LeGrand L. Baker

Category: Essay

  • 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 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.

  • I Give Thanks

    This is in response to the request by President Russell M. Nelson’s recent plea on November 20, 2020 to #GiveThanks with a daily post to social media for 7 days.

    I give thanks #6 – November 29, 2020

    Consider the marvel of the planet on which we reside, earth. So delicately balanced for heat and cold, light and darkness, air and water, plants and animals, minerals and soil to provide a wonderful habitat for human probation. All bespeaks the hand of a careful creator, though some prefer to give the credit to blind chance. But thanks be to the gods who put all things in order for our wonderful habitat. Those persons of a spiritual inclination see that appreciation for nature is one form of worshiping that generous God who gave us all this.

    What a miracle it is to drop a seed in the ground and have it reliably turn into a tomato plant or a melon vine. What a blessing that sun and rain bless the ground so plentifully in most places. What a blessing that this earth can sustain billions of God’s children and could support many times more people than there are now were it not for selfishness and greed.

    Part of our human probation and training for godhood is the opportunity to deal with the delightful earthly environment with which we have been blessed. May we each prove appreciative of this great blessing and strive to leave our physical surroundings better, cleaner, more productive than we found them.

    How grateful we should be!

    I give thanks #5 – November 28, 2020

    Because of the Fall of Adam all accountable humans are in the power of Satan and sin, breaking the commandments of God. Having sinned, we become unclean, and no unclean thing can come back to the presence of our Father in Heaven. Some sin much, some sin little. But we all sin and would be lost forever were it not for our Savior.

    But Christ is of sin the double cure: He saves from wrath and makes us pure. He saves those who accept his atonement from the punishment justice demands for their having sinned. And he makes us pure by teaching us to repent, to replace each of our ways of disobedience with coming into the strait and narrow way of righteousness.”Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1: 18)

    Could there be a blessing greater than having a Savior? Could there be a human action wiser than giving ourselves to follow our Savior, to become his humble imitators? There is hope for all of us, but only in true faith in Jesus Christ.

    I give thanks #4 – November 27, 2020

    One of the greatest blessings of being a human is to have a physical body. We are not that body. The real “us” is our eternal intelligence (person) clothed in a spirit body given to us by our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. Our physical body is a temporary “loaner” from our Heavenly Parents to see what we will do with it while it lasts. How we use it determines what kind of physical body we will be rewarded with for the rest of eternity: celestial, terrestrial, telestial, or perdition.

    The basic options for use of our mortal human tabernacle are to use it to bless others or to use it strictly for our own imagined pleasures. The first option is called righteousness and the second is called selfishness. Almost all humans try both to see how they feel about each, then settle into a pattern favoring one or the other.

    The greatest power our Heavenly parents have given us is to use this physical tabernacle to beget children, to bless other spirits with physical bodies. Satan hates this power because he will never have a physical body and tries to destroy as many human bodies as he can through wars, murders, drug use, celibacy, etc. But his favorite tactic is to entice humans to murder their own children. Anciently he did this by getting his followers to pass their children through fire as a sacrifice to some fictitious god. Today he prevails upon humans to kill their children in the womb, preferably at conception.

    Blessed are those humans who choose righteousness and bless others, especially their own children.

    I give thanks #3 – November 26, 2020

    Father has given his human children two great gifts to guide them away from the grasp of his unfaithful son to be able to follow his faithful son. The first is conscience, the light of Christ which lightens every human being, and which brings to each of us feeling of what is right to do and what is wrong to do. The second is the Holy Ghost which brings to those who accept the light of Christ and try to do what is right a witness that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind. If any human accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and makes the covenant to remember and to serve Christ always, then the Holy Ghost will bring to each accepting soul a knowledge of the truth in any matter where the person needs it.

    Thus accepting a feeling for righteousness is the first step to salvation from eternal servitude to the unfaithful son. The second step is to accept the witness that Jesus is the appointed Savior of mankind, then to accept Christ through the covenant of baptism, then to follow the Holy Ghost until we gain a new being in the image of Christ himself, full of righteousness and truth.

    Oh the graciousness of our Father in giving us these two great gifts to guide our mortality!

    I give thanks #2 – November 25, 2020

    Because Father so loved his children, he sent his unfaithful son to cause his human children to fall in dying both spiritually and temporally to create a mortal situation. But this fallen condition made each child an agent, the perfect context for each of Father’s children to choose for himself or herself what each would be happiest doing in eternity. The context and agency were made complete when Father also sent his faithful son, the Son of Man (of Holiness), to atone for the sins of all mankind and to bring about the resurrection of each person. And messengers were sent to Adam and Eve and all of their children so that they could know how to be saved from the power of the unfaithful son by committing to and following the faithful son, Jesus Christ. Thus it is that all who love blessing others like the faithful son can become free from the power of the unfaithful son by binding themselves to the faithful son to become like him and by rejecting the messages from the unfaithful son.

    That is why I am so grateful for the faithful son, Jesus Christ, and his precious gospel.

    I give thanks #1 – November 24, 2020

    I am thankful for my Heavenly Father. “Man of Holiness” is his name because he only does that which blesses others. In him there is no selfishness of any kind. His actions are one eternal round of creating and blessing. Because he does no evil and is dependable in doing all the good that can be done, he is trusted by everyone and everything in the universe that is not satanic. All the elements of the universe obey and worship him because of his goodness. This gives him great power to bless. He became a God by choosing righteousness over evil. And he blesses all of his children with that same opportunity.

  • Righteousness vs Preparing to Be Righteous

    8 December 2019
    by Chauncey C Riddle

    Brothers and Sisters, I rejoice in this opportunity to speak to you. Being the oldest member of this ward, this is probably the only time I will ever be asked to address you. My task here is to say what the Lord would have me say, and I have spent many hours searching out what he would have me say. Your task is to dissect everything I say so that you understand me, but then not believe a word that I say. But you are bound by and will be judged by what the Holy Ghost tells you while I am speaking. Do believe the Holy Ghost and do what he tells you to do.

    But remember that there are two spirits speaking to you while I speak. Satan will entice you not even to listen to me or to interpret what I say incorrectly, while the Holy Ghost will tell you what our Savior wants you to hear and to do after hearing what I say. You are the agent that will choose.

    The topic I have been sent to discuss with you is the difference between doing a righteous act and preparing to do righteous acts.

    A righteous act is blessing some other person or thing as one is instructed by the Savior and done at some personal sacrifice of our own. It must be done as instructed by our Savior because he is the true vine and we are the branches who can bring forth no good fruit except we do it in him. It must be done at some personal sacrifice of our own because only then is it our true gift to the person we bless. Preparation for doing a righteous act is repenting and increasing our faith in Jesus Christ so that we can truly do our Savior’s quality of work in blessing others. Preparatory acts are necessary and good things to do. Acts of righteousness are the best things to do. Let us not confuse the two.

    Our Savior gave us a parable to impress upon us the difference between preparation and real righteousness:  And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise, a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him,

    Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. (Luke 10:30-35)

    Most people see this parable as simply a lesson on who is our neighbor. It is. But the larger message is how do I love my neighbor instead of myself. And here many people get confused. They think they are supposed first to love themselves and then love their neighbor the same way. I submit to you that that is not what the Lord intends. He intends that we love our neighbor instead of loving ourselves. Do not confuse self-love with self-respect. We must respect all that God has given us: a body, a life, opportunity to serve. And that is what this parable shows among other things. The principal other thing it shows is the difference between preparation for righteousness and righteousness itself. The priest and the Levite doubtless were very observant of the instructions of the Law of Moses and prayed and fasted and performed sacrifices of blood on the altar. Praying, fasting and performing sacrifices on the altar were good things to do, but they are preparation to do righteous acts, not righteous acts in and of themselves. We do not know what preparation the Samaritan performed, but we know he did rise to the opportunity to bless another person in real need and at his own expense of time and money. Thus, the Samaritan did acts of true righteousness and the priest and the Levite shrank from true righteousness in spite of all their preparation to do righteous acts.

    Another word for righteousness is charity, and charity is the pure love of Christ. It is the pure love that comes from Christ and ministers to those in need as the one who ministers, has compassion on the one in need to do acts inspired by Christ. All good things humans do come from Christ and are inspired by Christ, for we are nothing without him. Our Savior said:

    I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
    Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 
    Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 
    Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
    I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
    If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 
    If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
    Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
    As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
    If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. 
    These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
    This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15: 1-13)

    The fruit the Lord wants to bear is righteousness, not just preparation for doing righteous acts. But he also wants us to be well prepared to bless our neighbors.

    What are the acts by which we prepare to bless our neighbors? Let us recount and define some of them.

    1. Repenting of our sins is the unique preparation for exercising true faith in Christ unto baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. Repenting is thus preparation for ministering to others as instructed by the Holy Ghost, which is righteousness.
    2. Praying sincerely to God for forgiveness of our sins and for the guidance of God is indispensable preparation for performing the acts of faith in Christ which are the sacrifices of righteousness.
    3. Fasting is a wonderful way to enhance prayer, a good thing to do often, but it is good preparation rather than righteousness itself.
    4. Partaking of the sacrament to renew our covenants is a good thing to do, but is preparation for rather than righteousness itself, as is attending our church meetings.
    5. Receiving our own endowments in the temple is a wonderfully good thing to do, but it is preparation rather than righteousness itself.
    6. Being sealed to an eternal companion in the temple according to God’s law is a magnificent and good preparation for righteousness but is not of itself righteousness.
    7. Studying the scriptures is wonderful preparation, but of itself is not the crowning work of righteousness.
    8. Meditating in the Spirit of the Lord is wonderful and good, but is preparation.

    It should be plain that all these good things are great preparation, but of themselves, they do nothing to help our neighbor who lies helpless because he has been robbed and beaten by the servants of Satan.

    If we do all of these things, we are uniquely prepared to be inspired by our Savior to know exactly what sacrifices we should make to bless the wounded people we encounter. Actually, blessing our neighbor by sacrificing something of our own stewardship in his behalf is the only true righteousness. The following are some of the ways of performing acts of righteousness.

    1. Mothering and fathering, service to our brothers and sisters.
    2. Ministering (assigned or not assigned), especially to the widows and the fatherless.
    3. Presiding.
    4. Fulfilling our church calling.
    5. Teaching the Restored Gospel.
    6. Preaching the Restored Gospel. (Every member a missionary).
    7. Performing or being proxy for temple ordinances for others.

    All can be true righteousness if done in the pure love of Christ and as guided by the Holy Ghost.

    And if we do not bless our neighbor through Christ-inspired sacrifice, we actually curse our neighbor by withholding the blessings Christ wants him or her to have.

    Righteousness is also called charity in the scriptures. Charity is really caring about someone unto preparing ourselves in all humility to administer the blessings Christ would have them have. Paul gives us a good list of defining characteristics of charity in 1 Corinthians 13:

    Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

    A person who gives a great talk in church but who will not minister blessings to his neighbors does not really believe the Gospel of Christ.

    And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

    Having sought and received the gifts of the Holy Ghost is wonderful, but that blessing to him is meaningless unless the one so gifted cares about his neighbors enough to bless their lives.

    And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

    Thus, one can give away everything he has, even his life, and not have it be righteous charity unless the person cares enough about his Savior to come unto Christ and cares enough about his neighbor to minister as Christ would have him do.

    Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

    The person who has attained the pure love of Christ is willing to suffer whatever suffering God allows to be put upon him, and he or she is kind to everyone, friends and enemies alike, and envies no one because he or she has the greatest of all the gifts of God, which is charity. The person who has this charity does not toot his own horn to call attention to himself or herself but avoids all pride by proceeding through life as a humble child of Christ.

    Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

    This person who has true charity never tries to call attention to themselves by their dress, grooming, or actions. They do not seek to feather their own nest, which thing all those who love themselves try unceasingly to do. Those who have charity bear abuse with aplomb, not rising to self-defense except when prompted to do so by the Holy Spirit, and never giving in to anger, which always is prompted by Satan. And they never plot evil against anyone, for that also is always prompted by Satan.

    Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

    The true servants of Christ always lament the evil, the inequities they see around themselves, but they rejoice in the truth of all things, no matter where found.

    Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

    Those faithful to Christ are willing to suffer whatever Christ allows to be put upon them, and they believe all that comes from Christ, hope for every good gift from Christ, and endure all the vicissitudes of mortal life in and by the power of Christ. 

    Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

    If a servant of Christ attains the gift of charity, it will never be taken from them as long as they exercise that gift in ministering to the needs of their neighbors. But if one does not gain charity, then eventually their other gifts of the Holy Spirit will be taken away from them, even their ability to prophesy, the ability to speak in foreign tongues will be taken from them, as will be the special insights of knowledge they have been given. For all the gifts of God are given to mankind so that they may minister righteousness to their neighbors. If they never learn to love and bless their neighbors, they will lose their other gifts from God and just be like all the other natural and fallen persons in this world dominated by Satan.

    For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

    Until we attain the gift of charity because our faithfulness to Christ, all of our other blessings from him are temporary and partial. But when we gain the greatest of all spiritual gifts, that of charity, the pure love of Christ, then and only then can our ministering to others become perfected and complete. When we gain the gift of charity, we will have become as Christ in the most important way that can be done, because the essence of Christ is his pure, selfless love for all other persons and things. When we have become like Christ in that ultimate step, then we will be privileged to know him even as he knows us, which is to know him completely.

    And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

    The greatest gifts God gives to mankind are faith in Christ, hope in Christ and the pure love from Christ. And clearly, the greatest of these gifts, the ultimate fruit of the Holy Spirit, is the ability to minister to our neighbors in the pure love of Christ, which is charity. (1 Corinthians 13: 1-8, 12-13)

    So how does a covenant servant of Christ gain this greatest and most desirable of all the gifts of God? Mormon tells us plainly in the Book of Mormon:  

    And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness. (Moroni 7: 29-30)

    The requirement for receiving the gift of charity is the same requirement to receive the ministering of angels and of coming into the presence of Christ himself. The covenant servant of Christ must pursue faithfulness to Christ until his faith in Christ is so strong and unchallengeable that the servant has attained strong faith and a firmness of mind and will unto the keeping of all of the commandments of Christ. The words of Christ will show us all things we must do to attain life, salvation, and a completeness or perfection of our power to minister in the name of Jesus Christ. Nephi also makes this very clear:

    Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. (2 Nephi 32:3)

    So if we will press forward in the vicissitudes of this fallen world, thrusting aside all of the temptations of Satan until through feasting upon the words of Christ unto receiving from him instruction as to all things we should do, then doing all things he instructs us to do, we will come to know him face to face and will be like him when we see him.

    Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am; (D&C 93:1)

    It is my hope and prayer to be able to truly come unto Christ through calling upon his name unto the faithful keeping of each and every instruction and commandment that he gives me until I see his face and know him as he knows me. For then I will have shown that I truly have taken upon me that greatest gift he has to give, his pure love and his personal ministering to each of his created children. And I desire that blessing for each of you also, that with one accord we can come to the fountain of eternal life and minister the pure love, in righteousness, to others through him, unto all eternity.

    Conclusion: Do diligently prepare to be righteous, but also earnestly fulfill righteousness.

    This talk was constructed as an admonition to myself. And if there is any one person who now hears me who is being helped to come unto Christ and to be perfected in ministering in the pure love of Christ to his or her neighbors, I would be most grateful.

    I bear you my witness that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and that the only true and living church on the face of this earth is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other churches have much truth, and there are many persons who do not now belong to the true Church of Jesus Christ who are good persons and who do much to bless others because of the light of Christ which is in them. When all of Israel has finally been gathered, every soul who loves Christ will have been brought under his influence and love unto a fulness of all that they can stand to receive of his blessings. What a blessed day that will be indeed. And for that day all who love Christ will serve him with as much of their heart, might, mind and strength as they can muster.

    In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

  • Having A Testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ

    Principles of the Gospel in Practice – Sperry Symposium – 1985
    CHAPTER SEVEN

    Chauncey C. Riddle

    The purpose of this paper is to describe the nature of a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. To have a testimony is to know for a certainty that that message is a true message from the true and living God. An understanding of testimony is seen here as an invaluable aid in gaining and strengthening a testimony, should one desire to do so.

    Two thousand years ago when Jesus of Nazareth hung crucified in the Roman province of Judea for everyone to see, there were two distinct interpretations of what was being seen. Some saw the Son of God, the Savior of all mankind, hanging in agony to do the Father’s will. Others saw a pretender from Galilee who had blasphemed God by claiming to be his son and was receiving his just reward. That difference is a witness to the principle that human knowledge does not come by sight only. And it emphasizes the importance of knowing for a surety in all matters of moment. Can we be sure, and if so, how? To answer those questions we must examine what we know about human knowledge. What we are concerned about is the common sense about human knowledge: those matters to which every intelligent, observant human being is able to assent. You, the reader, are called upon as a witness to the truth of the following account.

    1. Human beings and human knowledge.

    We note first that the human being has two parts or aspects. First, there is the outer part wherein the human body plays a conspicuous role; here we humans observe, touch, and communicate about the external world in which we live. This world consists of the earth and nature, other persons, and the human artifacts which compass us. The second part of a human being is the inner world of our own personal thoughts, feelings, and desires; in it are the good, the holy, and the beautiful as well as the bad, the evil, and the ugly. The first is the public arena in which we act and react with the physical universe. The second is the private realm of our ideas, ideals, dreams, and plans. Both of these realms are important. Were we to fail to function relative to either we would be in serious difficulty. Abdication in the private realm is to cease to be autonomous and to become an externally controlled and motivated automaton. Neglect of the public realm fosters incompetence, which in the extreme is called insanity. But normal coping with human life is a careful integration of these two, a cooperative personal response of an intelligent and feeling inner self as it deals with important ideas and values and relates them to the opportunities and demands of an external, real world through a real physical tabernacle. In a world of challenges, opportunities, and dangers, one must draw heavily upon each and coordinate them in order to meet those challenges and dangers successfully and to capitalize on one’s opportunities.

    Corresponding to those two aspects of the human being are two kinds of knowledge or belief. (Much of what we think we know is but belief.) In the public, outer realm we have ideas about the physical world, other people, and things. These ideas we gain through communication with other persons whom we respect (authority), from our thinking about what others say– especially noting that others don’t agree in what they tell us (reason), from our own sensory observations about the outside world (empiricism), and from our noting which ideas and procedures seem to work in the world (pragmatics). We take in evidences from all these sources, knead them into a unified picture of the world and file that picture in our memory. We update or correct that picture at will. That picture is our reality, the best we can do in relating to reality. Some of us are very careful, searching out evidence and piecing the evidence into a consistent whole with diligence. Others of us are fairly casual about the whole thing, not even minding inconsistencies and gaps, changing our ideas only when painful necessity forces us to amend our expectations of the world.

    The other kind of knowledge, the personal sort, is very different. It is heavily involved in values, ideals, desires, and satisfactions. Perhaps the most important facet of this inner world is our experience of the holy. Many persons have a sense that there is something special, something deserving of reverence within their inner realm of consciousness. This may or may not have been initially influenced by other persons. But every human being must cope with this influence and learn on his own how it acts and reacts in his own inner world. What each person needs to learn and will learn if attentive is what happens when he or she yields to the influence of the holy. Part of that learning comes from contrasting yielding to the enticements of that which the inner self feels to be evil, opposing the holy in oneself. Each of us also experiments with yielding to our own desires, trying to ignore feelings of good and bad, right and wrong. Sometimes we don’t even make decisions: we just let things happen. Out of all these experiments and experiences we learn much about ourselves, about what brings happiness and what brings unhappiness, and about that which is prudent, desirable, and effective.

    Since each of us is a person who operates in two worlds, our minds must integrate these two kinds of knowledge in order for us not to be double-minded. That integration is an ideal, perhaps never fully completed. The struggle to gain correct notions in each realm and then to correlate them is the challenge of human life, the basis of drama and pathos, happiness and joy.

    It is important to note that the experiences we have as humans do not uniquely determine what we believe either in the outer or the inner world. Our own desires are important. Our desires enable us to search for the kind of evidence which we wish to have, to reject evidence which goes contrary to our desires, and to integrate only those materials which we wish to, and to the degree to which we desire. We literally create our own universe within the bounds of those experiences which are too painful for us to ignore. Those bounds are quite generous, allowing us much freedom. Each person’s synthesis of the universe is thus a genuine reflection of his or her own desires.

    But if desire is a powerful selecting and ordering factor, so must be our minds. Because much of the evidence we gain from other humans is contradictory, because reason itself is captive to the premises which we furnish it, because our senses do give us ambiguous reports, because what works is never a sure indication of what is, and because we can fool ourselves as to what really happens inside our personal world, we must use all of the power of mind and discernment that we can bring to bear. Skepticism is our friend, insisting that we duplicate evidence, that we rethink, that we probe and try and experiment afresh, that we challenge every idea. Only a healthy skepticism enables us to separate the true and the good from the welter of appearance and opinion. But skepticism, too, can exceed its proper bounds. As it cuts it may begin to decimate that which is reliable and substantial. If we let it, if we so desire, it easily slips into a cynicism that indiscriminately derogates everything. Each of us must balance faith with incredulity, trust with wariness, exuberance with soberness, creativity with responsibility, passion with temperance, hope with realism. Only thus can we create an understanding of the world which will allow us those successes we desire.

    2. Knowledge in matters of religion.

    Let us then suppose that we have become intelligent, coping individuals, that we are making a reasonably good stab at being responsible persons, that we are assets to our communities, and that we are intelligent about truth and value. Our synthesis of the two kinds of knowledge is then beginning to serve our needs and challenges. In this state of intelligent awareness of the universe we are basically prepared to address the most important kinds of questions, those of religion. For religion is about ourselves. What kind of person should we make of ourselves? What habits of feeling and valuing, of thinking and believing, of doing and making should we foster in ourselves? Our own habits are our character. Our character is the most precious achievement and construction of our mortal existence.

    Let us further suppose that our challenge is to ascertain the truthfulness of that particular religion, the restored gospel, church, and priesthood of Jesus Christ as revealed first to the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., and then to a host of others in these latter days. Specifically, let us focus on how one can know that the restored gospel is the true message about salvation for all men from the true and living God. For that message to be true one would need to gather and synthesize enough information to be sure that there is a true and living God, our Father in Heaven, who has sent us his beloved, only begotten Son, whom we should hear. What we hear is that we should believe in the Son, repent of all our sins, choose faithful obedience to him as our sole means of acting, and strive to become perfect in our character (to endure to the end)–all under the personal companionship and tutelage of the Holy Spirit and through the ordinances administered by the authorized priesthood of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While that seems much to prove, it all boils down to one principal feature: Does the Holy Ghost bear witness to our inner self of the truthfulness of these things? As we begin to obey, does that Holy Spirit continue to guide us in paths that we ourselves, judging by our own sense of what is holy, know are good and true?

    As there are two kinds of evidence and knowledge about things in general, so there are two kinds pertaining to the hypothesis that the restored gospel is true. We shall examine each of these kinds of evidences in turn, beginning with the evidences from the external world.

    The first kind of evidence which comes to bear is that of authority. What do the responsible, intelligent people whom we know who have investigated the restored gospel say about it? If they assure us that it is true, we have an important piece of evidence. If they bear negative witness, we must also account for that. But we can only make responsible judgments about other person’s testimonies, positive or negative, when we have gained further evidence of other kinds on our own. We need to have independent evidence as to whether or not the restored gospel is true or false before we can evaluate any person’s testimony. The testimony of other persons is always inconclusive if there is no other evidence available.

    Next is the evidence of reason. What kinds of answers to theological questions go with the restored gospel? Are those answers self-consistent? Are they consistent with the Holy Bible? Is the Book of Mormon consistent with the Holy Bible? Is there a completeness of answers so that every important question has an answer? Is there some consistency about the answers which authorities of the restored Church give? As our reason searches and compares it begins either to be satisfied or dissatisfied. To become either is an important kind of evidence. But this evidence is not conclusive. We can evaluate it only when we get more information from other sources. We cannot know if we should be satisfied or dissatisfied until we know on other grounds whether the restored gospel is true: Then we can evaluate our own reasoning.

    We turn to observation. What can our senses tell us of the truth of the restored gospel? They can tell us that there is an interesting artifact produced by Joseph Smith that we can examine: the Book of Mormon. As we read and examine it, we must ask: Whence came this volume? Could a person who never attended school fabricate out of his imagination such a complex, detailed history which is so internally consistent and which fits into the historical and geographical evidence of today, much of which was not even known to the world in 1830 Detractors of Joseph Smith are unanimous on one point: he was too ignorant to have written it. By whom or how, then, did it come into being? So far the only proffered explanation that fits the known historical facts is the one given by Joseph Smith himself: he received it as a revealed translation of writing on ancient plates of gold. What of the three witnesses who also saw the plates? Their testimony must count for something, especially since each in turn was excommunicated from that Church, yet none ever denied his testimony. There is sufficient meat here for every intelligent mind to cogitate upon. Yet this area is in itself not conclusive, even if we find that we cannot discount Joseph Smith’s explanation of the book. We must yet seek further evidence.

    Another kind of observation which is important is the order of the universe. The motions of the heavens, the intricacy of the plant and animal orders, the complexity and perfection of the human species all raise questions as to their origin and maintenance. Do these things bespeak the hand of a great creator, or are they simply the blind career of chance concatenations of atoms? Some persons are convinced one way, some the other. The net result is that we see again that observation needs interpretation: no set of empirical evidence is self-interpretive or self-warranting. We must seek elsewhere for surety while not forgetting our observations.

    Turning to consideration of pragmatics, we see that there are seeming sociological consequences of accepting the restored gospel. Those who profess belief in the restored gospel have marriage, divorce, birth, and death statistics that are different from the public at large. They seem to have a distinctive cultural pattern that is in accord with the New Testament standards. They prosper wherever they go if they are left alone. These are interesting and valuable correlations. But they do not prove the case. We must yet seek further evidence.

    We see that none of the four external kinds of evidence yields unambiguous assurance of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. While their combination is more powerful than any type by itself, even that conjunction does not yield solid proof. The reason is that each of these is an external evidence. The essence of the restored gospel concerns what goes on inside a person, not outside. We must then turn our attention to the inner realm, not forgetting nor discounting the outer realm, but holding its evidence in abeyance for the moment.

    Inner knowledge concerns the personal private experiments which a person can perform. Before one can experiment he must either believe or desire to believe. One must risk something. This is not to suggest that one must persist in blind faith. But one must begin with the hope that God will answer his prayers. If one believes or desires to believe, he can at least perform the experiments. The experiments will give evidence which will become so sure that his faith is not blind ever after. Each person who is willing to experiment can determine for himself whether the gospel hypothesis is just another romantic dream or is truly a reality.

    With at least temporary belief, one can then perform the crucial experiment, which is to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, ready to do whatever one is instructed to do. If one has not already received it upon hearing the message of the restored gospel, the first message from God will likely be that peaceful, burning assurance which the Holy Spirit gives that the restored gospel is indeed true. What one must then do is to believe even more. To believe even more is to pray again, to thank the Father, and to ask what to do next. As the next instruction comes and the experimenter obeys in faith, he embarks upon a path that is rewarding and satisfying. That cycle of belief, prayer, revelation, and obedience is so self- reinforcing and so satisfying to those who delight in doing the will of God that they never need seek for the path of progress again. They need only to persevere. Now they know that the restored gospel is true, for its promise has been delivered. They have received the promised Holy Spirit unto faith and repentance. Because their souls are enlarged and the yearning for and the guidance of the holy in their lives is now satisfied, they know they are on the path of pleasing God and of coming to Him.

    Faithful prayer leads to promptings that come even when one is not praying or meditating. These promptings come in the same voice and with the same peaceful assurance as the answers to prayer. To experiment with following them is the course of intelligence for those who have enjoyed that companionship of the Holy Spirit. As again they experiment they learn the rewards of further sensitivity to the holy. They also learn to compare the results of yielding to those promptings to yielding to their own desires, especially when those personal desires are abetted by that opposing evil spirit which enjoins selfishness upon one. The knowledge that. comes from faithful obedience to the promptings of the Holy Spirit reinforces and buttresses the already sure knowledge one has from answers to prayers.

    To promptings are added special insights, understandings, and interpretations. As one ponders the gospel message and searches the scriptures many questions arise. As these arise the answers also often flow, sometimes because of prayer, sometimes without asking. What they bring is a completeness, a comprehensive overview of the world and the universe as God would have us see them. We begin to understand that nothing is wasted in the economy of our God, that all truth is interconnected, that everything works for the good of those who love the God of righteousness. The satisfaction of understanding and the esthetics of glimpsing the greatness and the goodness of the divine system help us to begin to understand ourselves for the first time and to know even more surely the truthfulness of the restored gospel.

    Understanding brings a comprehension of man’s potential, a vision of what he could become through the gifts and promises of God. As these gifts are sought and used for the work of godliness there comes an understanding of God’s power and a realization of the promises. As healings, miracles, tongues and interpretation of tongues, prophecy, discernment, power over the elements, and nobility in the soul show forth the handiwork of God, knowledge builds upon knowledge, and the established, buttressed, well-founded edifice becomes so sure and secure that no power of man or of hell can shake it.

    The import of this discussion is that a testimony, a sure knowledge of the truth of the restored gospel can only come in the inner, personal knowledge of a person. What then is the place of the external evidences? They do have their place.

    3. The weaving of a testimony.

    Let us now change the figure of speech from a building to a fabric and discuss the weaving of that fabric. The beginning of the weaving process is to establish the warp. These are the strong threads, the real substance of the cloth, and they are usually anchored at each end in a vertical row, then spread alternately in two directions to provide space for the shuttle to draw through the horizontal threads of the woof. If the threads of the weaving are fine yet strong and carefully spaced yet tightly woven, a cloth of superior utility is created.

    We may liken the strong warp threads of a cloth to the internal evidences which come from our own personal experiments with the holy and the evil, the good and the bad. If we perform those experiments with skeptical care we will accept only those evidences or threads which are strong, true, and reliable. We must also avoid the cynicism which would have us discard that which we perceive surely to be true. And we must have enough threads to mass a sufficient warp. After one experiment we know almost nothing. But after thousands and thousands of experiments we know that we can trust the Lord. As we marshall those threads in a record of the actual experiences which created them, we create a warp of substance, strength, and capacity.

    To the warp we may now add the woof threads of the external evidences that we previously gathered but found to be insufficient of themselves. We have many or few of these strands, but obviously, more and stronger threads are better. These are the testimonies of others, the reasoning we have done to observe the consistency and completeness of the restored gospel, the observations we have made of the handiwork of God both through men and in the natural order of the universe around us, capped by the practical evidence of the utility of living the restored gospel. These evidences, though not sufficiently strong of themselves to constitute a testimony, when carefully woven into the strands of strong and sure knowledge, become genuine assets to the whole. Then one can know which doctrines are found to be consistent and can reject the unwanted baggage of the doctrines of men which becloud the matter. Then one can see that it is truly the hand of God which brought the Bible and the Book of Mormon into existence and which has created and does now maintain the starry heavens and the course of nature. Then one can see that the wicked are punished by their own hands and that the righteous reap the rewards of the children of God. To have a testimony is to live, to see, and to know in ways never available to persons who do not have a testimony. ‘~”~

    Should one weave such a fabric of strength and beauty it will serve him well. For such a testimony is not gained by taking thought; it is not the product of observation, but of doing the will of God. It is a personally constructed artifact made of individually experienced items selected with the greatest of care and the highest standards. It is not just a cloth, as it is not just a knowing. It becomes the robe of righteousness, that which every soul must have to attend the wedding feast. It is the newly formed character, the fiber of the being of a son or a daughter of God. What we are is what we do and what we know. Our own character is the robe of righteousness which enables us to dwell in eternal burnings. To be saved is to receive the divine gifts that are necessary and to weave a new character for ourselves in the pattern of the divine nature of our Christ himself; then He can present us spotless before the Father. To gain a testimony is to repent, to create a new self through faith in Jesus Christ.

    The necessity of the connection between testimony and righteousness is found in the nature of God himself. He is a God of truth, but truth without righteousness is a monster. Thus, he is first a God of righteousness and then a God of truth. Those who wish to become as he is must follow that same order. He promises to fully satisfy the desire of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He has no kind words for those who are merely curious. Creating a testimony means doing the works of righteousness. In the process of doing those works one comes to know and understand first the truth of his own inner experience and feelings, then the truth about this physical world in which we live; after that he may learn of heavenly things beyond the ken of mere mortals if he asks in faith. Righteousness is of Christ, for he is the sole fountain of righteousness in this earth, as also he is the Spirit of Truth. To love righteousness is to seek and to gain a testimony of the restored gospel, which then enables one to do the works of righteousness.

    The perfect example of the necessity of seeking a testimony through righteousness is found in the lives of Laman and Lemuel. Each of them was furnished with an abundance of evidence of divine things: they saw and heard an angel, they saw miracles, they felt the power of God shock them, their lives were saved by divine intervention. Yet they gained no testimony from their experiences because those experiences were not part of the experimentation of faith. The whole of these experiences was in the external world–to them. They did not seek the Lord in the inner realm and thus had no evidence in the inner realm of their own souls. They could interpret away all of the external evidence and did so. They simply refused to repent. After this world, in the spirit prison or at the bar of judgment, they will have enough evidence to know that the gospel is true and will finally admit to that truth. But then it will be too late to show sufficient love for the Lord and for righteousness to be saved in the celestial kingdom.

    4. Questions and answers.

    1. What are the qualities of a testimony? A strong testimony is one in which the bearer has certainty that the God of Heaven hears and answers his prayers as he attempts to live the restored gospel. Only those with strong testimonies are able to make the sacrifices that the Lord requires to perfect their souls. A weak testimony is one in which the bearer has as yet little confidence; enough perhaps to continue experimentation and exploration, but not enough to stand tribulation nor the finger of scorn. A sure testimony is one in which the bearer has amassed enough internal evidence to surmount all reasonable doubt that the restored gospel is true. A strong testimony is an assurance of the heart; a sure testimony is an assurance of the mind. A present testimony is one that is a living present companionship with the Holy Spirit. A past testimony is the memory of marvelous former experiences with the Holy Spirit. A strong and sure and present testimony enables one to live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God.

    2. What then can a person do to strengthen his own testimony? Gaining and strengthening a testimony begins with the heart. If a person does not desire to be righteous, he needs to repent until he has that desire. When his heart is right, he will search for those whisperings of the spirit which are the precious lifeline to all godly things. Sensing their holiness, he will begin to follow the whisperings unto doing the works enjoined, thus becoming a person of some degree of faith. Though he might encounter negative evidence, such as the contrary witness of other persons, seeming contradictions, and venality on the part of professed members of the restored Church, his own faith in the whisperings will lay, positive spiritual evidence beside each of those negative externals until he sees that the truth of the gospel shines through the spotty facade of those negative impressions. Each person is free. Anyone who desires the negative to predominate will have it so. But anyone who treasures that which is honest, true, virtuous, of good report, and praiseworthy will soon find that his joy in his own increased ability to do the works that the Savior commends far outweighs the negative. The Holy Spirit reveals that those who bear negative testimony of the gospel are under the influence of the adversary; their negative testimony is thus a backhanded positive testimony of the gospel’s truthfulness. Seeming contradictions become the occasion for greater understanding in which the marvels and mysteries of the gospel are unfolded to the faithful seeker, thus becoming a positive strength to this testimony. The venality of Church members when interpreted by the Holy Spirit becomes an occasion for sympathy for those persons, a further attestation that the way of righteousness and truth is straight and narrow indeed, and few there be that find it.

    So, do I keep the Sabbath day holy? Do I honor my parents with all that the Holy Spirit enjoins? Am I honest in all of my dealings with my fellowmen, pressing down, shaking, and heaping up the measure which I give them? Do I reach out to the poor in money, strength, wisdom, understanding, and honor, sharing with them out of the abundance of heart, mind, strength, and substance with which the Lord has blessed me? Do I fill very mission gladly, exuberant and wise in the assurance that I have of the merits of my Master? Do I love my spouse, my children, and my neighbors with that same pure love that the gods of heaven shower upon me? Do I do all things unto the Lord, knowing that I am his but have no merit, wisdom, or goodness of my own? Do I fulfill my Savior’s instruction in the faith of love so that I can overcome the forces of this world? Do I allow my conscience to smite me down to humility and repentance whenever the thorns of selfishness or arrogance snag my robe?

    Every decision of daily life affords me the opportunity to prove that good and acceptable will of my God. As I add faith to faith, obeying in humility in every decision I make from moment to moment, the gifts and blessings and rewards of God flow so abundantly that I come to realize that in the path of such faith I never need hunger or thirst again. He who loves purely is sufficient to my every need. I need to search and wonder no more except to be sure that I continue to please him. I neither doubt nor flounder. I know I am on the path. I must only endure to the end, until my faithful service has brought me to the measure of the stature of the fullness of my Savior, for he is the end, indeed.

    3. Is it possible for me to talk myself into a testimony, to desire one so much that I create a false testimony? That surely is possible, just as a person might believe that he is Napoleon or is invisible. But the evidences would not be there. Neither internally nor externally would sufficient confirmations come to allow one to believe a false testimony to be a true one unless one is unable to evaluate evidence. Some persons are clearly unable to evaluate evidence, even in the external, physical world. They do indeed often come to strange opinions about religious matters. That is why it is important to establish one’s sanity in the realm of ordinary, earthly matters before one attempts to stand as a witness to anyone else of the truth of sacred, spiritual matters. Our Savior, knowing the sometimes precarious nature of new faith and testimony, has assured us that he will always establish his word in the mouths of two or three witnesses. Sometimes those witnesses are several kinds of internal and external evidence, which then give us a firm rock upon which to stand.

    4. Is it possible to transfer a testimony? It is never possible to share the essence of our testimony with another person, for that essence exists in the private, inner realm which can never be shared. But our sincere and truthful witness, though external to our hearers and therefore a sandy foundation for their testimonies, may be accompanied by the second witness of the Holy Spirit. That second witness is internal, the essence of real testimony. On that rock they can proceed to build surely.

    5. Which concepts are closely associated with that of testimony and would assist one to gain a better understanding of testimony? Testimony is a type of knowledge. Similar concepts are those of evidence, assurance, record, monument, and proof. Contrary concepts are those of doubt, discredit, counterindicativeness, and insecurity. The complement concept is that of uncertainty. The opposite is complete ignorance. The perfection of testimony is full knowledge of complete certainty. The prerequisites for testimony are (1) revelation from God, (2) belief in that revelation, and (3) obedience to the instructions of that revelation. (Those are the elements of faith, for faith is the prerequisite to testimony.) The constituents of testimony are the internal and external evidences for the truthfulness of the restored gospel that we have gained and see through the eye of faith. A celestial testimony (the only kind that saves anyone) is based squarely on an abundance of cooperative experience with the Holy Spirit. A terrestrial testimony is based on an abundance of external, physical evidence for the truthfulness of the restored gospel. A telestial testimony is based on a fear that it might be true and an unwillingness to search out the evidence, either internal or external. A perdition testimony is that of a person who knows full well that the restored gospel is true (a past sure testimony), but bears witness to others that it is not true.

    5. Summary and conclusions.

    A. The essence of a testimony of the restored gospel is present, inner, continuous cooperation with the Holy Spirit in the cause of relieving misery in this world (the work of righteousness). Public, physical evidence about the restored gospel is helpful only when carefully evaluated by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and useful only when tightly woven into our continuous, inner, present cooperation with the Holy Spirit. The function of external evidence in the cause of righteousness is not to assure anyone of the truthfulness of the gospel, but to attract attention to the restored gospel so that a person will personally perform the inner experiments which do bring a sure testimony.

    B. Testimony comes only through faith. When we hear the gospel, our first evidence that it is the word of the Lord comes as we receive the internal witness of the Holy Spirit that it is true. If we then act on that witness, asking to know what to do about our doubts–asking anything in the willingness to believe and obey the holy within us, we ask in faith. Asking in faith brings the revelations of the true and living God to anyone who will so ask. Out of these revelations is born the abundance of experience that assures us of the reliability of God’s revelations–which is a testimony.

    C. Only hunger and thirst for righteousness is a sufficient motive to experiment on the gospel message in faith. Those whose only interest in the gospel is an academic curiosity can never perform the experiments in faith. No amount of external evidence can, will, or should convince them of the truthfulness of that message. The gospel message is aimed specifically at the sheep: those who live first to love others, as does the true and living God.

    D. A testimony is always a construction, a personal artifact. It is built out of a person’s life experiences and is the record of what that person has sought, hoped for, and selected out of the welter of opportunities that this world affords. If a person has received the personal witness that the restored gospel is true, then that person’s testimony, positive or negative, is a clear reflection of that person’s character.

    E. A testimony is always nontransferable. While one may indeed bear witness of his inner experience, that inner experience forever remains his private domain. But as one bears true witness, the Holy Spirit can and will witness to the hearers of the truth of that person’s witness, which is the beginning material for the testimony of each of those hearers. To some it is given to believe on the testimony of those who know.

    F. Any person who has a sure testimony of the restored gospel, and thus of the Holy Spirit, can endure by means of the laws and ordinances of the gospel to a sure knowledge of the Son and of the Father. But one must endure in faith.

  • LDS Ideals for Education

    Chauncey C. Riddle
    c. 1984

    I. What is the Relationship of Education to Living the Gospel?

    Repentance in the Restored Gospel can be viewed as the process of change. Specifically, it is the change from being a natural man to becoming one who possesses the divine nature of the Savior. To endure to the end is to repent so completely that we become new creatures, just men made perfect, even as our Savior is perfect.

    Seen this way, repentance is an educational process. It involves comprehending something that is better, then achieving that better condition. Line upon line, precept upon precept, the servant of Christ is taught to understand and then to exemplify a new mode of being and living.

    To construe repentance as education is not to construe all education as repentance, for one can learn to become evil as well as good. But viewing education in this manner does help us better to promote repentance. We see clearly that repentance is the process wherein gospel principles are progressively taught and learned, thus enabling the faithful to govern themselves correctly.

    The principle reason for the existence of The Church of Jesus Christ in every dispensation is to promote repentance. Members of the Church do this first by teaching and preaching the gospel to all to whom the Savior sends it. The gospel is the basic message as to how to repent. Then, for those who accept the gospel, the authorities of the Church assume the responsibility of assisting in the perfecting of the Saints, encouraging all who desire to do as to endure to the end. In this process, everything in this world that is virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy is sought after for the children of Christ in order that they may come to the fullness of Christ.

    While it is the principle responsibility of church leaders to promote repentance, gospel education in the full sense, that opportunity is shared by every member of the kingdom. Apostles, prophets, and presidents are set to teach, preach, expound, and exhort as they lead the house of Israel to become like the Savior. But it is a wicked and slothful servant that must be commanded in all things. Each covenant servant has within him the gift of the Holy Ghost, that precious pearl of great price which empowers each to be an agent himself, to receive knowledge and direction from heavenly sources, and to bring to pass much righteousness by careful, repentant obedience.

    Every faithful person in The Church of Jesus Christ thus ought to be engaged in the process of education. Each one should be seeking, searching, learning from those who are above him in the stewardship structure of the kingdom. Each should be teaching those in his stewardship, and each person should be humble enough to learn from those under him in stewardship.

    The thesis here maintained is that repentance will be enhanced in the Church by seeing it as a species of education, and that education will be enhanced in the Church by seeing it as a species of repentance. Such a view would promote the following consequences:

    1. It would become plain that knowing the gospel is not enough; that it is doing what we know which fulfills both repentance and education.
      1. It would be more easily recognized that telling people what they ought to do is only the first step of leadership; helping them to learn to do what they ought to do is also required for repentance and for education.
      2. Seen this way, repentance would lose the negative connotation it has for some (that which sinful people need to do) and would become the way of life for all church members who are not yet perfect.
      3. Seen this way, education would become a lifelong way of living for all church members—learning to know and being able to do every good thing, and thus becoming able to help others in every way possible, as did the Savior.
      4. Just as repentance is seen to be a means, not an end, linking it with education would help all to see that education is not an end but a means to greater service to others, a preparation for righteousness. This would tend to cure one of the persistent perversions of the “civilized” world: the idea that education is an end, sometimes help to be the ultimate end, in itself.
      5. If the additional idea of hungering after excellence is added to education, quality added to quantity, then education as repentance, clearly centers on the Savior. For it is he who is the spirit of truth and the light of the world, showing the world a more excellent way. Only in and through Jesus Christ is quality education fulfilled, just as only in and through him is repentance fulfilled. He is the fountain of all truth and of all righteousness.

    Conclusion: Greater emphasis on lifelong education in the Church and linking it to repentance would enhance both education and repentance.

    II. What is the Mission of Latter-day Saints in This World?

    The life mission of any member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is identical to that of any other member in its general features. Those features are that:

    1. The whole of each person’s life is seen to be a mission in the cause of Jesus Christ from the time one receives the covenant of baptism until one is released with his final breath. This means that one is on a mission twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, at home or abroad, in sickness or in health, and in whatever marital state or church calling one is found.
    2. Each person’s daily assignment in that mission is to turn his assigned portion of evil into good. Defining evil as that which is not good as it could be and taking the Savior as the standard of good, the life goal of a Latter-day Saint is to do that which the Savior would do as if he had our stewardship as his own. Our life should be one continuous labor to uplift, to enoble, to beautify, to instruct, to correct, to celestialize all around us, when, where, and how it is appropriate to our stewardship and as directed by the Holy Spirit.

    A child forlorn, frightened, sobbing is an evil of this world: it is the mission of a Saint to hold that child, to administer comfort, security, and understanding as the manifestation of a pure and inspired love, thus turning an evil into something better. A ward choir which sings grudgingly, mechanically, egotistically is an evil; with skill, sensitivity, and love an inspired director can lift every participant to praise God in voice and song, to bear witness and gratitude through the meaning of the lyrics, to sing to bless rather than for recognition or reward. A widow’s home is unpainted, with sagging doors, cracked panes, and drafty casements; brethren of the priesthood who are skilled and who care descend upon that home and leave dignity in place of deterioration. There are children of an Andean village who have no opportunity for education; a low-cost, locally administered self-help program is designed, embodied, and delivered, giving those children access to the modern world. A people languish in ignorance of their true spiritual heritage: their need is assuaged by the teaching of the Restored Gospel in their midst.

    Every father, mother, builder, teacher, chemist, administrator, repairman who is a covenant servant of Christ should be striving each day to make the world a better place, to uplift, encourage, and comfort not only fellow Latter-day Saints but ultimately all of the earth’s inhabitants. No one except the President of the Church carries the burden to worry about the whole world, for each of the rest of us has a more limited stewardship. Each morning each faithful servant should go to his knees in prayer to discern his assigned quotient of evil to be turned into good for that day, knowing that the powers of heaven will assist his faithful labor and that therefore his day will be “sufficient unto the evil thereof.”

    Compensation is one of the last things the true servant is concerned about. He knows that he must perform honorable work and be compensated for it to provide for himself and for his family and to have a modest surplus with which to bless others. He knows that his greatest personal opportunity is to turn evil into good for which he is not compensated. Therefore, he deliberately spreads his resources of wisdom, knowledge, skill, and substance in many times and places where there cannot or should not be any return favor. He always remembers that it is to the Savior that he is beholden for his health, strength, mentality, knowledge, wisdom, and skill with which to bless, be it in compensated or noncompensated opportunities to do good.

    Thus the daily mission of a Latter-day Saint is to search out the mind and will of the Savior relative to his formal and informal callings, then to turn evil into good in those callings. He does it cheerfully, gladly, and gratefully, rejoicing in the goodness of our Savior. He thinks about poverty, ignorance, disease, inferior values, and corruption in high and low places and strives to help. He may need to invent, translate, build, tear down, persuade, expose, correlate, and cooperate, but all with pure motive and under the direction of his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Whatever preparation he needs to fulfill his task, he seeks; he begins with personal repentance from all sin, carries through to the acquisition of knowledge and skills, and his efforts culminate in attaining power in the priesthood to do all good things. This is the true education and repentance. It is likely that through the efforts of such servants of Jesus Christ this earth will be first terrastrialized, then celestialized and delivered spotless and whole to its worthy creator.

    III. How and by Whom Should Latter-day Saints be Educated?

    1. Individuals ought to be motivated to learn the gospel (as opposed to emphasizing programs that teach them the gospel) and likewise motivated to do all that they can in righteousness to better themselves in the social and economic context in which they are personally located. The individual member of the Church must believe that his own efforts to learn the gospel and also all other worthwhile knowledge are efficacious. He must see that his own efforts are the most important factors which affect the quality of his spiritual and material well-being. It seems that too many of our members, especially in new and economically developing countries, are led to believe that their future well-being is unrelated to their present activity, that they are personally powerless to alter the circumstances of their lives. There seems to be a need to redirect such thinking toward personal initiative and responsibility.
      1. The family, headed by a righteous patriarch and faithful spouse, should be responsible for making certain that their posterity are fully instructed in all they need to know to be faithful to Christ, to overcome the world, and to subdue the earth.

    IV. The Role of the Patriarch in Zion.

    A patriarch is a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, a bearer of the Melchizedek Priesthood who is yoked with a faithful spouse in the temple covenants of eternal marriage.

    The personal goal of every patriarch and his wife should be to endure to the end, which is life eternal. Their family goal should be to so lead and inspire their posterity that they also come to know the Savior.

    The process of enduring to the end is mainly an educational process. One must be taught the gospel message and be taught to do all that it entails. The educational role of the patriarch and his wife is to assure that their children are fully instructed in all they need to know to be faithful to Christ, to overcome the world, and to subdue the earth.

    If the patriarch and his wife have fully learned to be faithful to Christ, to overcome the world, and to subdue the earth, and if they have learned to do and are doing all they should do, then they can fulfill their role, which has three principle parts:

    1. To love purely, so that each person in his stewardship is enveloped in a spiritually oriented atmosphere of unconditional love. Giving this emotional sustenance is by all odds the most important thing a patriarch and his wife ever do.
    2. To instruct by example and by precept in every important matter, in order that those in their stewardship can learn all that they need to know and do, in both spiritual and temporal matters.
    3. To provide such spiritual, physical, social, and economic protection and support as is necessary and appropriate.

    These persons thus blessed by the patriarchal order have the maximum earthly opportunity to exercise agency. For it is only this divine order coupled with the Restored Gospel and the authority of the Priesthood which provide full free agency to any person on this earth.

    V. The Educational Ideal for Zion.

    What kinds of education will righteous parents foster for those in their stewardship? Six kinds of education are proposed:

    1- Family Education. The patriarch and his wife should assume direct personal responsibility for instructing each of their children in each of the following areas:

    Personal discipline

    • Emotional steadiness
    • Intellectual honesty
    • Physical orderliness
    • Unselfishness

    Language skills (including a foreign language, if possible) Spiritual matters

    • The gospel
    • How to receive and live by the gifts of the Spirit
    • The scriptures
    • The order of the Church
    • The order of the Priesthood

    Work (learning to do and to love it)

    Ability to cooperate

    Hygiene

    • Cleanliness
    • Body functions
    • Nutrition
    • Exercise
    • Healing

    Sex education

    Family preparedness

    Citizenship (opportunities and responsibilities)

    Service (learning to rend it as appropriate)

    Skills, basic

    • Care of tools
    • Safety
    • Food preparation
    • Household management
    • Care of machinery
    • Teaching
    • Accounting for stewardships

    Social graces

    Parental influence in basic education has often done all it will do by the sixteenth year of the child’s life.

    2- Basic Formal Education. The patriarch and his wife should assume guidance and quality control in the educational opportunities which their children having in schooling outside of the family to learn:

    • Literary skills
    • Mathematical ability
    • Sciences
    • Countries and peoples
    • Physical education
    • Arts and crafts

    Basic formal education is roughly what is received in the United States in K-12 education. For this basic formal education parents should use whatever opportunities are available in their local area which do not put their children into a deadly emotional, spiritual, physical, or social environment.

    3- Manual Education. The patriarch and his wife assume the responsibility for instructing or arranging for the instructing of each child in one or more manual skills by which that child could later support a family, such as:

    • Administrative Assistant skills
    • Auto mechanic
    • Farming/ranching skills
    • Clothing construction
    • Building trades

    Ideally this education would be substantially complete by the end of the teenage years.

    4- General Education. The patriarch and his wife assume the responsibility for instructing or seeing that each child is instructed in the basic intellectual matters which a person needs to have to cope with the world. Areas which especially need to be pursued are:

    • History
    • Economics
    • Politics
    • Philosophy
    • Literature

    This general education is to give a person the strength to be alive to the educational, political, and economic forces of the world and to be able to influence those forces for good.

    The general education is roughly equivalent to two years of college work, though many have not attained it even after two years of college.

    5- Missionary Education. It is contemplated that every young person in the Church would be fully prepared to go on a mission at age nineteen, having received full-fledged family, basic, vocational, and general education, then capping that preparation with a thorough understanding and ability to use honorable proselyting techniques. It is also contemplated that every worthy young man in the Church would be called and honorably fulfill a full-time mission.

    Upon returning from missionary service, every young person would be ready to marry and to enter full-time work or to enter into further education.

    6- Vocational Education. The patriarch and his wife should advise, encourage, and assist as is appropriate in the vocational education of their children. Vocational education is viewed as

    (1) on-the-job education for a career,
    (2) technical schooling, or
    (3) the last two years of college and whatever graduate training is appropriate for entry into the job market in one’s chosen work.

    VI. How Can we Foster a Better Tradition Concerning Learning and Teaching?

    Even the casual observer cannot help but notice the marked difference in affluence and learning attained by various social and ethnic groups in American society. Japanese, Jews, and Mormons are often cited as examples of subgroups which have, on the whole, prospered in society and have achieved high levels of formal education relative to accomplishments in these areas by other groups.

    Studies have shown that the desire to excel (achievement, motivation) is generated by two kinds of cultural practices.

    1. Achievement training in which parents, religious leaders, and other impose standards of excellence upon tasks by setting high goals for children and youth, indicate their high evaluation of the person’s competence to do a task week, and communicate that they expect evidence of high achievement.
    2. Independence training in which parents, leaders, and others indicate to the youth that they expect them to be self-reliant and, at the same time, grant them relative autonomy in decision-making situations where they are given both freedom of action and responsibility for success or failure.

    Essentially, achievement training is concerned with getting people to do things well, while independence training seeks to teach them to do things on their own.

    The Jews, who for centuries had lived in more or less hostile environments, have learned that it is not only possible to manipulate their environments to ensure survival, but even to prosper in it. Jewish tradition stresses the possibility of the individual mastering his work. Man is not helpless against the forces of nature or of his fellowman; God will provide, but only if man does his share. Physical mobility has likewise characterized Jewish culture. The Jews have typically urged their children to leave home if in doing so they faced better opportunities.

    We are culturally similar in many respects to the achievement and independence training characteristics of Jewish society.