obedience to God and godly love for every neighbor.

To be godly, the strength of man must learn to be a servant, not master. The body must learn control, skill, and power in all of the ways of godliness. It must learn to enjoy the pleasures and blessings that a righteous man always encounters in the path of obeying his God, but never to seek those pleasures and benefits for their own sake. Through the purity of his heart and the power and clarity of his mind, the godly man will master every passion and skill, thus achieving a creative excellence in building, growing food, teaching and performing so that he completes successfully every mission, every task to which the Lord sets him. The tutelage for this learning is to enjoy the constant companionship of a god, the Holy Spirit, and to learn under God’s direction to do all things well in purity and righteousness.

To be godly, the might of man must also learn to be godly. In the spiritual and temporal stewardships of every servant of God will be beings, persons, who also must learn the ways of God. Those beings which must be acted upon by the steward will be so ordered that his home, his possessions, all of his property will assume a divine and celestial order. The temporal mission of a godly man is always to try to create celestial order. The temporal mission of a godly man is always to try to create celestial order in this telestial environment. The tutelage for that learning again is to learn all things in the constant companionship of a god, the Holy Ghost.

The sum of godly learning is to learn to love one’s God with all of one’s heart, might, mind and strength.

The Modes of Learning.

There are two principal modes of human learning. One we shall call the vertical mode. The other we shall call the horizontal mode.

The center of each mode of human learning is the self, the heart, might, mind and strength of each individual. Vertical learning is that the self reaches up and down from itself. It reaches up to spiritual influence. In reaching up, the heart and mind learn from and are shaped by the spiritual influences that surround the spirit being of man. The self reaches down through the body, the strength, and through one’s might, to gain first-handed experience of the existences and natures of the things that surround him in the physical world. Vertical learning is direct, personal interaction of the person, the self, with the spiritual and non-social physical environments in which one finds oneself.

Horizontal learning takes place when a person reaches out to other human beings and learns from the spiritual and physical influences which each other person has for him. We learn to feel, to think, to act, to speak, and to display our might rather readily from our fellow human beings. In fact it is usually easier to learn horizontally than it is vertically, because it usually takes less creativity (effort) of the self to do what others do than it does to learn from spiritual sources and from physical nature. Social rewards also influence this pattern. People who spend all their time in the presence of people usually are more responsive to social rewards and punishments which follow when we learn or do not learn to do as our human associates do. People who spend much time alone, struggling with spiritual forces and temporal problems, tend more to vertical learning and are less susceptible to social pressure.

Each mode of human learning, vertical and horizontal, has also two aspects which we must differentiate.

The two kinds of spirits, good and evil, make two different types of vertical learning. The influence of the Lord teaches man to know and love truth, excellence, righteousness, and love produces one kind of vertical learning. The influence of Satan teaches man to know and love lies, slovenliness, selfishness and hate, and produces a very different kind of vertical learning.

Every human being who is accountable is well acquainted with both of these options for vertical learning, but only those who are oriented towards vertical learning tend to be conscious of the drastic difference between the two options. Nature, or the downward aspect of vertical learning, is seen here to be a representation of the spiritual influence of God. People who spend a great deal of time out in natural surroundings will find the peaceful, wholesome influence of God there rather than the selfish, confining, fearful feeling engendered by the adversary, unless they have been taught by other people to see nature otherwise.

Horizontal learning is also a test of heart and mind. A person of a good heart and mind will gravitate to those persons who also teach and do what he has learned to be true from God and nature. A person of evil heart and mind will gravitate to those persons who teach the lies and wrong that aid and abet his selfish desires.

This double duality of vertical and horizontal learning separates out four kinds of persons. Since everyone must and does learn both vertically and horizontally, the four groups are created by the options which each person chooses for learning. Those whose vertical orientation is towards God and nature and whose horizontal orientation is to learn from and to compare notes with godly men and women, are the children of God, heirs to the celestial kingdom. Those who have a vertical orientation to God and nature, but who choose evil men and women for their horizontal learning are the honorable men of the earth who are blinded by the craftiness of men, heirs to the terrestrial kingdom. Those who have a Satanic, non-nature vertical orientation and a horizontal orientation to evil men and women are those who remain natural, carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are heirs to the telestial kingdom. Those who are horizontally oriented to desire to associate with good men and women, who use their words and deeds, but who apply and interpret those goodly words and deeds by vertical orientation to Satan, are the hypocrites. They will have no glory.

Premises:

1.   One of the most important things priesthood bearers do it to teach the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in homes:

• a.   To their own families.
• b.   To the families to which they are assigned as ministers.

2.   Quorum instruction should reflect a sense of the relative importance of the doctrines of the Restored Gospel.

3.   The more important a doctrine, the more frequently the doctrine should be taught, clearly and carefully bringing all to a unity of the faith, as much as this is possible.

Are these the twenty and five most important doctrines of the Restoration? If they are, they ought to be emphasized in Priesthood Quorum instruction.

1.   Our God is an exalted man and woman, our literal Heavenly Father and Mother.

2.   We humans are fallen children of Father and Mother.

3.   Because we are fallen, we are spiritually dead (the senses of our spiritual body are deadened, and thus we are cut off from the presence of Father and Mother). And we must die temporally.

4.   Father offers each of us release from that spiritual death.

5.   That offer is extended to each of us through Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God and the Messenger of Salvation.

6.   Jesus Christ came to earth and lived a sinless life, keeping every one of Father’s commandments.

7.   Being sinless, Jesus Christ could and did atone for our sins, that we might not be damned forever because of our sins.

8.   The release from spiritual death comes only through partaking fully of the New and Everlasting Covenant which was made possible by Jesus Christ.

9.   To enter the New and Everlasting Covenant, we must first learn of Christ, and because of the spiritual witness we receive, we must be willing to put our trust and faith in him.

10. We demonstrate our initial faith and trust in Jesus Christ by repenting of our sins and by making the covenant of baptism.

11. In the covenant of baptism, we promise three things:

• a.   That we are willing to take the name(s) of Christ upon us, now to become His child.
• b.   That we will always remember Him.
• c.   That we will keep every commandment He gives us.

12. If we meaningfully make the covenant of baptism under the hands of an authorized earthly administrator, then hands are laid upon our heads to confer the gift of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

13. Having received the Holy Ghost, we may feast upon the words of Christ which He (the Holy Ghost) brings to us, so that we become faithful in all things.

14. Faith is to believe in Christ, to receive his words of instruction, and to obey each of those instructions as it comes.

15. Through our faith, we must press on, keeping every commandment, until we have become like our Savior and new father, Jesus Christ, in all things.

16. Faithful keeping of the commandments gives us a right to hope for the special blessings which are the rewards of the faithful children of Christ.

17. Faith and hope lead us to be able to receive a new heart from our Savior, a pure heart like His own. The name for this new heart is charity.

18. Without this charity, we are nothing. It is the great prize and goal of mortality. Possessing it, we can do any good thing.

19. With charity, we can receive and magnify the Holy Priesthood, the personal power of Jesus Christ to act in His stead, to accomplish the great priesthood works.

20. Using the Aaronic Priesthood, we can set our temporal stewardships in celestial order.

21. Using the Melchizedek Priesthood, we can set our spiritual stewardships into the celestial order in laboring to perfect the saints over whom we preside. (Especially our marriages and our families.)

22. Using the Melchizedek Priesthood, we can fulfill the missionary labors assigned to us, that every soul on earth might hear the glad tidings of the Restored Gospel.

23. Using the Melchizedek Priesthood we can fulfill our genealogy and temple work (that all might properly be sealed up, ready for eternity).

24. If we thus gain a new heart and fulfill our priesthood opportunities, our Savior will come to us and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

25. Our Savior will then introduce us to the Father, and our spiritual death will have come to an end.

Philosophy or philosophizing have not played an important part in the development of LDS theology or culture. The reason for that is that personal revelation has been the main stem from which these things have blossomed and flowered. Individuals and cultures turn to philosophy when they are perplexed, and if they have no better means of resolving their perplexities. Indeed there is a sense in which philosophy is the human answer to the inadequacies of traditional religions.

Every religion has three aspects: a theology, or understanding of the way things are; a moral code, do’s and don’ts which are supposed to lead to living a life wisely; and ritual, by which the religion is celebrated and is taught to the rising generation. The failure of these three religious functions historically caused men to turn to and wax philosophical.

The failure of religion’s moral codes to produce happiness and success led men to develop ethics, an attempt to come to the do’s and don’ts of life by reason. The failure of theology to provide an adequate understanding of the world led to the development of physics and metaphysics. And the failure of ritual to improve the human situation led to the development of epistemology, the search for how we can know what is true and good.

In LDS thinking, morality is achieved by a combination of rules of morality which provide general guides, such as the ten commandments, but always supplemented by immediate personal revelation so that one might know exactly how to honor his father and mother in a specific situation. This powerful combination works so well that strong LDS people do little wondering about ethics. The canonized scriptures coupled with empirical and personal knowledge of the world plus the illumination of the Holy Spirit suffice for an LDS person to have a good grasp of physics and metaphysics, a grasp that lends great understanding and ability to predict the future, making metaphysics a needless enterprise. And the rituals of the religion, focusing on prayer and the ordinances of the Holy Priesthood, bring such a rich harvest of knowledge and power that a faithful LDS person spends little time wondering how to know.

This message is designed to be read in connection with the 58^th Chapter of Isaiah. Would you please turn to it? Your purpose in reading should be to answer the question: What is the law of the fast?

V 1–2: Note the reproach to Israel: They think they are trying to be righteous, yet they transgress.

V 3–5: Israel is puzzled: Why does their fasting produce no good results? The Lord answers that they fast to try to give themselves more pleasure, more success in this world, more power over their enemies. Those who fast for such reasons, even in sackcloth and ashes, fast in vain.

V 6–7: The Lord’s fast is to serve others. It is to relieve suffering, to liberate the captive, to rescue the oppressed. It is to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to be with one’s own kindred in the service of God.

V 8–9: To those who follow the Lord’s true fast comes the light and knowledge of God. Being filled with the spirit of God they enjoy physical and spiritual health according to their needs. The path of righteousness opens before them and the glory of the Lord accompanies their walk down that path.

V 10–11: For those who fast in the Lord’s way there are no unanswered prayers, because among the righteous there are no yokes or social or economic inequalities, there is no finger of scorn or vanity. As the servant of God ministers to the needy, the light of God floods in, driving away all sorrow, all darkness. Such and one who fasts in the Lord’s law shall redeem Zion, restore the ancient cities, heal the family bonds, make strait the way of righteousness to bless all who follow.

V 13–14: Our human problem is that we want what we want. The solution is to acknowledge that God is wiser than we are, and to seek His will in all things: not our pleasure, but His pleasure. Those who can muster that much intelligence will reap the blessings of God in their fulness, and this is the heritage of Israel.

What is the law of the fast? Is it not the Law of the Gospel applied to fasting?

To fast from food and water and physical pleasures is the beginning of a true fast. To go hungry is not true fasting. True fasting is to immerse oneself in prayer, uplifting our soul to God with all the being we can muster, then going forth and ministering to the needs of those who are less blessed than we are. We fast to show the Lord we love Him and His ways more than we love our own satisfactions.

Just to eat nothing is not true fasting. True fasting is to abstain from our own pleasures and to work with all of our heart, might, mind and strength through prayer to relieve suffering and misery in those around us and to establish the Kingdom of God and His righteousness forever.

Practical aspects of fasting:

1. We prepare our hearts and minds for fasting by mighty prayer, endeavoring to become fully subject to the Spirit of the Lord.
2. We prepare our minds for fasting by turning our thoughts to the things of the Spirit, trying to see all things in eternal perspective.
3. We prepare our bodies for fasting by drinking appropriate amounts of water.
4. We prepare our might for fasting by having our affairs in order so that they will not intrude into our prayer and meditation.
5.  When we break our fast, the goal should be to eat and drink just enough that we are able to maintain the level of spirituality gained during the fast.
6. We should show gratitude for the blessings Father gives us by paying a generous fast offering. (President Kimball said that if we could, we should pay in fast offerings ten times the amount we save by fasting. Some persons pay more than that.) Fast offerings should be paid monthly, for the needs of those who are assisted do not occur on an annual basis.
7. We should fast every regular Fast Sunday (unless we are among those who should not fast) and at other times as prompted by the Lord through His Holy Spirit.

Blessed is he or she who knows and walks in the way of the Lord. Fasting is part of that way.

Each of us human beings has two hearts and two minds. The physical heart pumps blood to our physical tabernacle. The spiritual heart pumps spirit matter to our spiritual body. The physical mind is the brain of our physical body. The spiritual mind is the brain of our spiritual body.

Which heart or which mind is most important to our eternal existence? I believe the answer is that our spiritual heart is the most important of the four. Why?

My understanding is that it is the spiritual heart which makes our choices. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) And our choices determine what we will do, how faithful or unfaithful we will be to God.

Why would anyone want to be faithful to God? They would because faith in God makes it possible to become more and more like God. What is God like? He does nothing but bless others. All of the so-called cursings of God are actually blessings, helping the being affected by God to be as happy and fulfilled as they or it can stand to become. All the children of God who wish to be like Him in doing nothing, but blessing others are given the privilege of being taught by God how to gain the self-mastery that makes that benevolence and beneficence possible, which teaching is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The alternative to learning to bless others in everything we do is to follow the path of selfishness. Every adult human being (age 8 or more) has the constant companionship of Satan. Satan’s work is to encourage each adult human to prefer his or her own selfish desires over the possibility of sacrificing for the welfare of some other creature. When human beings ignore Satan and do the Father’s will as manifest by the Light of Christ or the Holy Ghost, Satan loses power over them. But Satan is ever vigilant to encourage agent humans to substitute their own personal preferences for the sacrifices encouraged by the Holy Spirit to work righteousness in blessing others.

So it is the spiritual heart in mankind which is the independent variable, the decision factor. What is function of the mind? The minds, both of the spiritual and the physical body, are facilitators. They enable the spiritual heart to plan out the execution of the spiritual heart’s choices. The spiritual and physical bodies of each person are his or her strength, that which enables the choices of the heart and the plans of the mind to be put into physical and/or spiritual action.

The power engendered by the physical and spiritual actions of a person is their might. Thus it is that we are invited by God to love and serve our Father in Heaven and our Savior with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. (This order of these four is the order of importance, beginning with the most important, the heart. The temple order is mind, heart, strength and might, which is the order of implementation. The mind conceives of alternatives, the heart chooses one alternative, the body or strength enacts that chosen alternative, which results in some change in the universe, our might.)

Thus it is that human beings are fitted and prepared to enjoy the Celestial Kingdom, primarily by the action of their hearts, not their minds. It does not matter how bright the mind or how much knowledge a person has. The best mind will not save them. What saves each person who can be saved is a broken heart and a contrite spirit, a spiritual heart that yearns for the blessing of others over satisfying self. There is no greater example of godly righteousness among ordinary humans than the sacrifices of mothers for their little ones.

So it is not the wise and the learned, the “mind people,” who are dear to the Savior. Rather it is those who are humble before Him and are bold to bless others. Those who are endowed with bright minds need to be wary. Satan will tempt them to think that because they are smarter than others that they are better than others. “And whoso knocketh, to him will he open; and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them.” (2 Nephi 9:42)

Let us all then be wise in the days of our probation and become as little children before Christ. Let us have a broken heart and a contrite spirit and use all the smarts we have to bless others in Christ instead of just feathering our own nests.

Isaiah gives us a plain message: “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” (Isaiah 38:8)

Could it be that simple? It must be. It seems that there are only two alternatives for any human action: One is to do the will of the Lord. The other is to do our own will. What this boils down to is in every human choice for a person who is accountable, there are two ways to act. One is to do what is right, the will of God, and the other is to do what we ourselves want to do.

What makes this simple choice possible is the Fall of Adam. Because Adam disobeyed and fell from the innocence of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve and all of their descendants were given two voices to counsel them in all things. One if the light of Christ, which comes as the conscience of each person. The other is the darkness of Satan, which always opposes the light of Christ and tells us humans to do what we ourselves would rather do. Sometimes our own desires are the same thing as what Christ would have us do, and we do the work of righteousness. But other times we do not want to do what our conscience tells us to do, and we accept the counsel of Satan to pursue what we ourselves would rather do.

Anything which we want to do which is not the will of God is not good, but is evil. Evil is something which is less than the good we could do. So the choice is plain and simple. We either do what is right, counseled by God, or we do what is selfish, counseled by Satan. There are no other alternatives for human action. And everyone eventually chooses either the way of holiness or the way of selfishness. Meanwhile, most of us waver back and forth between the two ways. Sometimes we choose to do good following conscience, other times we choose to do evil following selfishness.

The Savior tells how He acts, and we can do likewise: “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30)

1. Humility, always be
2. Criticism, avoid
3. Gospel same every age: choose between the two spirits.
4. Serve couple/Senior mission before it is too late.

Be thou humble and the Lord thy God will take thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.

Being humble (active, deliberate, difficult) is different from being humbled (passive, random, natural, easy).

Being humble is to acknowledge the goodness and omnipotence of God, and our own nothingness and unworthiness, then to serve God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.

Signs of being humble:

1. Having love for God.
2. Trembling at the thought of sinning.
3. Remembering Jesus Christ every minute.
4. Consciously trying to keep every commandment of God.
5. Faithfully fulfilling callings.
6. Seeing all men as brothers, trying to serve them as best one can.
7. Sacrificing our own pleasures and desires to the will of God.

Signs of not being humble:

1. Getting angry.
2. Criticizing or belittling others.
3. Deliberately breaking the Commandments of God.
4. Thinking one is better than others.
5. Refusing to share our gifts and blessings.
6. Sum of not being humble: Selfishness: I will feather my own nest only.

Being humbled can be a help to being humble.

1. The enterprise of education functions best when it is driven by the initiative of the individual. (When a person has sufficient desire, nothing can stop him from learning what is desired.)
2. The motive which fully unlocks human ability to learn and to teach is the earnest desire to bless others according to the will of the Father.
3. The great keys of learning are the same which make righteousness and repentance possible: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; Repentance: Making the covenant of baptism; Receiving the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; Enduring to the end.
4. The greatest thing to learn in this world is to learn to have all of the character traits of Jesus Christ.
5. To facilitate the opportunity for another person to become as Jesus Christ is the greatest blessing that anyone can give to another.
6. The unerring guide to all truth and correctness in all learning is the Holy Ghost.
7. The most important idea any person can come to understand is the meaning and significance of the two great commandments of Jesus Christ.
8. Every person who keeps the two great commandments acquires the Savior’s character and proceeds to learn everything else. Different persons do and should begin on different edges of everything else, but for each of us, our personal something else leads to the wholeness of Christ.

One day many years ago I was crossing Amsterdam Avenue in New York City. It was noon, and armies of people were going in every direction. As I got to the middle of the street, I glanced up at the throng crossing the other way. My eyes met those of a comely young lady, and she smiled at me. I smiled back and we passed each other, neither breaking stride. But I nearly collapsed and could barely make it to the other side of the street.

Now if you have lived in New York City, you know what it is to be pressed among throngs of people. And you know that you never are to smile at anyone on the street, for that leads to big trouble. Needless to say, I had just had a very unique experience.

The smile was not what made the experience so different; the smile was just the frosting. What was so unusual was the overpowering sense of wholesomeness that I felt radiating from that young lady. It was not a romantic or physical attraction. What I felt was that I had just seen an angel, a holy person, and that she had looked me in the eye, smiled at me, and had left an indelible impression on my mind and heart.

At that moment, I did not understand what was going on. I just knew that I had seen a very unusual person, one who radiated goodness and light. I wondered if I would ever see her again.

And see her again I did. The next Sunday as I came to church at the Manhattan Ward, there she was, still radiant. I got to know her, but soon she was gone, as were so many who passed through Manhattan Ward in those days. But I have never forgotten her, even though I no longer remember her name.

But now I understand what happened back then, decades ago. What happened was that I had made contact with an especially pure and holy person, a Latter-day Saint who was truly a saint in deed as well as name. Which idea is my theme for this talk this evening. I will speak of holiness, and how we may become holy.

The word “holy” means whole, sound, healthy. It means whole in the sense that as children of God, when we are whole, we have the full set of attributes and powers that are the heritage of the children of God. We may not have those attributes and powers in their fullness, but we have them and exercise them if we are holy and whole. The most important of these attributes is love, the pure love of Christ, which itself centers in forgiveness and a reaching out to assist others to come to and know the goodness of Christ. So to be holy is to be whole, and to be whole is to be wholesome. To be in the presence of someone is holy and wholesome is to feel their goodness and love for us, and to know that unless we love evil, we have nothing to fear from them.

The word “saint” means one who has been sanctified, which is another way of saying, has been made holy. Little children are born holy and lose it only as they sin. Those of us who have sinned can become holy again only through Jesus Christ. The purpose of the life and mission of Christ is to make it possible for all who have sinned again to become holy, that they might then have the opportunity to become as God, to be good and pure and wholesome, and return to live with Father. To live with Father, to be whole as He is, to do His work of love as He does, is called “eternal life.”

The enemy of holiness or wholesomeness is sin. When we break the commandments of God, which is sinning, we cut ourselves off from the abundance of the gifts and blessings of God, and are no longer a whole child of God. We as sinners may look to the untrained natural eye as if we are whole physically, and may indeed have marvelous human gifts and powers, including physical attractiveness, physical strength, keen intellect, or special discernment. But the sinner is always short on love and forgiving of others. Vengeance is the special weapon of the sinner. It is as though the sinner knows that evil in others hurts him, and he is going to punish those who hurt him. The saint, on the other hand, extends love and forgiveness to all, knowing that any of us, ourselves or our enemies, have the opportunity to become whole, wholesome, happy and blessed only in Christ and through His Gospel and its ordinances.

In the Pearl of Great Price there is a marvelous passage in which Enoch lays out the great plan of the salvation of mankind from nastiness, littleness and misery unto health, wholeness and love. Let us look at chapter 6, beginning with verse 55. I will comment after each verse.

And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying, Inasmuch as thy children are conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good.

Little children are conceived into a fallen, sinful situation, in which Satan has power to tempt them eventually. As babes, they are holy, but as they become accountable, Satan attacks them and is able to get every one of them to sin by the age of eight years.

And it is given unto them to know good from evil; wherefore they are agents unto themselves, and I have given you another commandment.

The knowledge of good and evil is the reason for our earthly existence. Adam fell so that each of us might be tempted by both good and evil, and we, being agents, perforce must choose between good and evil in almost every decision of our lives. We are in mortality to build an eternal character, and we do so by our daily choices between good and evil.

Wherefore, teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.

Once having sinned, we become stunted, deprived, unwholesome and incomplete persons. The only remedy for this is to put our trust, our faith, in Jesus Christ, and repent. To repent is to stop choosing evil and choose only good as we are led by Christ. Then we, too, can again become holy, even as Father, the Man of Holiness, and as our Savior, the Son of Man of Holiness.

Therefore, I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely unto your children, saying: That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world of water, and blood, and the spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory;

When we put our trust in Christ and obey His commandments by being born again of water and the spirit, our Savior does two things for us. First, because of our expression of willingness to choose only the good from now on in order to be holy, He forgives us of our past choosings of evil. Second, He sends His Holy Spirit to be with us that we might have special help in choosing and doing good and in avoiding doing evil henceforth. For adults, there is no holiness without the atoning blood of Christ.

For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are justified; and by the blood ye are sanctified;

So by allowing ourselves to be immersed in the waters of baptism, we keep the commandment to repent and be baptized. By receiving the Holy Spirit we have a personal tutor to help us learn to know and keep every commandment of God; God’s word is His law, and when we obey His word, we become lawful or just. And through the atoning blood of Christ we are forgiven of our sins and made whole so that we can do all the good that a child of God of our age and station should do.

Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which knoweth all things, and hath power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice and judgment. (Moses 6:55–61)

When we are whole, we do enjoy the peace of Christ and all the peaceable things of the kingdom of God on earth, and we have a lively hope for the things of immortal glory. We may enjoy the truth of anything we need to know, and be quickened for any task or assignment, to be make fully alive to all things in wisdom, mercy, truth, justice and godly judgment.

So there it is. You and I are all invited to a party. This is a work party. The work is helping souls come unto Christ. You and I come to Christ only by helping others to come to Christ, which is to become holy, to become pure, to keep Father’s law fully even as does our Savior. Then we are wholesome, spiritually healthy, able to fill every and any mission our Savior has for us.

Let us make no mistake: life is a mission. We are sent by God to learn to be as He is. When we find the Gospel of Jesus Christ and enter into the covenant, then our mission becomes more specific: to help others to come to Christ and become wholesome, happy and powerful in the work of righteousness.

Through Moses, God said to the children of Israel while they were in the wilderness: “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” (Lev. 11:44)

In His earthly ministry, our Savior told us: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

To be perfect means to be complete, whole, holy, through our Savior.

In these latter days our Savior spoke through the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Therefore sanctify yourselves that your minds may become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” (D&C 88:68)

Though ultimately we are forgiven through the grace of God and are sanctified only through the blood of Christ, still we must do all we can do. That “all we can do” is to keep the commandments of God. In Section 43 of the Doctrine and Covenants we read:

And now, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that when ye are assembled together ye shall instruct and edify each other, that ye may know how to act and direct my church, how to act upon the points of my land and commandments which I have given.

And thus ye shall become instructed in the law of my church, and be sanctified by that which ye have received, and ye shall bind yourselves to act in all holiness before me—

That inasmuch as you do this, glory shall be added to the kingdom which ye have received. Inasmuch as ye do it not, it shall be taken, even that which ye have received.

Thus we are sanctified, made holy, by keeping the commandments of God which we have been given. Another way of expressing this is to say that faith in Christ leads to keep the commandments of God, thus it is our faith ln Christ which allows him to make us whole. Remember the times when the Savior healed someone and said to them, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.”

From the days of Adam to the time of Moses, to the time of Christ, to the last days, the message is always the same: Be ye Holy, for I, God, am holy.

Let us turn from consideration of what we must do to how it is done. The first step in becoming holy is to learn to recognize that which is holy. There are holy persons, holy places, holy books, holy experiences. First another story about a holy person.

I had a friend and colleague who became a general authority of the Church. I had not seen him for many years when he came to talk at BYU. After the talk, I went up to greet him and to congratulate him on his helpful presentation. As I did so, I experienced something like that which I felt with the young lady in the middle of Amsterdam Avenue. As I approached this man, I could literally feel his presence and power as I got close to him. By the time I was within ten feet of him, the phenomenon was powerful, as though I was entering a force field. My how he had grown spiritually since I had known him. What a wonderful thing to see a friend who had acquired the power of God. And how wonderful to be able to sense that acquisition. The first step in becoming holy is to be able to recognize someone or something that is holy when we experience it.

The reason this recognition is so important is that the root ability we must have is to be able to tell the differences between the Holy Spirit and the evil spirit. Each human being who comes into this world is given as a gift from God: the ability to know good from evil. We are constantly in the presence of both good and evil, and if we are careful, we have the opportunity to distinguish them. But they do not come labeled. It is our agency to decide for ourselves which is the good and which is the evil spirit. Having made our choice, we promote that which we think is good and shun that when we think is evil. Woe unto us if we call evil good, and good evil.

But if we have made a correct identification of which is the good and which is the evil spirit, then we are in a position to recognize the Holy Spirit when it comes to us to bring the special witness of Jesus Christ, and in our dispensation, of Joseph Smith. Building on what we know is good, we can go on to more good, following as a little child, until we become holy in Christ.

There are places that are holy. Temples come to mind. Every temple of the Church is a holy place and has a feeling which seldom is matched outside the walls of a temple. It is special to be in the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, New York, for that is no ordinary grove of trees. It is special to be at Adam-ondi-Ahman; but for me the holy place there is more the valley below than the hill where the altar was said to be. I grew up in the desert, wandering alone where there was no trace of civilization. The desert is holy to me, a place that is clean and beautiful. But I often feel the same thing when I am on a mountain top or in a pristine forest. And there are places which are evil. The most pointed experience I have ever had of an evil place was at the coliseum in Rome, Italy. It was dead, totally dead, as to any good spirit.

There are holy books. Let me tell you a story about one man’s experience with a holy book.

This person as a young man emigrated from Sweden to the United States and settled among a number of his countrymen from Sweden in South Dakota. He was a faithful Lutheran. He lived alone, not being married, and attended church every Sunday. Each day as he came in from his work on his farm for lunch he would read something. He liked to keep his hat on in the house and put his feet up on the table and read for a while. But when he read the Bible, he would always take off his hat and bring his feet down off the table because he knew he was reading something holy.

One day as he was reading the Bible, he came across the Savior’s instruction about little children, how the Lord wanted them to be able to come unto him that he might hold them and bless them. He got to wondering about infant baptism, but could find nothing in the Bible which gave clear instruction on the matter. He resolved that he would bring up the matter and get help from his pastor the next Sunday.

After the meeting the next Sunday, he broached his question to the pastor, who looked at him sharply and told him that he was not to ask such questions. He took the reproach very personally, because he had been a real supporter of the local congregation. He vowed that he would not return.

The next day he went to town and stopped at the local public library and asked for a copy of the Koran. He was informed that someone else had already checked the Koran out, but that they had another heathen book which he might read if that would please him. It was a Book of Mormon. He opened it and began to read. After reading a bit his feet came down off the table. In another few minutes his hat came off. He became so engrossed that he sat there reading until he had finished the whole book, which was noon the next day. He knew that the book was holy. But the story does not end there.

He found the address of the Deseret Book Company in the book and wrote for further literature. He obtained the Articles of Faith and Jesus the Christ among other works, and devoured them completely. He still had never met a Mormon.

When fall came and the crops were in, he got in his car and took off for Salt Lake City, Utah, for he was determined to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He went to Salt Lake City, got a room in the Temple Square Hotel, and went over to Temple Square and joined a group being guided about the grounds. At the conclusion of the tour, the guide asked if there were any questions. Our friend said he had a question: How could he be baptized into the LDS church?

The guide immediately turned him over to the missionaries and he repeated his question to them. They told him that he must first be instructed. He told them he was already instructed and that they might question him to see if he knew enough. They began questioning him and he was able to answer every question. So they gave in. They interviewed him for baptism and set a time and place. And they warned him that Satan would try to stop him from being baptized.

He went back to his hotel room. Once there he began to have doubts, and they became a fierce torment. He recognized that these were not thoughts from the Holy Spirit, for he had felt it many times. So he fasted and prayed until the time of his baptism appointment the next day.

He was baptized in the tabernacle font and confirmed there also. At the conclusion he bore his testimony to those present, many of whom were non-members. Then he got in his car and went back to South Dakota. But the story is not over yet.

As soon as he got home, he began visiting his friends and neighbors, telling them about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. Tirelessly he combed the county around him. In the course of this missionary labor he converted 75 of his friends and neighbors, among whom was a young lady who became his wife. He was a branch president to these people, then district president. The kingdom of God prospered where he was.

How did all of this happen? It happened because Ivor Sandberg could tell that which was holy from that which was not. And he had the good sense to pursue with vigor that which he knew to be holy. And in the process, he himself came to be holy.

Just for curiosity, is there anyone here who is a descendant of Ivor Sandberg of South Dakota, or is a descendant of someone whom he brought into the church? Ivor Sandberg is a legend. I know what I know of him from word of mouth, so please forgive me if all of the details are not exactly as it was related to me. But I know that the main thrust of the story is true, confirmed by family members.

So what is the point of all that I have said? There are two main points that I hope you will remember.

Point no. 1: To be holy is good. It is to be wholesome. Wholesome people are happy, hardworking, self-sacrificing, fun to be around. They make wonderful companions. To find a wholesome person you have to be a wholesome person. There is nothing more important to be in this life than to be a wholesome, holy person. For then you will have power to do every good thing which you desire to do in bringing souls to Christ. To be whole is to have power, the power to do good. And if you gain that power while yet in mortality, you will enjoy and enjoy using it into all eternity.

Point no. 2: We become holy by coming unto Christ in the waters of baptism, receiving His Holy Spirit as our constant companion, and learning then to keep every commandment of God. It is not the easiest thing in the world to do. As a matter of fact, it is the most difficult thing in the world to do. But everyone who desires to do it can and will do it, for all that God asks is for each of us to do what we can, then He makes up the difference through His grace.

It is good to be holy. It is good to be faithful. I hope and pray that each of us will search our souls and choose that which is holy and good in our friends, our entertainment, our vocational pursuits, our community service, in our families, in our dress, in our eating and drinking, and especially in our marrying.

I would like to conclude with some scriptures. The first is a description of the times in which we live. I quote from the Joseph Smith version of Matthew 25 found in the Pearl of Great Price:

And, as I said before, after hearing the tribulation of those days, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory;

And whoso treasureth up my word shall not be deceived, for the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree—When its branches are yet tender, and it begins to put forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh at hand;

So likewise, mine elect, when they shall see these things, they shall know that he is near, even at the doors;

But of that day, and hour, no one knoweth; no, not the angels of God in heaven, but my Father only;

But as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be also at the coming of the Son of Man;

For it shall be with them, as it was in the days which were before the flood; for until the day that Noah entered into the ark they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage;

And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

What to do to prepare for the Second Coming? The answer is partly in D&C 87:8: “Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.”

Holy places are the stakes of Zion and the temples, the places where holy persons, true Latter-day Saints, gather.

The other part of the answer comes from Moroni 10:32–33:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in no wise deny the power of God.

And again, if you for the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

It is my prayer that we will not sell our souls to Satan for the pleasures, powers and rewards of this world, but that we will get on our knees, seek that which is holy, and cling to it until we become holy in Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.