LeGrand L. Baker

Author: Chauncey Riddle

  • Two Universes – Natural versus Gospel

    One of the aspects of our social existence which makes life interesting and, at the same time, somewhat exasperating is the phenomenon of disagreement. As we compare ideas, objectives, goals, and plans with our fellow man, one of the things we are faced with immediately is the wide variety of attitudes, beliefs, and feelings which we and our fellow beings exhibit. One might go so far as to say that because of the nature of our mental existence and of the knowledge we have of the world, each human being acts as if he lives in his own private universe. We construct, as it were, a universe in our own minds. We people it with the things we know, with the people we know about. We furnish it with the things that we believe to exist. We cause it to function according to the pattern of existence we believe obtains. And, all in all, we structure it according to the experience, evidence, and desires of our own personal nature. There are among the many worlds that we see exhibited in other people’s lives and thoughts two principal worlds which are somewhat standard and of special interest to us who are Latter-day Saints. One is the world, or the universe, which is pictured to us by the teachings of the scriptures and the prophets. We might call this the “Universe of the Gospel.” The other is the world, or the universe, which is the standard world of our western civilization, the one which every one of us has encountered in our education and which is sufficiently stereotyped that we can describe it in general terms fairly accurately. It is our purpose this evening to examine these two special worlds and to contrast them and to note the very fundamental and important differences that exist between these two worlds. For purposes of analysis we shall break our discussion down into four main headings and under each of these main headings pursue special subtopics.

    The four main headings we shall use will be: (1) the spiritual realm, (2) our understanding of history, (3) the nature of values, and (4) the source of salvation.

    The Spiritual Realm

                Let us first of all examine the nature of the spiritual area. We will take first the gospel picture and then contrast with it the standard world of western civilization. In the gospel frame of reference there is a definite spiritual realm of existence which is different from, though certainly related to, the physical realm with which we are all familiar, which we experience daily. The spiritual realm is important because it contains the things that are believed by Latter-day Saints to be the most important things in the universe. It contains, for instance, a personal God, a being who is our literal father, who is a kindly, good, exalted man and who has our personal interest at heart. He is a God of justice, but also a God of mercy, a God of power, but also a God of righteousness; and it is to him that we look for our understanding of the universe and for every good thing that we hope for in this universe. Now there is no existence without opposition we are told, and so correlative with the idea of a personal God necessarily goes the idea of a personal devil in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe that there is a person who is a devil. This is not to say that he is the only evil, or that he is necessary to evil, but he is a person who promotes evil in the same manner in which our Heavenly Father promotes good. This personal devil is a being like unto ourselves, and like unto God, but having a personality which differs in respect to the things that he desires. He desires to bring about the misery and the misfortune of mankind. A third aspect of the spiritual nature of existence relates to the personal spirit which is in each man. Each human being is composed not only of the physical body which we observe, but his real self is rather something quite different. We believe that this body is inhabited by a spirit and that spirit body by an intelligence’ so that there is a definite and complete distinction between the spirit of man and his body. In Latter-day Saint terminology the basic struggle of this life is the struggle between the spirit and the body. Our Heavenly Father, assists the spirit in its side of the struggle, and the devil works through the physical body, attempting to further its domination over the spirit. A fourth aspect of spiritual existence which is important to Latter-day Saints is simply the reality of spiritual experiences. Not only are God, the devil, and the spirit in man realities, but they are things which may be experienced. We, each of us, experience a stream of consciousness wherein we are aware of influences which cannot be traced to the physical environment. It is in this realm of consciousness that we experience the whisperings of God, the whisperings of Satan, and our own personal response to these things.

                Let us contrast with this spiritual understanding of the universe, now, the standard world of western civilization. In western civilization the existence of the spiritual realm as a whole is denied, except perhaps as a mental ideal. In this realm there is no God; there is no devil; there is no spirit in man; and man has no such thing as spiritual experience. This fundamental denial, of course, assumes a burden of proof which is much greater than the assertion of the existence of these things in the gospel light. To assert that there is no God and no devil in the universe necessitates a sufficient omniscience that one could survey the whole universe and in no part of the universe find any God or any devil. To say that there is no spirit in man is similarly a most difficult thing to prove. This might be likened to asserting that, because we cannot see any electricity in a wire, that therefore there is no such thing as electricity. But one can certainly feel electricity, especially when grounded, and one certainly can be aware of the existence of at least his own spirit, especially when he is grounded in the strength of independent thought and not short-circuited by the shame of the world. One of the most fundamental experiences a human being has is the inner struggle that goes on within himself, the struggle between right and wrong, the struggle between truth and error, the struggle between what is ennobling and what is degrading. To deny the existence and the importance of this realm is to deny what we are: independent spiritual human beings. To relegate ourselves to the realm of machine is to give up independence, individuality, and everything which has brought significance to human achievement.

    Our Understanding of History

                Let us move next to the realm of history. Here again we see extremely divergent views separating the gospel picture of the universe from that proposed by western civilization. The gospel teaches us plainly of the divine origin of man, that men are the children of the Gods, and that at one time we were of the same basic nature as God is physically. That is to say, that in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had celestial bodies and never would have had to die. They, of course, were not like our Father in Heaven in every respect, but at least in that physical respect were like him. A second important teaching in the historical perspective relates to the Fall of man. In the gospel, when Adam partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, he became fallen. This involves several important ramifications. In the first place, man became dead to that personal God who is his literal and real Father. That is to say, he was cut off from the presence of his Father and righteousness because of his disobedience, no longer able to see God with his physical senses. Being cut off from God and righteousness  made Adam completely subject to that personal devil who then had full access to tempt and to try him. Man, thus, comes under the burden of an overwhelming influence to do evil. Unless this overwhelming influence  is counteracted by the Spirit of the Lord, man is not a free agent, but must and will do greater or lesser amounts of evil, depending on the ability the individual has of his own desires to resist Satan or not to resist. Hd Adam been left in this state, he would have been doomed to remain estranged from God, his Father, forever. But Father sent the Holy Spirit and angels to minister to Adam of truth and righteousness. With these two influences in balance, that of Satan and of the Holy Spirit, man became an agent to choose between good and evil.

                Two aspects of the future history of man which are important in this connection are first, the literal reality of the resurrection of each human being. To know that we go on living forever and that death is not the end and that we will be reunited with the bodies which we have in this life and will go on living into eternity is, indeed, a most important aspect of our understanding. Secondly, coupled with the idea of resurrection is, of course, the necessity of our accounting for the acts of this life. We must stand before the bar of judgment and be held accountable for our acts, whether they be good or whether they be evil. The net result of this understanding of history is to place upon each individual the full weight of the responsibility for his actions and to teach him that his actions are important and that the ramifications of his mortal actions are of eternal significance.

                The world, on the other hand, teaches in connection with history a very contrary view. So far as the origin of man is concerned, the world teaches that man came about by a slow, chance evolutionary process, beginning with some non-living form of life, and over the course of millions and perhaps billions of years evolving into the present status of what we call man. This, of course, gives man an extremely low origin compared to the gospel account. Evolution is a scientific theory which, though valuable to scientific tinking, is not proven and for which there is very important and serious doubt as to the necessity of its truthfulness. It suffices to say that this along with all other scientific theories rests in a realm of speculation where nothing can really be proved. If an individual believes in the evolutionary origin of man, it is because he wants to. It is not because there is any evidence which necessitates such a belief. Indeed, if one wishes to gather all the evidence concerned, there is at least a piece of evidence contrary to the theory of evolution for every evidence which supports the theory of evolution. This is a rather safe generalization, or course, simply because evidence by itself is completely neutral as to its explanation. Explanations are provided by humans, and any piece of evidence which could be construed one way could also be construed another way by the person involved. Since the evidence itself is completely neutral, the individual makes up his own mind as to whether he believes in evolution or not. However, many people are browbeaten into believing in the theory of evolution. According to some this theory has the status of scientific fact. But there is much evidence against evolution and no necessity for any human being to believe it as a proven idea.

                In contrast to its account of the humble natural origin of man, the standard world of western civilization aggrandizes the present nature of man. We are taught that man is basically good, that men can be trusted, that the important thing is that we not degrade man by supposing him to have in any sense evil motives. If it is true that men are subject to Satan, it makes a great deal of difference in our understanding of the processes of this world. If every politician is subjected to the influence of and adversary who attempts to get him to do evil, thinking beings would rather not put into the hands of any one human being any great concentration of power. But, if on the other hand, as western civilization teaches, every man is inherently good, perhaps we need not fear. Each individual may be given the opportunity to account for himself and his own personal experience as to what the real nature of existence is. What is your sample of human nature? Are most human beings good, or do most human beings do evil in one degree or another? When human beings have a highly concentrated power in their hands, do most people use it to do good, or do most people use it to do evil? Single examples may be taken to prove either side. But the question, or course, is, what is the generalization which is true?

                Going on to the future history of man, again though the world recognizes that death is a necessity which comes upon every human being. The important thing is, what is the consequence of death? The world teaches that there is an oblivion, that when we die, we pass into a non-existence where we no longer exist as entities. Coupled with this is the idea that there is no judgment for the acts of man, that the only possible consequences of our acts in this life are the physical rewards and punishments which affect us up until the day of our death. This leads, of course, to the idea that  getting caught in doing anti-social things is the problem and that if we suffer social disapprobation, it is simply because we were not wise enough to elude the restrictions of our community.

    The Nature of Values

                Going on to the third general area, let us contrast the values of the gospel and the world of western civilization in regard to the status of values themselves. The gospel plainly teaches that there is a right or wrong. There is a morality which is not simply the whim of God and which man can know. There is an eternal righteousness which leads to happiness both now and later. Accompanying this idea of the eternal nature of right and wrong is the concept of the worth of the individual. In the gospel frame of reference, the individual person is the most important thing in existence, and every human being is of virtually infinite worth compared with anything else in the universe, compared with any non-personal or non-individual existence in the universe. Whatever programs, governments of society, or actions of individuals which are proposed and executed, the church would teach us that the worth of the individual ought to be respected and kept in mind at all times. No human being should be treated simply as a means to an end, but every human being ought to be treated as an end and worthy in and of himself. Now, in contrast to this, the world teaches that all values are relative, that the thing that is important is simply the satisfaction of desire, that there is no right or no wrong. The world also teaches that the individual is of little worth. The individual may have some worth insomuch as he finds himself on the top of the social power structure, but the teaching of the world is that the important thing is the social group, the social group being the basis and source of all values for individual human beings. The important thing, therefore, for the human being is to accommodate himself to the nature of the group. Most education is carried on under this valuation, attempting to get the individual to subordinate himself to the nature of his social existence and group rather than attempting to bring out in him the important things which he feels are of worth and to enable him to be an independent individual.

    The Source of Salvation

                The fourth category in which we might contrast these two worlds is in relation to salvation. In the gospel of Jesus Christ salvation is vertical; that is to say, man has to look upward to a supernatural source for his salvation both from the troubles of life and the perils of eternity. Man seeks to receive from his Father in Heaven first of all the Spirit, to be guided in truth and light; secondly the priesthood by which power he can control the elements of this earth, the power of Satan, and anything necessary which stands in the way of his salvation. Thirdly, he receives the blessings of a personal God, a Father who loves him and who is anxious to reunite with him.

                Salvation for the world, on the other hand, is lateral. This means to say, the teaching of the world is that salvation is to be obtained from our fellow beings. The teaching is that man is saved first of all through learning, so we must go to school and be taught by our fellow human beings what is truth, what is right, what we should know. Ultimately, the problems of our civilization and the struggle against nature are to be solved according to the world through physical force. To this end science is employed, but even more the power of government to pass laws and physically to force certain requirements upon society is looked upon as the great panacea. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, the ultimate salvation is looked for in righteousness; whereas in the world salvation is looked for in physical force. In this connection we quote President David O. McKay in his speech in the October, 1962 General Conference. President McKay says this:

                “Today many nations have lost their independence. Men defeated have been compelled to labor for their conquerors. Property has been seized without recompense, and millions of people have surrendered all guarantees of personal liberty. Force and compulsion will never establish the ideal society. This can come only by a transformation within the individual soul, a life redeemed from sin and brought in harmony with the Divine Will. Instead of selfishness, men must be willing to dedicate their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the alleviation of the ills of mankind. Hate must be supplanted by sympathy and forbearance. Peace and true prosperity can come only by conforming our lives to the law of love, the law of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A mere appreciation of the social ethics of Jesus is not sufficient. Men’s hearts must be changed. In these days of uncertainty and unrest, liberty-loving people’s greatest responsibility and paramount duty is to preserve and proclaim the freedom of the individual, his relationship to Diety, and the necessity of obedience to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only thus will mankind find peace and happiness.”

                So it is we see that we are faced with this fundamental choice. We can choose the universe the gospel commends to us, or we may choose the world of western civilization. Under the one, we will seek righteousness, which is to say, we will seek by the help of God to better the lives of our fellow men through kindness, through love, through any way that does not involve physical force, which is compatible with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If, on the other hand, we seek the power of the world, if we seek to follow the pattern of the world, we will try to solve the problems of man through physical force. May I remind you that these two are essentially the two plans propounded in the council in heaven. The one is the plan of righteousness and agency and honoring of the individual propounded by our Father in Heaven and accepted by the Savior in the pre-existence. The other is the program of Satan which denies the agency and  worth of the individual man and tries to solve all problems and bring about salvation through physical force.

                Again may we note in this Christmas season that the life of our Savior Jesus Christ is a monument to his belief that righteousness is a much greater power than physical force. When the Savior came among men in his earthly existence, the Jews were expecting a Messiah who would come and blight the Roman armies and physically destroy all the enemies of Judaism. But the Savior recognized that there is something much greater, that righteousness is the greatest triumph of all. In his life he sought and succeeded never to succumb to the temptations of the adversary in any particular or in any degree. By this triumph Jesus Christ was able to gain the power of righteousness which is for him the power to resurrect all human beings, to bless those who have themselves sought righteousness with the blessings of eternity including exaltation, and to deliver to each man that happiness which he deserves and wants. He rejected explicitly the possible salvation he could have wrought even with the power of Godhood in destroying armies, in destroying disease, in destroying physical force. He recognized the worth of the individual and that the only salvation worth anything is getting human beings to choose righteousness of themselves, that he might honor them as persons. So in this Christmas season, may we remember the example of our Savior. May we seize upon a clear understanding of that world in which the Savior believed and in which he acted and which was the basis of his triumph. May we reject the sophistries of the adversary and the very unreal world which he and his proponents would have us believe in, the world which leads to destruction.

  • Notes on Unity and Socialism

    Chauncey C. Riddle

                One of the most profound generalizations ever uttered was father Lehi’s dictum that there must be opposition in all things. If it were not so, he points out, all things would be a compound in one and there would be no existence. To say that something exists is the same things as saying, “it differs.” Etymologically, the word existence may be traced to the Latin roots “ex + stare,” to stand out. Taking the visual field as the paradigm, that which “stands out” is that which contrasts with or differs from the remainder of the visual area. This contrast enables us to distinguish figure from ground, thus allowing the figure to “exist.” If we could not distinguish figure from ground, we would not only not see figure, but we would also not see the ground. In other words, we would not see. This general principle of opposition applies not only to vision but to all sensation, to considerations of value, to the possibility of the existence of classes in the mind (i.e., in the universe of discourse, one class cannot be created without the simultaneous creation of its negative class), and to the physical world (e.g. Newton’s “law” that to every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction). It would be difficult to find an idea of more universal application and importance than this principle of opposition.

                One important social application of the principle of opposition relates to the possibilities of unity and disunity in social groups. Applying this principle we might observe that every attempt to unify a group of people faces a fundamental dilemma.

                The unity of the group can be achieved on the one hand by destroying the personal differences that cause people to be individuals. The push for egalitarianism has as its goal the creation of a Parmenidean order of timeless, motionless, featureless unity, where each person contributes to the group as does each individual radius to a sphere. The individual is not a person, but a “slot;” he fills a potential in the whole which is individuated only mathematically; i.e., by his orientation in space. He is a good radius only as he is completely indistinguishable from his fellows. Any aberration on his part destroys the aesthetic symmetry of the whole and therefore cannot be tolerated. This Parmenidean sphere is the social model of the socialist movement. To be sure, it differentiates people as to their assigned task in society; one man will lay brick, another farm, another teach. But each in this scheme is a person of identical political persuasion, of the same metaphysical outlook, of the same valuational pattern. Each is the product of social planning, of careful education, of deliberate indoctrination. His mind and his heart are attuned to the glory of society, and as a well-formed radius he contributes to the beauty and perfection of the absolute sphere.

                The principle difficulty with the Parmenidean social model is that its proponents cannot escape hypocrisy. They teach that all men must come under a planned social order which will direct their minds and hearts through education, their physical inheritance through eugenics, and their physical welfare through manipulation of economic levers. But it is obvious that the creator of radii of the sphere cannot be himself a radius of the sphere. Someone outside the sphere must say how and what education must be, must say which persons will be out breeding stock, must say we should pull this economic lever. It is just that obvious then that the sphere with all its faceless radii must always remain the dictatorship of few men over the many. The few can never take the medicine they prescribe without relinquishing their power. History records that those in power who prescribe this ideal are singularly unwilling to give their power to others and become radii. Perhaps this is one reason they seek to control the writing of history as well as the society of men.

                But someone will say, “The leaders are radii. They simply are part of the great overriding rule of science which works out its inexorable destiny in perfecting mankind.” This is the familiar plea of both the communists, promoting the Marxist thesis of economic determination, and the socialist liberals who want world society run by “enlightened intellectuals.” History has shown that economic factors are powerful in shaping the course of human events. But history also reveals that economic determinism does not always hold.  People don’t always rebel because of the nature of the factors of economic production in their society, and Marxists find it necessary to force artificially the so-called “inexorable destiny.” In other words, these Marxists are not part of the sphere. They must deliberately be non-radii themselves in order to force other men to assume the posture of radii. History has also shown that scientists and social planners can improve upon social orders run by ruthless despots for their own pleasure and amusement. But an examination of the nature of science quickly reveals that any scientist who starts prescribing for society has thereby departed from science. Science itself has and prescribes no values; it is inherently incapable of doing so. The scientist who pretends to be prescribing in accordance with the dictates of nature, or reason, or science, is plainly either an outright prevaricator or so unaware of the limitations of science as to be unworthy of the name “scientist.”

                The sum of the matter is then that the egalitarian ideal of socialism is always a process of the few in power creating a unity and equality among their subjects but never including themselves. While they destroy the individuality of their captive fellow men in creating the sphere of equal radii, they rule triumphant over the creature they prescribe but will not and cannot be part of it. All their subjects have become a compound in one and for them there is no “existence.” They may be bodies, but as persons they do not exist. That state of affairs is, or course, consonant with the philosophy of materialism. But where do the non-conforming, non-deterministic, non-equal leaders fit into the philosophy of materialism? They don’t; materialism is simply the opium with which they quiet the masses to create conforming radii.

                What are the social consequences of this Parmenidean social order? Two examples will suffice, one from the realm of mind, the other from the realm of matter.

                In a social order where men are forced to think alike, where there is unity through sameness, without freedom, two consequences will follow of necessity. First, no one who is a good “radius” will ever do any real “thinking.” He will react, respond, and repeat; but since he lives in a world where all of his peers think as he does, he is never challenged and never makes any decisions of importance on his own. He either reacts as he has been trained in meeting familiar problems, or he will seek further training (sometimes called “education”) to meet new problems. In any event, his mind is the child of the planners. The second consequence is the product of the first:  there will be no progress generated by a good radii. He is simply a machine which has been programmed by the planners to do a particular job in a particular way. Because he has been made incapable of thinking (and therefore of rebelling), he can never see how to improve in the task he performs. As a teacher he repeats old saws; as a scientist he applies old principles; as an administrator he perpetuates old dicta. The stability and order of such a society would be admirable; these values overwhelm some who think that the Middle Ages (which closely approximated this Parmenidean ideal) were the golden age of Europe, and who long to reinstitute such an order. But thank goodness that the progress of suffering humanity was not stopped at the Middle Ages! Of course, it is the responsibility of the leaders and planners to institute necessary reforms in every aspect of the social order. But it is notorious that planners are usually far removed from problems; waste and chaos have been the ordinary consequence of absentee planning as anyone who has been a member of a large socialistic organization such as an army can testify.

                Let us turn now to a consequence of Parmenidean planning in the realm of the material world. One of the great so-called “curses” from which the purveyors of Parmenidean unity wish to free men is the “jungle warfare” of the free competition. Through enlargement of the size and influence of the “public sector” of the economy they intend to relieve society of the “waste” engendered by ruthless competition. But they miss the main point of free competition; that it is a competition to see who can serve the common man best. In free trade each unit vies with each other to see which can deliver the most goods to men at the lowest price. Ingenuity, thought, struggle and life-blood all go to increase the efficiency of the delivery of goods. Conversely, in a planned society there is no competition and the units of production tend to try to absorb more and more of the goods of society (this is known as “justifying and enlarging your budget” in a socialist scheme.) Efficiency is anathema because it would mean reduction of budget. The natural consequence is that waste is promoted and the common man receives the minimal shoddy product of the society’s self-improved “enlightened planners.” No, it isn’t always shoddy. Sometimes it is very beautiful and functional. But how much would the new congressional office building in Washington have cost under free enterprise?

                Enough for the Parmenidean ideal of unity. That ideal could not be fully meaningful unless under the principle of opposition a contrasting ideal of unity is presented.

  • Spiritual Factors and Human Learning

     The purpose of this essay is to consider human learning in an LDS frame of reference. We begin with a review of the essential theology.

    I. Why we are here.

                Every human being is born into this mortality because he or she was a faithful child of God in the pre-mortal existence. Each is born to receive a full opportunity to become as God is. To become as God is to learn to love our Father with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength, for that is what he does for us.

    II. How we must love.

    First we must learn to love our Father with our minds. To do so we must seek diligently to know and understand his mind and will. We find them in the holy scriptures, in the words of his holy prophets, in the promptings of our own conscience. Having found his mind and will we must begin to think, to believe, and to will, as God does. This obedience brings understanding of God’s mind and will and of the creations of his hand. Thus does man learn to have a firm mind in every form of godliness, which is to love the Lord with all of our minds.

    We must learn to love our Father with our hearts. To do this we must learn to love righteousness as he does. Righteousness is to relieve the sufferings of other persons in the way which will best help them to become as God is. That is what our God does. He is a god of righteousness. His heart reaches out in selfless concern to every other being in the universe. By accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its ordinances, we too can learn to love purely, selflessly, fully. We learn how to do this from our Savior, who is for us the fountain of all righteousness. Through faith in him we may learn to feel pure love for all others and to know and to choose the path of righteousness. In this faithfulness, our esteem, our worship, our reverence for our God grows into a fullness of love. Thus may we learn to love the Lord with all of our hearts.

    We must learn to love our Father with our strength. Our physical body is our strength. As we discipline it to eat, to sleep, to cleanse, to dress, to work, to struggle, to endure as god does, our strength grows. He would have us develop our skills until we are excellent, as He is, in every thing we do. He would have us guard in purity and chastity that special strength we share from him, the power to beget children. We will live as faithful husbands and wives to conceive, to bear, and to nurture the precious souls sent to us by God. Thus may we learn to love the Lord with all of our strength.

                We must learn to love our Father with all of our might. We will use our influence upon those around us to promote God’s order, decency, and happiness among men. We will use our time to bind up the hurt of the wounded. We will use our substance to create opportunity for our fellow beings to become as rich as we are. We will use our property to create beauty, productivity, orderliness and sanctuary. All of this we will do as the Lord guides our mind, our heart, and our strength. We do this to create celestial order in whatever environment we find ourselves, a heaven on earth to add to our God’s glory. Thus may we learn to love the Lord with all of our might.

    III. The way to love.

    The means by which we learn to love our God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength, is the law and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The law is to put our whole faith and trust in the merits of our Savior, looking to nothing and no one else to become as the Father is. He is mighty to save. He will teach us to love the Father, perfectly, as he does, if we can but learn to make our mind’s eye single to his glory. As we put our whole faith and trust in him, he teaches us how to repent, how to turn away from everything that is worldly and ungodly to the way of godliness.

                The way of godliness is entered only by taking upon us the blood of his atonement. We do this in baptism, that he might take away those sins which encumber our heart, might, mind and strength, and keep us from loving purely. He bestows upon us the right to the constant companionship of his Holy Spirit, that this unseen messenger might teach us the way of godliness in all things. He commends to us that we endure to the end, until we are full of truth, purity, power, and love, even as he his. The path to that end leads through the temple. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

    IV. The way to learn.

    Armed with the law and with the saving ordinances of the Restored Gospel, we learn from the Savior all that pertains to purity and godliness of heart, might, mind and strength. Lest we be ensnared and diverted from our goal, we need to be fully aware that Satan, the adversary, has prepared a counterfeit for every good gift of God. The counterfeit in the area of learning should be fully understood by all who would love the Lord.

                The Lord’s learning process has two dimensions, a horizontal one and a vertical one. The horizontal mode of learning is the opportunity to learn from our fellowmen. God sends good men and

    women to us to teach us language in order that we may think, communicate, and learn the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He sends us scriptures which are the recorded testimonies of godly persons who would share with us what they have learned from God. He sends us living prophets to warn us of the folly of unrighteousness and to invite us to follow in the way of Christ. He sends us priests to administer the ordinances of salvation. In the mouths of two or more human witnesses, the Lord teaches us of faith and power.

                This horizontal mode is important and necessary, but it is preliminary to a greater mode of knowing, which is the vertical mode. Vertical learning is to learn directly, for ourselves, not through the witness of other human beings. It is to learn by personal revelation from the Holy Spirit, from angelic messengers, from God himself. It is to learn directly about nature as we observe it carefully and as the Holy Spirit reveals to us the handiwork of God. Vertical learning is spiritual learning. Without it, horizontal learning could never come to full fruition. By this vertical learning we come to know from God that the gospel, the church, the scriptures, the living prophets, the holy ordinances, and all of nature truly are from him. By it we learn to understand all of these things. Only through it can we exercise full faith in Jesus Christ and live by the law and the ordinances of the Gospel. As the spirit of man is the life of the physical tabernacle, so the spiritual, vertical learning from God is the life of the horizontal learning we receive from the good men and women around us. Both are necessary to a fullness of learning, just as both spirit and body are necessary to a fullness of life.

                Satan’s counterfeit of the Lord’s horizontal learning is lies, half-truths, degraded values, and inferior skills as taught by men and women who do not know the Lord. Not knowing the Lord, they are shut up unto error and misery. Whether this is a deliberate rejection of God or not, the result is the same: damnation and unhappiness instead of progress and peace, pleasure as a paltry substitute for joy.

                Men who know not God fill the world with words of opinion. Even with the best of intentions they distort history, create dubious science, prescribe dreadful remedies and reign with blood and terror. These lies inflicted upon mankind are called by the scriptures the chains of hell. As men believe these false ideas, their ability to love God and each other is fatally impaired, even should they desire to do what they think is good. That fatally impaired love is the central theme of the history and current events of human society from the beginning until the present moment. He who would escape from those chains can do so fully only by repentance and by taking upon himself the power of the law and the ordinances of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then godly vertical learning will enable him to separate truth from error, right from wrong, aptness from ineptness, and godly dominion from satanic dominion. Only thus can he serve God with all of his heart, might, mind, and strength.

                Satan’s counterfeit has its spiritual dimension also. His form of vertical learning is to give personal revelation to every human who is accountable. He has permission to tempt each accountable person. His temptations take three main forms. The first is the temptation of the flesh, to take physical pleasure in a way and time and place that God does not authorize. The second is the temptation to power, to use one’s stewardship to force the obedience and service of other human beings for one’s own benefit. The third is the temptation to glory in man and self, to set oneself up as a light unto the world rather than to give the glory to God. In each of these temptations, Satan’s success rests on a single thread. We are tempted only as Satan touches what we already desire. The force of Satan’s revelations and temptations is to encourage each of us to fulfill our own desires rather than to seek the will of him who is righteous. The only cure for succumbing to our own lusts as encouraged by Satan is to repent through the law and ordinances of the Restored Gospel. We then will say: “Lord, not my will, but thine be done.” If we then do the Lord’s will, that is salvation.

                These two necessary kinds of learning, horizontal and vertical, each with its Satanic counterfeit, create four possible kinds of human beings in the possible combinations. Those who use godly vertical learning to learn horizontally from godly men and women are the children of God, heirs to the celestial kingdom. Those who are responsive to God spiritually in the vertical dimension but who subscribe to the lies of evil men and women horizontally are the honorable men of the earth who are blinded by the craftiness of men and are terrestrial. Those whose vertical learning comes from Satan and whose horizontal learning comes from evil men and women are yet natural; they are carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are telestial. Those of a satanic vertical learning who profess the words and doctrines of good men and women on the horizontal level but do great evil are the hypocrites who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof, and are perdition.

    V. Public Knowledge, Private Learning.

    Public knowledge is what is transmitted among humans by way of horizontal learning. It has three overlapping levels which correspond to the societal groupings of a culture. First is family learning. Here we learn language, religion, values, beliefs, skills, manners, culture, hygiene, discipline, etc. Second is societal learning. We learn in our public schools and through the media about history, politics, economics, science, etc. Third is the expert or occupational learning gained in universities or on-the-job training in which we learn to earn our living as professional persons, craftsmen, laborers, businessmen, etc. The public knowledge we learn in each of the social settings becomes the bases of all our communications and cooperation with others in that area, and thus the basis of the success we have in the social ventures of our life. In each level there are sanctions which reward the individual for conformity and punish him for non-conformity. A stress on public knowledge and horizontal learning is a stabilizing pressure. It tends to establish the status quo. Some public knowledge is good in that it enables civilization to be sustained from one generation to the next. But at the same time, that same public knowledge transmits falsehood, inefficiencies, and gross incivilities from generation to generation. The factor of prime importance in public knowledge is the goodness or evilness of the persons from whom one learns.

                If the men and women we learn from are men and women who know and worship the true and living God, we are blessed indeed. For then we will learn rapidly and easily in their love many good things essential for us to know. The most essential thing which they will teach us is the reality and absolute necessity of vertical learning from God himself.

                Should we be less fortunate and be born and raised among men and women who themselves have no vertical learning from God, we are in trouble indeed. We can then only stumble and grope in the darkness, hoping for light. But God is good. Before it is too late he sends to every human being messengers who horizontally teach him or her of light before the final judgment. They witness of the truth and reality of vertical learning from the true and living God. All who accept and live by this message partake of the law and the ordinances of the Restored Gospel, which empowers them to have a fullness of vertical learning from God. Having that vertical learning, they then can separate truth from error in all the horizontal learning and public knowledge of mankind, treasuring out all that is virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy.

                It is noteworthy that there is no such thing as public learning. All learning is private. Learning is change of one’s nature in response to experience; it is change of heart, might, mind and strength. All horizontal learning is done by individuals, each with his own way, rate, and result. All vertical learning is private learning from unique personal experiences. All learning is a personal, individual adaptation to the horizontal and vertical learning opportunities one has.

                Private learning and private knowledge are the source of all creativity, of progress, of change. They are the revolutionary force in human learning. They flower in the task of problem solving. They are that precious part of human knowing which can never be taught horizontally but must be learned by everyone who will be successful in this world.

                 All public knowledge is but private learning which has gained social acceptance through being communicated. The great problem is to separate good from bad, which can be done only by people who can accurately separate godly vertical learning from satanic vertical learning. The progress or decline of a civilization is measured by its private learning, not by its public knowledge. That private learning is measured by the vertical learning pattern chosen by the people.

                An example will help to clarify the relative value of public knowledge versus private knowledge, horizontal learning versus vertical learning. Let us use the topic of nutrition. Most persons acquire their basic eating patterns from their family. In school they are taught about the basic food groups and other ideas. If they are relatively healthy, the matter usually rests there. If they become ill, they probably will go to an expert who may attempt to teach them different eating habits. So far they are operating entirely in the realm of public knowledge, horizontally learned. Should they now turn to the Lord for guidance in all that they eat and should they become careful observers of how what they eat affects them, they may develop new eating habits through vertical learning. These new habits will solve their health problems much better than public knowledge ever did. That is because they have left the realm of averages and types which is the realm of the best human public knowledge. They have another source, the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only knows all about human body chemistry and physiology, but who also knows all of the particulars of the genetic and somatic peculiarities of each individual. He thus can give every person perfect advice for his own personal situation. All who follow that advice will have the health needed to fill their mission. Otherwise, they have no such guarantee. But they must be careful not to suppose that they can then impose their private learning about their own nutrition on anyone else. If they are to help anyone else with their nutrition, they will send them to the Savior to try to receive their own personal vertical instruction.

    VI. Conclusions for learning.

    Horizontal learning is the learning of continuity and steadiness in a civilization. In the hands of good people, it transmits all that is good to the next generation. In the hands of evil people, it becomes the means of enforcing oppression and slavery on a population. But no human tyrant can keep any man from some vertical learning from God, no matter how great his power. That vestige of truth and light, that light of Christ, will some day become the Holy Spirit as the Restored Gospel comes through good horizontal learning to the souls who cherish that vestige. Only in the law and ordinances of the Restored Gospel do men become free to learn the truth of all they need to know.

                Vertical learning is the learning of progress, of creativity, of revolution. If it is of Satan, it creates revolution for tyranny, control, and degradation. If it is of the Lord, it creates revolution for freedom, beauty, holiness, and practicality. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ is to foment a revolution of vertical learning which will by peaceable and honorable means bring the light of truth and hope to every human being and establish a celestial kingdom here and now. That revolution is the revelation as to how one can love the Lord with all of one’s heart, might, mind, and strength. Repentance is the great revolution for human learning.

  • The Way Up is First to Go Down – (A Commentary of the Fall of Adam) – (Article rejected by editors of The Ensign)

    By Chauncey C. Riddle

                Before mortality, we lived as spirit children of our Heavenly Father and Mother in another place. We learned much and had important work to do with them. But we knew we could not inherit the fullness of their glory unless we did two things. First, we needed to have a physical body; second, we needed to continue to develop a character which would help us control that fleshly tabernacle and use it only for good.

                In a pre-mortal council our Heavenly Father proposed a plan wherein each of us would receive a body of flesh and bone which we could learn to control and use for good. We learned that there must be opposition to good as well as good, leaving us free to choose our own way. Each of us would be responsible to continue to build a noble character for ourselves while in our bodies.

                Our brother Lucifer proposed that he personally could assure the shaping of everyone’s character and lead them all back to glory, for which action he wanted eternal leadership over us.

                However, our oldest brother encouraged us to accept our Father’s plan, wherein every soul would be free to become like God if he or she so chose. No one of us would be forced to become anything we did not want to become. Most of us chose the plan to become free, responsible for our own eternal destiny. Those who did not accept the Father’s plan were denied further progress.

                Our Father appointed our eldest brother, Jesus Christ, to be his executive officer, the model, the pattern in fulfilling the plan. Under his direction, the earth was created and other things made ready for our mortal probation.

                Following God’s plan, Adam and Eve, our first earthly parents, were placed on the earth into a paradise, a terrestrial glory. Their fleshly tabernacles were immortal, and they spoke with God.

                But in order to fulfill conditions for the earthly probation of all of us, Adam and Eve’s bodies had to be changed so that they and their offspring could suffer, die, and then be resurrected. It was also important that each of us be born into mortal tabernacles so that our time here would be temporary.

    The Fall

                A significant part of our Father’s plan was for Adam and Eve to fall from their immortal condition to a mortal one better suited to probation. It would be better for them to fall voluntarily; then they could choose voluntarily to be redeemed from the fall or not. Had the Fall been involuntary, redemption from the Fall would need to be automatic for God to be just.

                The plan for the Fall was carried out. Lucifer—Satan, was allowed into the paradise to tempt Adam and Eve with the knowledge of good and evil, so that they could choose for themselves to fall. Thinking that he was thwarting our Father’s plan, Lucifer tempted Adam and Eve, who disobeyed the Father and reaped the consequential Fall that was so necessary.

                Adam and Eve had been promised that if they disobeyed Father they would die, and they did. Their spirit bodies became dead to the spirit world. They could no longer see with their spiritual eyes nor hear with their spiritual ears. Their immortal tabernacles became mortal.

                When Adam fell, all nature fell with him. The earth was no longer a paradise. Animals and plants also fell, becoming subject to death. The earth fell from its place nigh unto Father’s throne and received appointment of its present times and seasons.

                The contrast between before and after the Fall is clearer when we understand agency. Agency exists only when three things are together: 1) An intelligent being who can act and is not merely acted upon, 2) knowledge of alternatives, and 3) ability to carry out a choice. Agency is thus a matter of degree:  As knowledge and power increase, so does agency. When one has all knowledge and all power, then one has a fullness of agency.

                Adam and Eve in the Garden were intelligent beings. They doubtless had considerable power since they were spiritually alive and all things were subject unto them. But they had little knowledge of alternatives. They only knew one wrong thing to do:  their agency consisted in choosing whether or not to partake of the forbidden fruit. They did disobey, died spiritually, and became subject to Satan. After the Fall, being subject to the temptations of Satan, they had much opportunity to choose evil. But being cut off from God, knew little about how to do good. Being spiritually dead they probably suffered a loss of power. They had little agency, but enough, in the Garden. They had little agency in the world after the Fall, until the voice of the Lord came to them.

                The Lord told Adam and Eve how to do good. They obeyed these commandments because it was their desire and was within their power to do so. As they obeyed, they were given more knowledge. As they acted obediently, they were given more power to act. In this process they learned the Gospel of Jesus Christ which brings to men the full knowledge and ability to do good. This message taught them how to have the countenance, the heart, the mind, the character of the Savior. They received first the Holy Ghost and then the holy priesthood, which opened to them the power of God. By accepting the gospel and exercising the power of the priesthood in righteousness, Adam and Eve grew in knowledge and power until they personally were redeemed from the Fall. For them the plan was now nearly fulfilled. Having achieved the purpose of mortality, they needed only to die and be resurrected with an immortal, celestial body to inherit all things.

                For Adam and Eve, then, the way up to exaltation began by first going down through the Fall. Far from decrying the Fall, we should be eternally grateful for our noble first parents who were willing to fulfill the plan. Though they were fallen, they humbled themselves yet further by putting their trust in the Savior. Thereby they rose again, and for them the Fall was overcome.

    The Atonement

                But Adam and Eve could not have risen from the Fall without help. They needed and accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not a do-it-yourself formula. It requires a dependency called “faith in Jesus Christ.” Trusting in Jesus Christ, they were redeemed from the effects of the Fall.

                The Savior teaches us how to live righteously and offers forgiveness for sins if we repent. Because of this, we can be resurrected to immortal glory after our mortal probation is over.

                A person who loves righteousness comes to hate sinning, to tremble at the very thought of it. When he learns through the gospel that the Savior can lead him out of sin into doing only that which blesses others, he rejoices. As his understanding grows, he realizes that the Savior is the fountain of all righteousness; no other guidance can unerringly lead a person to do right. This guidance is delivered either through one who presides in priesthood authority in the Savior’s church, or through the Holy Spirit in personal revelation. However that instruction comes, it is confirmed to us by the Holy Spirit. When we are receptive, we know that the word of the Lord is good. When we are faithful, we experience the good fruits of faith in Christ and we know we are on the right path to return to Father.

                A second gift of the Savior to mankind was his suffering for our sins. Every human sin causes a certain amount of suffering. The justice of our Father demands that when one person causes suffering in another person, the one who caused the suffering must himself suffer an equivalent amount. Therefore, each adult in the world who has sinned has a certain debt of suffering to do to pay for having caused others to suffer. If we could each just do our own quotient of suffering, that would help. But that would not enable anyone to become exalted as our Heavenly Father and Mother are. Becoming celestial involves learning to live without sinning, made possible by the Savior’s first gift—his influence and example. But then we must also have no former sin charged against us, for the Father cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Our Savior made our total forgiveness possible by suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross. The Savior will intercede at the bar of justice in our behalf if we are righteous because he suffered for us and our debt of sinning has been paid by him.

                A third gift of our Savior is resurrection. Because of the heritage of immortality from God the Father, who was Christ’s literal and biological Father, the Savior did not have to die. Because of the heritage from his mortal mother, Mary, he could die. Thus he would die only if he so chose. He sacrificed his mortal life so that each of us might live again as resurrected beings.

                The plan of salvation would not be complete without agency. Some of us use agency for good. All of us use it for evil sometime in our lives. Our evil affects others, causing distress. That distress is not our divine heritage as children of God, but that suffering is our mortal lot. Should another’s misuse of agency cause us to lose eternal blessings? A just God would not allow that.

                Being just, being infinite in power, and knowing all things, our Savior sees that no one suffers eternally for anyone else’s misdeeds. He stops the chains for cause and effect that would condemn the children of apostates as well as the parents, and guarantees that those children will have a full chance to hear the gospel. He further turns all the suffering inflicted on a righteous person into an opportunity for blessings. Should we suffer calumny because of our faith, and should we bear it patiently and humbly, replacing the tendency for malice with the Savior’s pure love, we are rewarded an hundredfold.

                How we ought to rejoice at these gifts from our Savior! Understanding them should make us anxious to serve and bless one another. That understanding should help us to love and serve Christ with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.

                The Savior’s suffering and his sacrifice are usually spoken of as the Atonement. Surely his entire divine ministry was part of it. In the Creation he prepared the earth for man’s habitation and then made possible the Fall. He governed the earth and sent the sweet whispering of his Holy Spirit to guide the earth’s inhabitants away from sin. He lived a perfect mortal life so that he could suffer for us. He sacrificed the opportunity to minister in the flesh indefinitely and thus made possible our living again. He intercedes for us and bestows the blessings of the Father upon all of us.

                The Savior submitted himself as a little child unto his Father, descending into depths of humility to do his Father’s will. He descended below all things on earth that he might rise above and become Lord and Savior of all. He descended to take upon himself the sins of mankind though he personally had no sin. He descended into death, that he might triumph in the resurrection of all. For Adam, the way up was first down. Even so for our Savior.

    Our Mortality

                You and I are born into this world having forgotten everything. We struggle to activate and to control our new tabernacle of flesh and bone. As we begin to grow, the consequences of mortality begin to appear. Though he cannot tempt us as children, Satan can begin to exact his toll even before we are born. His power of disease can afflict us in our mother’s womb. Disease, accident, and death can track us relentlessly each day of our lives, taking what toll they can, until we reach the grave. Though we need to understand these powers which afflict us, we need not fear them. They may destroy our tabernacle of flesh, but the tabernacle is not “us.” It is expendable.

                Our spirit is not expendable. Knowing this, the adversary pursues it vigorously. He uses accountable humans who are under his influence already to affect even the youngest of us. The proper heritage of a newborn child is to be enveloped in the protective strength  and warmth of parents’ arms and to feel the compassion of their Christlike love. Anything less than this fosters fearfulness and uncertainty to the degree which it departs from that proper heritage. Parents or other attendants who have not yet remade their own character in the image of the Savior cannot help but begin the process of emotional harm to the infant.

                Harm is the heritage of most children. The effects of the Fall are with each one. As harmful influences accumulate with time, each of us learns about and finally commits sin. By sinning, we fully reap the spiritual death of the Fall and its consequences.

                But our heritage also includes an opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we are judged. It tells us that we all are children of God, precious to God. We learn that we can become righteous by putting our trust in Jesus Christ. If we hunger to become righteous, put our trust in the Savior, replace sin with obedience, make the covenant of baptism, receive the Holy Ghost as our companion and guide, and endure to the end, we are promised that we shall live again spiritually with our Father and Mother.

                This message is attested in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We hear the testimony of men, but we have better evidence for its truthfulness through the Spirit. We are not condemned for needing assurance, but are encouraged to try this new way of thinking and acting. As we begin to exercise but a particle of faith, the blessings and evidences flood upon us. Building on them with righteousness, we soon find ourselves built upon a rock. We know that this is the way of God, for we feel the love of righteousness swell within us.

                We cannot partake of this grand design, however, if we are proud. If we claim that we have no sin or that we need no instruction, we remain subject to this world. But if we become humble, pleading for help from our Heavenly Father, help will abound. We may need to renounce much that we once thought good. We will need to admit that we have sinned. As we reject the ways and ideas of the world, we are caught into a newness of life that brings us new ideas, hopes, sentiments, countenance, and strength of mind, body, and spirit. We begin to acquire that divine character which we were sent here to forge.

                And forge we must. We must be tempered on the anvil. As the blows of temptation, persecution, ridicule, illness, deprivation, and sorrow rain upon us, and as we bear each patiently, we are tempered and molded in the divine pattern. We know that no blow or force can separate us from the love of God. The Holy Spirit quietly assures us that all things work to the good of those who love the Lord and our own experience proves that to be so.

                And thus the pattern is complete. The way to ascend is first to descend into humility to do the Father’s will; then he can and will lift us up. Adam and Eve brought about the Fall from their comfortable paradise so that the Father’s plan could begin. They humbled themselves after the Fall to do God’s will, and thus were redeemed from the Fall. Our Savior subjected himself to our Father’s will from the beginning, and through humility he enabled the Father to exalt him and thus made possible our exaltation. It remains for each of us to also do the Savior’s will in humility. Then the Father’s plan to bless each of us will be fulfilled because we each went down to go up.

  • Zion and Theology

    1. Definition: Zion is a people who have become pure (celestial) by accepting and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    a. They hear and accept the gospel message.
    b. They partake of the covenants.
    c. They organize themselves under the priesthood.
    d. They meet their own needs and relieve the suffering of others by living the celestial law.
    e. They implement the full law of consecration.
    f. They have become pure in heart, of one mind and heart.
    g. Having become like the Savior; they are privileged to see and to know him.

    Thesis: No amount of correct theology can make a Zion. It is true religion (implementation of correct theology) that makes Zion a reality.

    Thesis: The amount of correct theology needed to establish Zion is relatively small. A fullness of correct theology is possible and desirable only after Zion is an established order.

    Hypothesis: The following is the core of correct theology necessary to establish Zion:

    A. Our Gods are the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

    1. They are one: the Son and Holy Ghost do only the Father’s will.
    2. They are righteous: their work is only to bless others. (They are love: unselfishness.)
    3. They know all: nothing in the universe surprises them.
    4. They control all: their hand is in everything.
    5. They do not change: their character, principles, and labor are the same, always.

    B. The Son, Jesus Christ, is sent by the Father to save us from unrighteousness.

    1. He teaches us how to act righteously (how to bless others.)
    2. He pays the debt for all unrighteous acts, thus being able to forgive us when we forsake sinning (the suffering and the atonement.)
    3. He makes it possible to continue to act righteously into eternity. (The resurrection, made possible by the sacrifice of the atonement.)He is the great example of righteous living set for all mankind: complete faith in his God, personal purity, witness of the truth, full discharge of priesthood calling, relief for suffering persons.

    C. We mortals are all the children of the Gods.

    1. We lived as immortal spirits before coming to this earth.
    2. We are fallen creatures, spiritually dead, sinners, and need a Savior.
    3. Even being fallen, we have received a partial divine inheritance: knowledge, agency, body.
    4. Every soul in mortality or in the spirit world has the gospel message carried fully into his or her heart by the divine power of the Holy Ghost.
    5. The Gospel of Jesus Christ gives us the knowledge to activate our agency and invites us to change to be as the Gods, one with them, to inherit all they are.
    6. If a person accepts and lives the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all else they need to know to receive a fullness if revealed to them through the Holy Ghost and through the priesthood structure of the Church of Jesus Christ.
    7. We humans will all stand before our Gods to be judged and rewarded for what we did when we heard the gospel.
    8. The judgment we receive shall be final: our status will not change (as far as the kingdom we are placed in) for the remainder of eternity.
    9. Whatever we receive, from a fullness of the glory of the Gods to less than we now have, depends solely upon our personal desires and actions.

    D. Contained in the gospel message is the formula for action which enables us to repent and to grow to become as the Savior is:

    1. We must exercise full faith in Jesus Christ, relying alone upon his merits to solve every and all problems we have by:

    a. Hearing his word: personal revelation of his will.
    b. Believing his word: personal, wholehearted acceptance of him and his will.
    c. Doing his will completely.

    2. We must repent of all sinning: turning from whatever we have been to do nothing but the Savior’s will.
    3. We must make the covenant of baptism: be buried  in a watery grave, promising to:

    a. take upon us the name of the Savior, to be known as his servant before all men,
    b. always remember him and the covenant we have made,
    c. keep fully every commandment which he gives us.

    4. We must receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, being quickened to a new spiritual life in hearkening to the voice of God in all things as he speaks to us in our conscience and through our priesthood leaders.
    5. We must endure to the end of becoming fully as the Savior is, joyfully striving to perfect ourselves, each moment, each day, in him.

    E. The gospel formula is not only for once-a-lifetime action, but it is the key to spiritually successful action in each problem of each day.

    1. Fame and fortune in this world do not measure spiritual success. Spiritual success is measured by:

    a. our exercise of complete trust in Jesus Christ,
    b. personal purity of mind, body and spirit,
    c. the witness we bear of the truth as directed by the Holy Spirit,
    d. the full, faithful discharge of our priesthood callings,
    e. the relief for suffering that we bring to our fellow creatures.

    2. Applying the gospel formula in every decision in life is the essence of faith. Faith in Christ involves repentance, obedience, sacrifice, consecration, chastity, and every other gospel principle. Entering into a formal stewardship arrangement to implement the full law of consecration is but a slight difference in format for the person who is already a wise steward and a faithful laborer.

    F. The greatest priesthood stewardship in this world is to be a faithful father or mother in the New and Everlasting Covenant.

    1. The family is the basic social unit for establishing Zion.

    Faithful parents will:

    a.Teach their children the gospel and all of the knowledge skills and values necessary to live it.
    b. See that the children gain adequate cultural and vocational education.
    c. Provide the basic unit for economic production, consumption and security.
    d. Provide the missionary force for the church.
    e. Provide the record-keeping and genealogical force for the church, though the Church itself will provide the record keeping structure for all ordinances.
    f. be the base for helping the poor, oppressed, the widowed and the fatherless.

    2. The ultimate seal of eternal family relationships is placed upon each family link by the exercise of the pure love of Christ in that relationship.

    G. The Church of Jesus Christ with its priesthood framework:

    1. Is the sole source of the ordinances that make personal righteousness and                                       eternal families possible.
    2. Gives guidance and strength to the whole world in every field of righteous endeavor and for every problem inasmuch as individuals are willing to receive it.
    3. Is the Savior’s instrument for blessing every people upon the earth as he brings in his millennial reign of peace and truth.

    H. The pattern for daily life for one who applies the gospel formula should include the following:

    1. Feasting upon the words of Christ: pondering the words of the living and dead prophets, searching the Holy Spirit;
    2. Praying mightily: praying with all energy of heart for others, and also praying for purity, for charity, for intelligence, for the commission of objectives for the day, and most especially, giving thanks.
    3. Enduring to the end of each assignment, striving to be perfect as the Savior is, in all things relying alone upon the merits of Christ.

      Thesis: There is a core theology such as the above which is necessary to the establishment of Zion.

      Thesis: Undue concern for ideas other than the core can destroy finding the core, being unified in it, and living it.

      Thesis: Individuals are entitled to and encouraged to go beyond the core for their own personal development, but until a person accepts and lives the core, concern for the mysteries is a detrimental diversion.

      Thesis: The test as to whether any individual or society has mastered the core is: has the Savior manifested himself unto them in person?

  • The Socrates Principle

    This paper is intended to be the elaboration of an idea which had a prominent place in ancient philosophy though it apparently has had few adherents. This idea we shall call the Socrates Principle. It is the hypothesis that no man is, of himself, wise.

                The elaboration must begin with definitions. We take “man” to mean any human being. We define “wisdom” to be the ability to designate in advance the best course of action to pursue in any practical decision situation in which any human being finds himself or herself. We further stipulate:  1) that this wisdom must use only human resources, individual or collective;  2) that the designation must be a specific selection of an identifiable course of action which is readily differentiated from the alternatives available in the situation;  3) that “best course of action” means a decision which is rationally sure at the time the decision is made;  4) that there is a long-term vindication of the correctness of that decision in the experience of the decision maker, and 5) that a specific criterion of “best” is used, using a criterion other than that of “anything.”

                Those definitions and stipulations give specific meaning to the principle that no man is wise. They also decrease the difficult of demonstrating the rational certitude of the principle. They are an attempt to lay out the conditions which must obtain for any person to take seriously a rational, ethical stance. If the Socrates principle holds, there can be no such thing as a defensible, rational, ethical system. Let us now examine the stipulations more closely.

                Limiting human wisdom to human resources is simply to place the problem of being wise squarely in the lap of every responsible, thinking person. To act intelligently is to act with some result, some good in mind. To act wisely is to act to attain that goal. Every act either brings one measurably closer to that goal or not. Since for most persons the only resources they acknowledge are human resources, this stipulation is simply a means of highlighting the issue.

                Stipulating that wisdom be the designation of a specific action among identifiable alternatives is the attempt to reduce ambiguity. It puts behavioral if not measurable limitations as to what may count as a choice. This facilitates description which facilitates the historicity of the before and after aspects of the choosing—acting–resulting sequence of events.

                To insist that the action chosen be rationally justified is the need to make room for an ethical stance. If that stance does not guide specific action, it is not an ethical stance. If one’s choice derives from his ethical position and is justified on the basis of the ethical position, then we have the possibility of an empirical validation of the ethical position.

                The requirement of long-term vindication of the decision is the requirement of empirical validation. The decision either brings one measurably closer to attaining one’s goal or it does not. The length of time which must pass for the results to be construed as long-term is arbitrary, but surely has the lower limit of allowing one to compare one choice with another as to their goal-gaining efficacy. What counts as empirical we will specify as observable and repeatable within the observer’s personal experience. The wider and more usual requirement of interpersonal agreement, which is usual in science, we shall exclude on the ground that ethics would then be reduced to science. There seems to be value in allowing an individual to judge the efficacy of his own decisions since he is the recipient of the consequences of all of his personal choices.

                The final stipulation of a goal which is specific is the attempt to differentiate ethics from epistemology. Rather than bring a record of any and all experience, the ethical experience is thus by definition instrumental, the means or not, to some identifiable end or goal.

                In the hope that the preceeding remarks have made the hypothesis we are scrutinizing sufficiently clear, we now proceed to the demonstration of the hypothesis.

                The demonstration will focus on the requirement that a given decision must be rationally justified as the best decision to make in a given circumstance. It proceeds by pointing out that in good Heraclitan terms one can never encounter exactly the same decision situation twice. Because every human decision situation is unique, we cannot use induction to steady our decision making. To know that a given decision is best in advance we must see that: 

    1) it is rationally justified by the ethical system one uses as a guide to action; 
    2) it clearly will be efficacious in bringing one closer to attainment of the goal sought;  and
    3) it is clearly superior to every other choice which could be made as a means to that goal seen in the frame of the person’s ethical system or of any other ethical system.

    Let us now examine those three requirements in greater depth.

                The requirement that the decision must be rationally justified in one’s ethical system is to note first that one must use some ethical system in the attempt to be wise, otherwise there is no meaning to the word wise. It is also to note that there must be a sequence of logical thought which makes the choice meet a criterion of permissibility or desirability within the ethical system. This will usually be of the nature of a general statement of what is good or desirable in the system as a universal under which the choice in question is subsumed either as an instance of the universal or an instrumentality by which to attain an instance of the universal.

                To require that the choice will be efficacious in bringing one closer to one’s goal is the need to know what works and what doesn’t work in the world. It is almost the requirement of omniscience, but is saved from that need by the act that one can have good ground for expecting something to work, to be instrumental, without having to know everything that works.

                In the third requirement, however, there is no escape from the necessity of omniscience. To know that a choice is best is to foresee that not only is the choice efficacious, but also that it is being compared with all other possible efficacious choices in longitudinal strategies as well as in immediate tactics. To use the analogy of chess, the choice is vindicated as best only if it is a possible move which maximizes one’s chance of winning among all possible move and sequence-of-move choices.

                The proof of the hypothesis that no man is wise rests squarely upon the proposition that no man is omniscient, which omniscience is the precondition for being able to make the best choice of action, among all possible actions among all possible strategies of action in the known contingencies of a virtually infinite universe.

                Assuming that the hypothesis that no man is wise is now proven, we now proceed to explicate some of the consequences which ensue from the truth of that proposition.

                Corollary 1. A person may come closer to wisdom, as the following factors increasingly obtain, singly or in concert.

                a. The more he knows about the universe, both its usual operations and the specific state variables at any given moment, the wiser he can become.

                b. The more he understands his own potential courses of action, the wiser he can become.

                c. The fewer are the variables with which he has to deal (the more controlled the situation is), the wiser he can become.

                d. The more powerful his ethical system is in helping him to make practical decisions and correct instrumental decisions, the wiser he can become.

                But to be wiser is not necessarily to be wise.

                Corollary 2. If a man cannot be wise, that is also saying he cannot be moral. His ethical system may enable him to desire to be moral, but if his system cannot deliver sure justified moral decisions in advance, any adherent of the system can never in that system be a moral person. Moral in this sense is equivalent to being wise.

                Corollary 3. Every imposition of one man’s will upon another against that second person’s will is an unjustified  ego-trip. If no man is wise or moral, what justification is there for forcing one’s will upon another? All such force is unwise and immoral. That puts nearly all human social systems into the shambles of self-serving hypocrisy.

  • MONISM OR DUALISM?

    Chauncey C. Riddle

                The purpose of this paper is to delineate some of the factors pertinent to a monistic conception of man as contrasted with a dualistic conception. In the monistic thinking presently in vogue, man is seen as a material being wholly governed by laws of the universe as discovered and formulated by science. Some persons grant that man has a spirit, but in their accounts of and treatment of man, the spiritual aspect is nonfunctional; such persons may appear to be dualists but are here classed as functional monists. The dualistic concept entertained in this paper posits mortal man as a spirit, which is the real person, and a body, which is the tabernacle of the spirit person. Though the spirit as well as the body is of a material nature, dualism obtains because each represents a different order of matter; this difference is manifest in that the set of laws and influences governing the spirit aspect of man is different from that which governs the fleshly body. Basic to this whole discussion, of course, is the assumption that law and order govern all things in the universe, that all events are caused and that there is a regularity or uniformity in the universe.

                The thesis of this paper is that the key concepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ have consistency and significance only when one conceives of mortal man as a dualistic being, these values being lost if a monistic conception is adopted. The key concepts here discussed are the Fall of Adam, agency, spirituality, sin, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, salvation, and righteousness.

                The Fall:  Before the fall, Adam and Eve were in a monistic state, we may presume, because they were subject to only one set of laws and influences, those of God. Their whole being was of a spiritual order, with spirit matter being the life-substance of their bodies. In this condition they had no freedom; they simply responded positively to the commands of the Father.

                The influence of Satan in tempting Eve and Adam in the garden brought a new and opposing set of forces and laws to bear. The Father granted Adam and Eve freedom in the garden in that he allowed the influence of Satan to work upon them and allowed them to choose between his influence and that of Satan. Having chosen to obey Satan in rejecting the counsel of the Father, the promised death came upon our first parents. In this death their bodies were rendered spiritually dead; spirit was replaced by blood in their veins and their bodies lost the ability to perceive things of a spiritual order.

                Fallen Adam was a paradigm of dualism in that his body was fully of the order of what we call physical matter, subject to the laws and forces of a fallen realm, while his spirit, trapped within the physical body was fully of the order of what we call physical matter, subject to the laws and forces of a fallen realm, while his spirit, trapped within the physical body, was yet subject to the laws and forces of the spiritual order of the universe. The true person, the spirit, was now set in opposition the the physical body, since each was subject to a different set of laws and forces. The fall was thus a sundering of man resulting in a duality. This duality is the basis of both conflict and progress in the individual person.

                What would the fall become if man were construed monistically? Under a monism, death could only be physical, and if literal, the death of the body. Since physical death is explicitly not an immediate part of the fall, a monist must reject a literal interpretation. When the spiritual death of the fall is construed non-literally, is is usually seen either as a change of place, the process of being cast out of the presence of God, or as a change of the nature of man. Change of  place, removal from the Garden of Eden, did occur, but this sort of change cannot alone account for the scriptures concerning the fall. If man’s monistic nature were considered to change in the fall, that change could only be accounted for by external forces. Because under a monistic system there is only one set of laws and forces, there could be no meaningful choice, and thus Adam could not be held responsible for his fall. If Adam was not held responsible for his fall, he is likewise not responsible in any way to the opportunity of redemption. This, of course, renders the Gospel meaningless.

                Agency:  Freedom is the opportunity to choose; agency is power. Man’s agency is then the freedom to choose and the power to attain what is chosen. Whereas God is completely free, man is but infinitesimally free. But man is free enough to respond to the influence of God, by means of which influence to become like God, or to respond to Satan and by means of that contrary influence to become like Satan.

                The agency of man, then, is limited, specific. It is a freedom given of God to the spirit in man to become free of the governing and controlling influence of one’s own physical body. It is the freedom and power to respond to the commandments of God through the Holy Spirit, thus bringing the flesh into subjection to the spirit by denying the power and influence of Satan, which operates through the flesh. A father Lehi puts it, the agency of man is to be free according to the flesh. When that freedom is full and final, the body of man functions only under the powers, forces, and influences of the spiritual order of existence. This is to say that Satan never again has power over that being. He is free forever.

                If man is construed monistically, freedom from the flesh makes no sense, for this monistic  man is only flesh. If monistic man feels free it it either a psychological illusion or simply a physical freedom of a physical body to act without restraint. Under a monism, self-discipline is meaningless, for all discipline is a thing which must be superimposed upon a person by external force. Monistic freedom is the absence of that dualistic freedom, the discipline of the body by the spirit, which the Gospel affords.

                Spirituality: In the Gospel, spirituality is the condition of the spirit of a person being responsive to the commandments and influences of God, specifically the influence of the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is manifest in the control of the flesh wherein the walk, talk, eating, drinking, work, etc., of a person are models of fulfilling the words of the prophets of God to the degree to which the person is spiritual. The more spiritual a person is, the more complete and absolute will be the discipline of the spirit over the body.

                It should not be supposed that spirituality enjoins what is often called “asceticism.” While self-denial is a frequent action of the spiritual person, pleasure of itself is not considered to be an evil. But pleasure is not sought for its own sake by a spiritual person. Such an one seeks first the kingdom of God and then to establish in the earth the righteousness of God. In line of duty of serving God and blessing his fellowmen, the spiritual person will strive for health, cleanliness, comeliness, strength and skill. But these are sought as means, not as ends. They are means by which to glorify God and to build his kingdom, and are an integral part of the control of the appetites and proclivities of the physical tabernacle of the spirit. Furthermore, this control when sought for the glory of God redounds to the blessing of the person spiritually and temporally. Part of these blessings will be pleasure that is pure, unmixed with lust, because it is allowed rather than sought. Pleasure that is spiritually pure does not turn to pain, regret, and remorse of conscience as do pleasures sought to fulfill the appetites of the flesh.

                Especially noteworthy is that the more spiritual a person becomes, the less he will depend upon physical evidence through the flesh as to what he believes. This does not mean he ignores physical evidence; he accepts the responsibility of accounting for it, but he believes and interprets all things as he is instructed by the Holy Spirit. He will not judge on the basis of physical appearance only.

                Under a monistic system, spirituality must be classed with insanity. Since the bodies of men are demonstrably very similar, any person who does not respond “normally” to physical stimulus must be tagged as “abnormal”–insane. The more spiritual one is, the more suspect he would become to the monistic mind. Persons with great self-control cause those without it to wonder and to feel uncomfortable. To sin a little, to laugh at the possibility of perfection, to justify pleasure sought for its own sake are normal to the monist. Youth, strength, and worldly learning are honored above all else in the monistic thinking because they represent the fullest accomodation to and power in the realm of the physical, the realm of the flesh.

                The monist also has a curious insistence on omniscience. He will not pretend actually to know all things, but will assert that he does know all the factors pertinent to a given social problem and can therefore prescribe its solution. Thus he reserves to himself a practicing omniscience. Having denied the existence and influence of God as a Naturalist, he finds it necessary to pronounce himself at least a demi-god in order to justify rationally his practical decisions. Or if not himself, at least his leader, who then becomes the demi-god. Judging by appearance and arrogating to himself sufficiency, the monist has left a trail of blood, slavery and failure, confronted only occasionally by a John the Baptist or a Socrates who points our that he doesn’t really know what he is doing. But the monist has ways of dealing with John and with Socrates.

                To a monist, spiritual people are indistinguishable from spiritualists—those possessed of evil spirits; both are classed as insane because they do not act “normally.” History shows that what is “normal” changes from age to age. There are vogues in what is socially acceptable from time to time, fostering first one species and degree of carnality, then another. But the Gospel is the same in every age:  dominion of spirit over body through the gifts of God through Jesus Christ.

                Sin:  Sin in the Gospel is breaking a commandment of God; it is acting to yield to the influence of the world upon the flesh rather than a responding to the influence of God upon the spirit. Faith is willing obedience to God’s Holy Spirit, and whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Sin is the triumph of the flesh over the spirit, and is therefore the triumph of Satan over the person.

                In the monistic system there is no meaningful concept of sin. People are said to act strictly according to their heredity and environment, and are not to be blamed for any act, since they are not free. To change people’s actions is simply to change the influences that touch them. Monists say that it is institutions of society that control mens’ actions. This is why control of educational programs and information media are crucial to the monist—though he never can quite account for how the governor of the system can himself escape what he is trying to cure in those whom he “benevolently” controls. The monist does not fathom the concept of repentance, because it, too, has no meaning in his thought. He will look upon sexual sin as “normal” and excuse any offender as is that were a light thing. Should he be a church worker, he sees social control (socialism) as the ultimate panacea, and thinks that in promoting social control he is doing God a favor.

                The Atonement:  The atonement of Jesus Christ is the central and crowning concept of the Gospel. In living a perfect life as a dual being, Christ overcame the power of Satan. His life was the great triumph of spirit over flesh, the example and pattern for all mankind. In his death, the Savior climaxed that triumph by seizing from Satan the keys of death. Through his suffering in taking the bitter cup, the Savior satisfied the demands of justice, making possible for all men an eternity free from the consequences of their sins. Through the sacrifice of his life, the Savior made it possible for all men to be raised again in the resurrection with a spiritual, physical body, thereafter to serve God through the spirit in eternity. As in Adam man became dual and fallen, even so in Christ men may be made spiritual and whole again, redeemed to the spiritual order of existence of their own choice.

                In a monistic system, the Atonement of Christ can only be the suffering and death of just another person, having efficacy for us only as it might affect us in a physical way. A monist would see the Atonement at best as a symbol, as a noteworthy deed, as an ultimate protest. But he will see no connection between the shedding of the Savior’s blood and the forgiveness of our sins, since the physical world affords no such causal connections; in fact, he is likely to be appalled by this idea and see it as a barbaric superstition. Thus it is possible for one who in the relative innocence of youth was cleansed and forgiven through the blood of Christ might later in a state of monistic “erudition” to shed the blood of Christ afresh and put him to an open shame, not being able to see any point in the Atonement and thus rejecting Christ as savior.

                Salvation:  Salvation in the Gospel is to come to be beyond the power of one’s enemies. It is a thing of degree, progressing step by step as the spirit of a person triumphs over his own flesh through faith in Jesus Christ. Considered in the aspect of being able to stop sinning, salvation is self-denial of the lusts of the flesh, and the ultimate demonstration of it is in voluntarily giving up the life of the body. Only in our death is salvation fully manifest and only in willingness to die is it fully attainable. To be free of the control of the flesh, through faith in Christ and in death, is to be forever free from Satan. If through the Savior we also gain a remission of the sins we have committed and attain the character of Christ, we can then go on to inherit all that Christ has.

                But salvation for the monist is quite opposite. It is ease, opulence, pleasure, comfort, and security for the flesh. The greatest of all evils for the monist is pain, though pain is challenged for that position by death. The body is the object of concern, the thing to pamper and perpetuate. Sacrifice of things material is a great misfortune. Indeed, the monist conceives it the moral obligation of every man who has physical salvation to furnish it to everyone who does not; thus the monist chooses forceful redistributive socialism over freedom of choice and conscience with faithful monistic regularity. He does not even comprehend the voluntary charity of a free agent, since he cannot comprehend either charity or agency in the Gospel sense.

                Righteousness:  In the gospel, righteousness is the way a man acts towards his neighbor when he has overcome the flesh through Christ. It is the power and authority of a saved being  blessing others in leading them to Christ. A righteous man is concerned about both the physical and the spiritual needs of his fellowmen, but has no illusion that the physical needs are greater. He has kept the great law, and loves the Savior with all his heart, might, mind and strength. And because he has kept the commandments of Christ, he is able then to love his fellowman with the same pure love that he receives from the Savior. His goal is to make a heaven on earth where all who want to be saved can be saved, where Christ and his pure love reign supreme, where spirit has triumphed over the flesh. This involves concern for the temporal, for the material circumstances of men, as well as the spiritual. But the spiritual aspect of things is always seen as the key to progress in the material realm.

                For the monist, righteousness has little meaning because sin has little meaning. To the monist, righteousness could be but conformity to human norms. The problem which the monist ever pursues is how to make a society of pleasure-seeking people productive enough to give each person all the fleshly freedom and pleasure he or she wants. Since that goal ha never been attained (and obviously, to a dualist, cannot be attained), the substitute is slavery. With slavery at least some can enjoy fleshly freedom and pleasure, even if others have to suffer. Thus the long series of social arrangements to perpetuate control of one person by another; clergy over lay, nobles over commoners, powerful over weak, educated over uneducated, majority over minority, voters over taxpayers, caste systems, party members over non-party members, etc.,–all bolstered by religious or moralizing theories, and all anti-Christ.

                Now the real question of the whole matter is simply this:  Is the universe monistic or dualistic? If the universe is monistic, then all the attendant ideas so abhorent to the dualist are true, and the dualist is indeed insane. But if the universe is dualistic, if there is a real Savior Jesus Christ in opposition to and opposed by a real Satan, then man is a dual being, spirit opposed to flesh, and the monist is indeed in sin.

                The answer would seem to lie within the individual. Does he acknowledge the voice of conscience which warns him not to yield to the lusts of the flesh? Has he sought for the influence of God through humble prayer? Has he experimented with the word of God to see if the promises are fulfilled? The testimony of the prophets is plain. They teach us of God. They teach of dualism. They teach us to experiment honestly with our own conscience, to observe the fruits of doing the best which we know. It would seem that only the honest in heart can acknowledge the things of God, and that only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness can fully find the means by which to come unto God.

    “The whole purpose of life is to bring under subjection the animal passions, proclivities, and tendencies, that we might realize the companionship always of God’s Holy Spirit.”

    David O. McKay

  • Keys for Interpreting the Scriptures

    1. The fullness of the scriptures is the key to knowledge.

    The scriptures do not bring knowledge of themselves, for they are only sets of inkblots on paper. But as those inkblots are examined carefully and prayerfully, they become an occasion for revelation from the Savior, Jesus Christ, through the Holy Ghost. Those revelations are the word of God, which is his law, Willing, heartfelt obedience to that revelation is faith in Jesus Christ. As a person lives by that faith, that person gains knowledge of the being and ways of God. The fullness of the scriptures provides what a person needs to ponder to begin the process of knowing God. Thus the fullness of the scriptures is the key to knowledge. (Luke 11:53, Inspired Version.)

    2. There is a parallel between things spiritual and things physical. All things physical have a spiritual counterpart.

    Whenever the scriptures tell a story or mention a physical counterpart, whatever is being discussed physically has a spiritual counterpart which should be sought. For instance, the ark that Noah built to save animals and righteous souls from the great flood is a representation of the New and Everlasting Covenant which will save every righteous soul from the flood of evil which the scriptures call “the world.” Every so-called temporal commandment is a representation of the spiritual wisdom which will save human beings. For instance, the word of wisdom as given in D&C 89 is a representation of the wisdom of God which will save every person spiritually, even as physical commandments help a person physically. (D&C 29)

    3. It is the spiritual side of existence which drives the physical, not vice-versa.

    It is sometimes tempting to believe that physical things govern themselves, that the physical universe is a great clock which just clicks on with all of its gears meshing. A fundamental contrary truth of the universe is that everything physical is governed and controlled by the spiritual order of existence. For instance, most people believe that when a storm comes, it does so because it is simply the play of atmospheric forces at work. While indeed there are aspects of atmospheric physics at work, all is governed and controlled by the hand of God. Thus there never was a storm which did not accomplish that which God wanted it to do. To please God, we must recognize his hand in all things. (D&D 59)

    4. We should liken the scriptures unto ourselves.

    The real fruit of all scripture is to help each individual to receive and to be faithful to the present revelations of God as they are teceived by that person at a given moment. The value of reading the scriptures, is, then to inquire of the Lord constantly as to how what we are reading applies to our own present personal situation and predicaments. Knowing the scriptures does not of itself save us in any way. But making application of the scriptures to our daily lives as Christ gives us promptings is the very thing that will bring us to the Savior that he might save us. For that is Faith in Christ. (1 Nephi 19:43)

    This principle is a species of a more general principle which would have us liken all things unto ourselves.  Whenever we see any person speaking or acting we should ask ourselves what we would and should do in that situation as covenant servants of the Savior. Whenever we see a problem to be solved, we should ask ourselves how that problem might be solved in the Savior’s way. Since the formation of a Christ-like character is our most important and precious accomplishment in this world, and since character is formed by making correct decisions and then carrying them out without procrastination, likening all things to ourselves and making these correct responses is the process of salvation. Likening all things to ourselves and responding as Christ would is the process of taking upon ourselves the divine nature

    The scriptures are especially helpful in the process of likening all things to ourselves because we see there both the acts of good and godly men and those of evil men. And to be constantly in the presence of good and godly men is a great blessing to help us do as they do, we can live with them in our imagination and burn into our souls the values, beliefs and action patterns of those godly men.

  • Temptation

    Temptation is an opportunity to sin to which we are strongly attracted. We have opportunity to commit many sins which we find not at all attractive. Why the difference? What tempts us is our own desires. If we have thought upon some act, some object, some experience, and have thought how delicious that would be, we have thus desired that thing. Having desired something, we have lowered the barriers of judgment and good sense which normally keep us out of trouble. When that trouble suddenly stares us in the face as we turn some corner, we embrace it because we have already embraced its idea. The only cure for sinning is to purify our desires, to search with honesty the depths of our souls, and to reject every evil thing whose idea we have ever embraced.

  • Bondage

    Human bondage: The condition wherein a given human being lacks the ability to choose and/or to act relative to a certain opportunity, as seen by an omniscient observer or as approximated by human understanding Bondage is the complement of agency.

    1.   Physical bondage

    Synonyms: Slavery, serfdom, imprisonment

    • Definition:
    • a.   The location, change of location, and physical activities of a normal adult human being are controlled by some agency other than his own will.
    • b.   A person is deprived of a physical body and thus cannot do those things which a physical body makes possible.

    Ultimate: Death

    • Examples:
    • Russian peasant, 1784, 1984
    • U.S. Negro in Georgia, 1820
    • Feudal serf, England, 1100
    • Inmate in a penitentiary.
    • An unembodied spirit.
    • Drug addict.
    • Non-examples:
    • A small child being carried by his or her mother.
    • A patient in intensive care.

    Controls: Food, freedoms, guns, chains, iron curtains, promises.

    Opposite: Freedom to go anywhere and to do anything that can be done physically.

    Release: Increase of strength and/or might.

    2.   Intellectual bondage

    Synonyms: Intellectual blindness, being brain-washed.

    Definition: The knowledge, ideas, and thinking of a normal human being are controlled by other agent(s), possibly against his will and possibly unbeknownst to him.

    Ultimate: Lobotomy

    • Examples:
    • Cuban subject for whom all media presentations and educational opportunities are carefully controlled.
    • A member of a church who is prevented from learning of other churches and religions.
    • Non-examples:
    • Students in a university class who are exposed to a variety of ideas and positions on the same subject.
    • A child who believes his father and mother, knowing other beliefs which other people have which differ from his parents’ beliefs.

    Controls: Opportunities to learn, shame, rejection, grades.

    Opposite: To have a thorough understanding of all options on an issue. To have a complete understanding of all existence, of all possibilities and of all issues.

    Release: Increase of mind.

    3.   Emotional bondage

    Synonyms: Neurosis, psychosis, self-pity, self-justification.

    Definition: The feelings of an adult human being are self-controlled to create misery, the condition of an unhappily divided self. This self-destruction is often performed unconsciously, unbeknownst to that person himself.

    Ultimate: Insanity

    • Examples:
    • One who is enraged at the economic injustices of his society.
    • One who feels unloved.
    • One who is bitter about how his family treats him.
    • Non-examples:
    • Feeling temporary grief at the loss of a loved one.
    • Feeling sorrow for one’s sins.
    • Feeling sorrow for another person’s sins.

    Controls: Authorities, culture, which teach a person that he is not responsible for his own feelings, that feelings are just things which “happen” to a person.

    Opposite: A person who through correct ideas and habits has achieved the ability to feel any way he desires to feel, regardless of any influence his environment may have on him.

    Release: Increase of mind to understand every person feels only that which he desires to feel (speaking of emotion, not of sensation), plus increase of self-discipline to feel only positive emotions (gratitude, love, forgiveness).

    4.   Spiritual bondage

    Synonyms: Spiritual death, spiritual impotence, the bondage of sin.

    Definition: The spiritual experiences and powers of a person are limited to evil sources because of his sins.

    Ultimate: To suffer the second death.

    • Examples:
    • One who prays and receives no answer from the Lord.
    • One who lays his hands on to heal, but nothing good happens.
    • One who wonders but cannot gain a testimony of the Restored Gospel.
    • Non-examples:
    • One who gives up a promising career to fulfill a church calling.
    • One who does everything which the scriptures suggest.

    Controls: Pleasure taken for its own sake, social power and esteem, physical strength used selfishly, indulging in evil thoughts and feelings, not using one’s might to serve God.

    Opposite: To have a fullness of spiritual gifts and spiritual power such that the powers of Satan and the powers of the earth can restrain that person no longer.

    Release: Increase of heart, might, mind and strength through forgiveness of sins (thus not to have to carry the weight of those sins and to suffer the lack of spiritual opportunity which those sins make necessary). This forgiveness is made possible only through the atonement of Jesus Christ and is available to men only through accepting and living by the laws and ordinances of the Restored Gospel.

    5.   The bondage of desire

    Synonyms: Selfishness, perversion, self-indulgence.

    Definition: The situation of a divided person, part of whom desires that which is good, the other part desires that which is evil. Desiring that which is evil is the bondage of desire.

    • Examples:
    • A medical doctor who smokes.
    • A poor man who desires to be righteous, but who lusts after is neighbor’s wealth.
    • A missionary who desires to help people understand the Restored Gospel but who thinks lascivious thoughts.
    • Non-examples:
    • A poor man who wishes he could help his equally poor neighbor.
    • An ill person who desires to have the strength to fill a mission.

    Controls: Habit, past history.

    Opposite: One who has first reduced his needs and desires to zero, and then has come to desire with all of his heart that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord.

    Release: Increase of understanding until one understands that which is good and right, then increase of self-discipline until one desires only that which is good and right. This is the achieving of a pure heart.

    6.   The ultimate (and independent variable) bondage is the bondage of desire. The bondage of desire is always the self-imposed bondage of desiring evil. As a Latter-day Saint disciplines himself to reduce his own personal needs (desires) to nothing, and at the same time learns fervently to desire those godly things which are shown to him by the Holy Ghost, he begins to be one person (to have integrity), to be a whole person (to be sanctified), and to be a new person, born again as a child and servant of Jesus Christ. That process is of course partly unavailable to a person who does not have the opportunity to accept the Restored Gospel. They may learn this unselfishness and implement it to a degree through the light of Christ, but one needs the gift of the Holy Ghost to find the fullness.

    7.   But if a person hears and accepts the Restored Gospel and then is born again of the water and of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit then teachers him what is good and right that he may be able to desire what is good and right in all things eventually. He then has the opportunity to achieve a pure heart. A pure heart is a heart so trained to choose only that which is good and right that it never deviates from that choice. That training is done by each individual person as he allows himself only to desire that which is good and right. This is the agency of man: to choose what is good and right through the Savior, or to choose captivity and death through the flesh (and with the help of Satan). A pure heart is not the result of one such choice. It is the result of a long, unbroken series of such choices. Another way to describe such a long series is to say it is to learn to love the Lord with all of our heart, might, mind and strength.

    8.   A person who has a pure heart is able to bring himself to do the very best he knows to do in any and every situation of choice in his life. The first thing which a pure heart enables him to do is to gain control of his feelings so that he never feels any emotions except gratitude, love and forgiveness. This sets him free emotionally. Being free emotionally, he can then of his own present power minimize the intellectual and physical bondage in his life. If the Restored Gospel is available to him, it is possible for him to achieve elimination of the spiritual bondage altogether. But what can a person do if he does not know the Restored Gospel? He can do the best that he knows to do. The best one knows is to respond to the light of Christ rather than to the adversary. As one responds to that light, desiring and choosing the best he knows to do, one begins to feel better about himself and to be able to see the truth of things about himself and the Savior more clearly. Eventually that spiritual discipline of doing the best that he knows to do will lead him to accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ when it is presented to him. Through the Restored Gospel and its ordinances (through the gifts and mercy of the Savior), he may obtain eventual release from every degree of each bondage. To know the truth is to become free, and to be free indeed.

    9.   In the beginning man is not free. Each person suffers two versions of each kind of bondage except the bondage of desire, which is always totally self-imposed. The other bondages consist of bondage imposed upon him by others and also of bondage imposed upon himself by himself. The real freedom which this world affords it to desire and to choose what is right, this to be released from all self-imposed bondage. He who thus releases himself is then a candidate to be released from all other bondage by the Savior.

    10. To reject the light of the Savior is to reject all of the good in one’s self, to reject righteousness, to reject freedom, and to reject increase. In other words, to reject that light is to be damned. Because our God is what and who he is, that damnation is always self-imposed. We conclude that though every human being is born to self-awareness, each being is fettered in the chains of multiple bondages, and ultimately each of these bondages is self-imposed.

    11. He who avails himself of the freedom to increase through the Savior will be able to enjoy increase forever, even eternal increase. All of which begins with the freedom to desire what is good and right.