LeGrand L. Baker

Category: Essay

  • 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.

  • An LDS Answer to the Problem of Evil

    Chauncey C. Riddle
    Brigham Young University
    c. 1984

    This work was stimulated by the BYU forum address of Professor Robert Nozick of Harvard University given March 1984.

    1. Statement of the problem: If God is good and omnipotent, why is this world so evil? If God is not good, the evil is understandable. If God is not omnipotent, the evil is understandable. But if God is both good and omnipotent, surely he would have created a better world than this one.
    2. Observation about the problem: This is a genuine problem. Human beings are finite; God is infinite. It is not possible for a finite being to understand fully an infinite being. Nevertheless, it is most important for human beings to come to a finite satisfaction regarding this problem.
    3. Observation about the historic solutions to this problem: Many of the historic solutions are good in that they lend understanding to the situation. No one of them is sufficient to stand alone. The problem is to find a combination of ideas which will bring satisfaction to finite human souls.
    4. Definitions are in order to clarify this problem:

    Good: To say that God is good means two things. It means that God is morally right in what he does. We shall henceforth express that idea by saying God is righteous. The other thing meant by saying God is good is that I like (love) God. We shall henceforth assume that to say God is good means I like (love) God.

    God: We define God as an exalted man, which is to say he once was a human being. But having sought for and attained righteousness and truth, and having learned to act according to them, he has progressed beyond the state of man. He is now a perfect (morally righteous) being, omnipotent (he can do anything which can be done because he has all the power which exists), omniscient (he knows everything about everything, past, present, and future), is a personal being of flesh and bone, and is the literal father of the human race. His purpose in creating this earth is to provide a situation where his children can (a) choose the degree to which they desire to become as he is; and (b) learn and develop themselves to become as he, God, is to that degree which they have chosen.

    The earth: The earth is the physical globe upon which the human race resides. It is governed by laws which God has ordained, and nothing happens in what we call “nature” except by his personal permission. Thus natural calamities as well as more desirable natural sequences are all manifestations of his will.

    The world: The world is the dominion of Satan on this earth. Specifically, the world consists of all human beings who hearken to Satan, and includes the social institutions and accomplishments of those persons. Nearly every adult human being is or has at one time been part of the world. The opposite of the world is those people who manage to establish a personal daily association with God which enables them to detach themselves from the world and to serve God, the Father, through his son Jesus Christ, according to the instructions each receives through the Holy Spirit.

    Evil: Evil is anything which is not as good as it could and should be. The standard of good is God. Whatever is created or done under instruction from God is holy and good. Whatever else exists or is done by the will of man or of Satan is evil. The commission of every godly person each day is to take something that is evil within his own stewardship and turn it into good through faith in Jesus Christ (direct obedience to the personal revelation one receives from God).

    • Why evil is allowed to exist: Evil in the world exists for three main reasons: (1) That every man may observe evil, compare it with good, and choose good or evil for himself; (2) That every man might be free to create and do evil, to see if that is what he really wishes to choose and promote; and (3) That those who choose to do good and become like God may have ample opportunity to grow towards becoming like God by many choices of good over evil and much experience in turning evil situations into good situations. Evil is not good, but the presence of controlled evil on the earth is good, because without it, man could not grow to become as God is. When the growth period for every human being has been fulfilled, then there will no longer be a need for evil on this earth and the earth will be cleansed of all evil. Then God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
    • Views of traditional answers to the problem:
    • “The world really is not evil.”

    An LDS view would say that the earth is not evil, nor is any natural event that takes place on it. Storms, lightening, volcanic eruptions, floods and cold winters are all the handiwork of a good God who is reminding all of his children that he is in control of all things and that perhaps they might wish to repent so that they would no longer need such reminders. It is true that the innocent often perish with the wicked in natural disasters. For that reason God gives the innocent another, opportunity to choose between good and evil and to repent to that degree to which they so desire. That opportunity takes place in sheol, or the world of departed spirits. If every person were born and lived at the same time and could not use his agency to bring adversity on others, such as his children, then the opportunity in sheol would be unnecessary. But it is necessary.

    • “Evil is an illusion.”

    The world is evil by definition, since it is the kingdom of Satan on earth. The world is no illusion, so evil really does exist, and in rather overwhelming abundance. But when people see natural events as evil, that is an illusion created by their misunderstanding of what is happening.

    • “The purpose of evil is to educate us.”

    This statement is partly true. We need to see evil as a possibility that we may choose. But we do not need to do evil to know of evil. There is sufficient evil around that no one languishes for lack of observation of it. Thus we are educated as to the difference between good and evil.

    • “Evil comes from free will.”

    Free will is free choice. Free agency is the power to carry out free choice. No human being is completely free, because only an omniscient being understands all the possible choices. No human being is completely an agent, because no human being is omnipotent. But to the degree which a person has knowledge, one does choose, and to the degree one has power, one does act to carry out that choice. As a person chooses other than the will of God and carries out that choice, that person creates evil in the world. If a person knows not God, then everything that person does is evil. Thus is the world created and perpetuated by the choices and acts of human beings. Yes evil comes because men are free.

    • “God is not the absolute creator.”

    This statement sheds some light on the situation. God is not the absolute creator in the sense that he created everything out of nothing and all creation thus is the fulfillment of his desire. God did not create the intelligences of human beings, which is the personality, the true self of each person. God did give each intelligence a spirit body and a premortal life with himself. He gives many a mortal body, and each person who receives that body is given an opportunity to live eternally with him in the resurrection. But God did not create some human beings to be good and some to be evil. Each human being is a cocreator with God in that each determines for himself what he shall become. Thus God is not the absolute creator.

    • “God’s justice and mercy are in tension, out of which comes the problems of the world.”

    This statement has an important element of truth for this discussion. God is love: he acts only to benefit the world. That righteous, pure, selfless love must abide the eternal principles which obtain, two of which are justice and mercy. Love is not pure or righteous unless it is just: God’s justice is that he is a lawgiver who cannot look upon defiance of his law with the least degree of allowance. For compliance with his law, God bestows blessing, even sharing all that he is and has with those who repent and learn to be completely obedient (who learn to love him with all of their heart, might, mind and strength.) But God’s justice also decrees an eternal damnation (stopping of blessing) for all who will not repent.

    God’s mercy is that he desires to forgive all men their trespasses against his law so that he can bless each one. But he cannot forgive unless they repent of their sins, lest he become unjust and deliver blessing where none is due. All men who become accountable sin because of the fall of Adam. Once a person has sinned, the Father’s justice demands that he be cast out forever to satisfy justice. Thus all mankind would be lost, were it not for the Messiah.

    God sends his anointed one, his only begotten son, to atone for the sins of every creature, that every’ man may become as though he had not sinned through repentance and acceptance of that atonement. Thus God is just in that he gives the law and demands an eternal satisfaction of that law, but he is also merciful in that he provides a way for a man who has sinned, and thus learned of evil first hand, to now turn from sin and become just. A man becomes just through faith in Jesus Christ, who teaches him how to live a sinless life henceforth. He becomes a just man-made perfect when he receives that merciful forgiveness of his sins from the Messiah, who has paid for his sins with his (the Messiah’s) own suffering. Thus God is both just and merciful.

    But God cannot be just and merciful, give freedom to sin and reward for not sinning without both allowing sin and paying for all sin allowed. So that same God who created this world by allowing Satan to come on this earth and have a kingdom then pays personally for every jot and tittle of sin which he has allowed, that he might provide a means by which men can be forgiven and become as God is.

    Evil is allowed to exist on this earth so that God can be just, and give his law by which men may be exalted. Men may choose to abide that law of their own free agency, and thus become one with God to share all that he has. But God must also be merciful to those who sin but are later sorry, that they may repent, learn to live by God’s law, and be exalted. God could not be just without giving men both law and agency, whereby they sin and create evil. He cannot be merciful without providing a Savior to show them the way out of sin and to forgive them. The tension between his justice and mercy indeed is the occasion for the freedom of man, which makes evil possible on this earth.

    • “This is the best of all possible worlds.”

    Yes, this is the best of all possible worlds, if what you have in mind is the moral development of mankind. If what’ one wants is the most peaceful and physically non-threatening place which could exist, then this is not the best of all possible worlds for such an one. But if what is desired is a place of freedom, where a man must rely on his heart, his true desires, to choose between good and evil, and where those who choose good will have a virtually unlimited quotient of evil to turn to good as they progress toward becoming as God is, then there could be no better place for such an one to be than on this earth. This earth is the most wicked of all the many earths which God has created. As an incubator for gods and devils, a place where every person may seek and find exactly that pattern of moral choices which he wishes to pursue, this earth and its present world are without peer. They cannot be improved. This is the best of all possible worlds.

    • The tests for an answer to the problem of evil.
    • It must preserve the traditional view of God.

    The question is, whose tradition? The view of God here presented is certainly not “traditional,” but it is scriptural, meaning that it is the same God as that of the Old and New Testaments. It does preserve the idea of a God who is perfect, omnipotent, and omniscient, but doubtless provides an out for everyone who wants one.

    • Does it help a person who is suffering?

    This view does indeed help those who have found a personal relationship with the true and living God. They know that suffering, not peace and plenty, is the key to spiritual growth. They know that the Lord sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. They know that each human, good and evil, must die. But they know that God is good, and that nothing ever happens to any human being but what God will use that as an avenue of heaping blessings upon the head of that person, both in time and in eternity, if only that person will meet whatever the problem is with love of God and faith in Jesus Christ.

    But how can a person who is suffering love God? There is a formula whereby any man can find God. It is to pray in his own secret place in the name of Jesus Christ and humbly to ask for wisdom as to what to do. God; who is merciful, gives wisdom to those who ask in faith. Thus can every human being establish personal contact with the true and living God, and immediately begin to know of his love and goodness as he repents and turns his life towards that light. When one has that personal, experiential (not just rational) relationship with the true and living God, he will know that God is good, for he will taste of God’s love. That love will be his assurance of things not seen, things not understood as yet. It is the assurance that he can trust that the love he feels from God is the safety he need to feel to trust that God has all of the evil of the world in hand, and that God will not allow one iota of evil more than is necessary for the salvation of mankind. Thus are some comforted in their suffering.

    • Is God affected by the evil of the world?

    He most certainly is. It causes him to weep. He would that it might be otherwise. But justice and mercy cause that it may not be otherwise. So the God of heaven comes down to earth, takes upon himself the form of man, and personally pays for every sin which his justice has created. He personally teaches each human being how to avoid unnecessary suffering in this world, and how to eliminate evil from his own life. There could not be a God who is more personally concerned about the evil of this world and the involvement of each of his children in it.

    • Is the God of this explanation worth worshipping?

    This answer must be the personal decision of each human being. It is plain that for some persons on this earth, the true and living God is not someone whom they care even to know, let alone worship. But each person must decide this matter for himself when he meets this God, for all do, sooner or later. Some seek him while yet in mortality and find him and worship him. Some find him, worship him, and then decide that they don’t really like him after all; he is not a good God to their thinking. Others hope against hope that he doesn’t even exist. But all will know he exists when they stand face to face before him at the bar of judgment. Then each will know of his love, his justice and his mercy. Nearly all will worship him then.

    • Does this explanation account for the magnitude of the evil on the earth?

    This explanation holds that the amount of evil on the earth at any given time is simply the sum of the evil desires of the human beings who happen to live on the earth at a given moment (allowing for the sins of the fathers to be visited upon the heads of the children). In times of great evil or of natural disaster, the evil or the natural disasters are simply a function of the desires and actions of the inhabitants. Thus nations ripen in iniquity and are destroyed. Thus nations and peoples humble themselves before God and are prospered. Thus there will come a time again when the earth will be a paradise and when the gross evil of this age will be done away: the earth will enjoy a sabbath of peace and rest from wickedness, which is what evil is. That Sabbath will be brought to pass by the destruction of the wicked people who inhabit the earth, leaving only those who will serve the true and living God of love.

    Note: This paper is entitled “An LDS Answer to the Problem of Evil” because there is no orthodoxy to which everyone must adhere in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are certain doctrines which are assuredly false, and there are others which are surely true. But each individual must seize the freedom to search for himself or herself. This allows one to believe false ideas, which if they are serious enough, will become an occasion for someone in authority to attempt to dissuade that individual. But this also allows a person to go beyond the boundaries of that which is commonly acknowledged as true in the church to discover truths that as yet are not known to many. Each is cautioned not to discuss these matters unless he or she is prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so. Thus every person is invited to become a profound theologian, but not so that they can profess this knowledge Rather is the intent that each would be enabled by this knowledge and thus bring forth greater fruits of repentance and love in his or her life.

    The result of this situation is that two Latter-Day Saints may not agree at a given moment about a matter of doctrine. Each is working the matter out in his own mind, but the two may not be at the same point of development. The goal is that all who are faithful may come to see eye to eye. Meanwhile, the freedom to grow and be personally creative about searching for the truth about theology brings a necessary evil, a lack of agreement at times.

  • Self-Love

    Chauncey C. Riddle
    c. 1984

    What is a self? A self has a body, feelings, thought processes, desires, but is probably not any of these nor the collection. Perhaps a self is a consciousness that is aware of its body, its feelings, thinking and desiring. This consciousness has the power of attention. It can focus on anything within the stream of mental events. It is an active choosing force that we call “the real me.”

    A healthy self is one that is ready to meet any happening in the world with aplomb. It is never afraid (though often prudent), never angry (sometimes wary), never self-pitying (though sometimes hurting), never envious (but have real desires). In short, the healthy self never entertains negative emotions (sometimes tempted to do so, but never allowing such to remain).

    The unhealthy self is afraid. It fears its body will be hurt or not nourished or rested. It fears its feelings will be wounded. It feels its thoughts to be inferior, therefore is hesitant to be open. It fears its desires will not be fulfilled. It fears its actions will be rejected as wrong or insufficient.

    The fear of the unhealthy self probably has root in rejection as a child. There was an experience of real hunger that was not met until fear of hunger had lodged deeply. There were unassuaged hurts that culminated in fearful anticipation of further wounds. There were situations of “put down” embarrassment which caused the self to wonder when such would happen again. There were unfulfilled desires that left the self wondering if this were perhaps a totally hostile universe.

    These fear-engendering experiences of the self have given rise to a defense mechanism—self-love. The self essentially says, “No one else loves me, so I will undertake the cause of my own welfare. I will love me and take good care of me, then I will have nothing to fear.” The only trouble with this strategy is that it doesn’t work. The love of self never fully satisfies the fears of the self. And the self feels, deep down, that this is wrong, to boot.

    When the self undertakes to love and care for itself because no one else is doing so, this course embarked upon is self-destructive. It becomes self feeding upon self. For the measure of love is always sacrifice. Whatever we give up of our own comfort and benefit to help another is the true gift of love. But when the “other” is oneself, one gives up comfort and benefit to give oneself comfort and benefit.

    Self-love doesn’t work well because the resources of self-love are always poor; it therefore cannot satisfy. The conscience of a person tells him it is wrong to love self, so one is discomfited. Then we add that the resources of self-love is a depletion of self resources (thus, of self) and we have classic self-destruction.

    Self-love leads to self-despising. For the impetus to self-love is being despised by others. We naturally tend to think less of ourselves when others around us despise us. The fact that self-love is insufficient to satisfy the needs of self further lowers our self-respect level. The fact that one’s conscience pricks him for self-love causes further self-shame. The self-destructiveness of self-love adds a final blow. Self-respect has sunk to an intolerable low point.

    Being already wounded, the self-loving self is difficult to help. Such an one cannot openly discuss the problem because the wounds are so deep and painful. Discussion exacerbates the hurt. Nor can such brook criticism, for that is taken as further despising heaped upon deep self-despising which may well be more than one can bear.

    The distraught self-loving, self-despising self has no comfort or peace. The antidote has become a torment. The tormented soul thrashes wildly, trying to find peace, comfort, and security. Typical attempts at compensatory behavior are as follows:

    Stimulus of body: (I drown my sorrows.)

    Overeating, High speed thrills, Seeking to be scared, Drugs, Sexual libertinism, Loud erotic music

    Escape: (I’ll try to forget my sorrows.)

    Television, Workaholic performance, Immersion in the peer group, Books, Professional student, Overzealous espousal of some cause

    Hiding: (No one must know.)

    Lying, Rejecting of help, Hypocrisy, Reclusiveness

    Denigration: (I’m not worth anything.)

    Constant apologies, Psychosomatic illness, Suicide, Masochism, Carelessness

    Aggression: (You rejected me, world; I’ll get back at you.)

    Sports (brutality), Hatred, War, Criticism of others, Strikes, Anger, Crime, Insult, Spite Terrorism

    Compensations: (If I can’t have love, I’ll take….)

    Money, Prestige, Fashion and clothing, Cosmetics, Arrogance, Power, Many possessions, Jewelry, Famous friends, Spendthriftiness (be the generous one)

    A person who is bound down with self-love is in the bondage of sin. As in quicksand, every struggle to add more self-love takes him deeper.

    The only cure for self-love (and thus for sin) is to be loved. When a person finds that instead of the usual patronizing love of another self-lover, he is confronted by an unconditional love which accepts him as he is (does not despise him), will not collude in causing him to sin or in accepting his sinning, and which sacrifices to be a friend to him, he is first overwhelmed. Then he doubts it and tries to disprove that it is the real thing. When the doubt and disproof attempts have failed, then the self-lover must make a fundamental choice. He must choose: (1) to admit that sin and self-love are not good and don’t work, therefore they must be rejected in order to become like the person who loves him unconditionally; or (2) he must choose to espouse sin and self-love as his preferred way of life, a conscious rejection of unconditional love and righteousness.

    The only unconditional love in this world is the pure love of Christ as embodied in the Savior or in someone who is truly His servant. To encounter this love, accompanied by the witness of the Holy Spirit, (it always is), is the true and only full opportunity to repent, to come unto Christ, to change from sin to righteousness, that this world affords.

    The person who loves himself as a desperate self-defense mechanism can relinquish self-love when he discovers that the Savior loves him unconditionally. As the Holy Spirit teaches him that the Savior knows all, and has power to control all things, he sees that to be loved by such a being means that he need fear nothing, ever again. Feeling the reality of that pure love through the Spirit, he yields himself as a little child into the care and keeping of the Savior, ready to obey every instruction the Savior gives him, willing to suffer humbly whatever the Savior sees fit to inflict upon him, ready to make any sacrifice necessary to love purely. He is again as a little child, ready to be reborn.

    The lost child is reborn through the waters of baptism and in the warm spiritual cleansing of the Holy Spirit. No longer needing to love himself, this person focuses now a true and fulfilling love on the Savior. Guided by the Holy Spirit, he feasts upon the words, the feelings, the ideas, the actions of his new father, Jesus Christ. He yearns to be nearer to Him and spends his best moments in mighty prayer, striving to draw ever nearer to his father. Upon arising from prayer, he views the world with the eye of faith: it is his apple. The world is his grand opportunity to go forth with confidence to do the will of his new father: to love others unconditionally, to speak the truth in all humility, to visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

    Self-love has given way to love of God and love of neighbor. The newness of life is indeed not of this world. But he is grateful to be yet in the world where he can reach out to other souls tormented by self-love.

  • Why We Are Here

    Chauncey C. Riddle
    c. 1984

    Because we are blessed with knowing the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, we understand that there are five basic irreducible purposes of our mortal existence. Only the first is absolutely essential. To fulfill the others makes a fulness of blessing. The five are as follows:

    1. To gain a mortal tabernacle for our spirit. This is the necessary prelude to immortal life in a tabernacle of flesh and bone, which is the heritage of all human beings.
    2. To develop a Christ-like character. To learn to act righteously, responding to the spiritual influences from the Savior and learning not to be controlled by the physical forces around us is our goal. Every human situation is rich with opportunity to learn to be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, and to do good to all men. Either sex, any race, any age, any educational level, any economic level, affords an almost overwhelming opportunity to add good habit to good habit, correct preference to correct preference, true idea to true idea, all done following the Savior. Each soul is given the light of Christ to guide him or her in this quest for perfect character. But one cannot finish the task except one receives the fulness of the Restored Gospel and the ordinances of the new and everlasting covenant.
    3. To relieve suffering. The world is full of sorrow and suffering because of the sins of men. But that sorrow and suffering becomes an opportunity to those who have learned the unselfishness of the Savior. With heart, might, mind, and strength, they labor to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick, to comfort the tormented, to assure the bereaved, to plead for the unjustly accused, to teach the unlearned. All of this is done under the Savior’s direction, never by using their own or any other man’s wisdom. Their goal is to be sure that they produce more good in this world than that which they consume, and that they share their surplus.
    4. To pass on the seed. To marry in the Lord’s covenant and to bring the souls of men and women to this world is the fourth task. To forebear having children by artificial means subverts both character and the plan. “Children are an heritage of the Lord. Blessed is he who has his quiver full.”
    5. To pass on the gospel. To bring up our children in the nurture of the Lord, transmitting the faith which is precious above all other ideas or messages in this world, constitutes the fifth great opportunity. We are not limited to sharing with our children, but sharing our faith fully with them is essential.

    When our lives are finished, only these five things will be important for eternity:

    1. We gained a mortal tabernacle, and therefore can be resurrected to immortality, becoming just and true in all things.
    2. We gained a Christ-like character, and therefore can be trusted with the same glory the Savior has.
    3. We relieved suffering. We showed that as with our Master, we lived to serve and to help, not to “lord” it over anyone.
    4. We sacrificed to bring others into mortality and therefore we can be trusted to continue to bear souls in eternity.
    5. We taught and showed the way of the Savior in all things to all who would listen.

    Because we will have done these five things faithfully, we can be trusted with stewardship over all that the Father has, becoming joint heirs with our Savior.

    The name of 2, 3, 4, and 5 is “charity,” the pure love of Christ.

    Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth, Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—(Moroni 7:46)

  • Symbols and Salvation

    Chauncey C. Riddle*
    April 1968

    * Dr. Riddle, professor of philosophy, is chairman of the Department of Graduate Studies in Religious Instruction at Brigham Young University.

    Riddle, Chauncey C. (1968) “Symbols and Salvation,” BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 8: Iss. 3, Article 9.
    Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol8/iss3/9

    This article is an attempt to set in orderly perspective certain elements of the process of obtaining an exaltation. No pretense is made to elucidation of any mystery, nor should the order of the ideas herein be confused with the Gospel. The justification for the existence of this work is the sincere hope that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who understand the Gospel may receive some further insight into and appreciation of its greatness and of the urgency of serving the Lord with all of their heart, might, mind, and strength through the Gospel plan. To that end, then, I assert the following thesis: Qualifying for exaltation consists essentially in the proper ordering of symbols.

    Symbols and Mental Life

    We must first take account of certain features of the correlation of the mental and physical actions of men. The conscious physical experience of human beings is a mental recording or registration of the influences of the environment that work upon the physical body. This experience is composed of “ideas,” mental elements having a possibility of persistence and somewhat subject to recall. The most important aspect of these ideas for our purpose is that every experience-idea is a symbol. If it is a memory, it is a symbol of a past situation; if it is a sensation, it is a symbol of a present external configuration of physical affections; if it is imagination, it is a symbol of some future or possible experience. That which is symbolized by a given symbol is its referent. If an idea is true, it will have a one-to-one correspondence with certain elements of the referent which it symbolizes. In addition to its referent, each idea-symbol has a meaning, which meaning consists essentially in expectations for future sensation associated with the given idea. Idea-symbols thus become the basis for all conscious reaction to our environment. We act so that the most desirable possible consequent known to be available to us will become a reality, a future present-sensation.

    An example may serve to clarify these general statements. As a man in our culture sees an automobile, a mental image of that automobile forms in his mind. This image is for him a symbol of that externally real object. Away from it, he can call the symbol to mind and contemplate the automobile by analyzing the corresponding elements of the ideas. Through his imagination he can mentally dissociate the parts and reassemble them, perhaps in new form or with new elements and components. This latter process of mental creation is the key to all invention. The meaning of the automobile symbol is what he expects from the various components; if he imagines it to have a horn, he would expect to be able to produce a noise; if it has pneumatic tires, he would expect a certain comfort of ride and contingency of continued serviceability.

    Language complicates the idea-object symbol relation by introducing a secondary level of symbolization. Words “mean” the ideas which we each individually associate with them. In common sense we sometimes think that when we talk of Provo that what we “mean” by the word “Provo” is the physical city itself. Reflection shows that all we can possibly mean is some kind of amalgamated memory of all the experiences we have had in relation to the physical city; we “mean” the ideas we remember about the physical city. If we have never personally experienced Provo, we will mean by the name “Provo” only those ideas which we have habitually come to associate with that name. Words are, then, symbols of ideas, those ideas being mental symbols of actual or imagined external physical objects and events.

    Man’s mental life may be described as a Symbolic awareness of external reality and a symbolic preparation or planned reaction to that reality on the basis of understood possibilities of given situations. A man reacts to a moving automobile by removing himself from its path. Or he satisfies the need for change of place by recognizing in the idea of automobile the possibility of transportation. Mental life is internal symbolic adaptation to the realities and possibilities of the external world, both the internal and the external being equally real and necessary to man’s existence and to the satisfaction of his desires.

    The mental symbolism by which each person adapts himself to his environment and seeks satisfaction of his desires necessarily involves elements which have no present counterpart in sensation. We react to the here and now on the basis of an imagined continuity of today with yesterday and all prior days, and with tomorrow and all future times. We react to the place in which we find ourselves at present by imagining a continuity of the place we see with other places we have seen or have heard about or which we suppose exist. Our minds use, as it were, great maps of time and space which we take as accurate symbols representing external reality. We are able to use these maps because of the physical reality attached by present sensation to certain points of contact with those maps, and also because using them has in the past enabled us to predict our sensations of future times and different places with a high degree of accuracy. On the framework of these time and space maps we construct mentally the whole physical universe and its past, present, and future. We add details of geography, objects, persons, and events in accordance with the range and depth of our observation and education. The inner world of mental construct tends to become a symbol of the universe, seen, as it were, sub species eternitas, without regard to particular perspective of time and place but in regard to the whole of space and events at once, emphasis changing from place to place as the attention varies.

    One business of science is the implementation and correction of the social thought-symbol of the universe using purely physical data. In science, the details of present sensation are carefully incorporated into the conceptions of the universe that relate to present time, then inductively distributed backward and forward in time by the principle of uniformity. Theories of things not sensed at all are invented to fill the remaining gaps. The infinitesimal, the infinite, and the distant, all of which are outside the realm of sensation, are imagined and added to the universe-symbol on the basis of what is consistent with and possibly explanatory of the elements of present sensation. The ultimate scientific criterion for creation of the universe-symbol is that all ideas incorporated must be either directly observable or be theoretical projections having an economizing and predictive function. One special aspect of science is that the modern scientific universe symbol is naturalistic; its constructs must be limited to matter or energy in motion in relation to other matter or energy, specifically rejecting the existence of God, spirits, devils, etc.

    The practical advantage of the human universe-symbol is enormous. If a man wants, say, to erect a factory at a certain spot, he employs an architect to plan a building. He has in his mind a general idea of the functional requirements of the desired structure. He symbolizes this mental image in words or drawings which the architect or engineer must interpret to form a mental image which will have a one-to-one correspondence with the functional necessities of the project envisioned by his client. The architect or engineer must then imaginatively create an image or mental symbol of a building which will at the same time satisfy those functional necessities and also the necessities of sturdy structural characteristics and proper adaptation to the building site in accordance with the details and regularities of his own scientific world-image. This new mental symbol of the building is given a physical symbolism in blueprints and specifications. The building contractor then seeks to order the materials of nature and manufacture to build the physical structure in accordance with his understanding or mental symbol of what was intended by the creator of the blueprints and specifications. The finished physical structure is then put into operation by the entrepreneur; if it fulfills his functional needs, then everyone is satisfied and symbols have served as could nothing else in achieving that satisfaction.

    In summary, human life is a constant interplay and adjustment of reality to mental symbol, and vice versa. As we observe the world, we adjust the mental symbol to reality; as we work and create, we adjust reality to our mental symbols. Questions of metaphysics aside, mind and matter are profoundly and functionally related.

    Learning the Gospel

    We noted that the scientific world-image is naturalistic. It contains no gods or demons, spirits or spiritual forces, dead or unborn men. Furthermore, the scientific world-image is quite neutral in relation to values; it can sometimes tell men how to get what they want, but never what they must or should want.

    The message known as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, in the framework of our discussion, an opportunity for men to add to and to correct their mental image of the universe in such a way that they can more successfully achieve their desires and avoid unpleasant experiences. It teaches men that there are gods in heaven and that we are their children; that there are spiritual influences of both uplifting and degrading effect; that we must account for all of our trespasses against our fellowmen; and that we may receive the assistance of one Jesus Christ if we think enough of our fellowmen to try to make amends for whatever sorrow we have brought into the world. The Gospel teaches men who already believe in a god how they should conceive of him and what they can do to please him, to put themselves in a position to receive his assistance. The Gospel, then, instructs men on how to construct and furnish their mental construct of the universe in relation to the things which most of them cannot see. One who has seen and personally knows of the truth of what he says bears witness to men of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth and of our Lord’s literal resurrection and appearance in the latter days. He testifies that the power and influence of the Holy Ghost is real, and that peace and joy are the fruits of living by the Spirit. He who hears the Gospel message truly delivered will be touched himself with a spiritual experience, the witness of the Spirit to the truth of the words of the missionary, a veritable specimen of the actual spiritual reality about which the missionary is talking. Pricked in conscience and mind by living evidence of a dimension of reality which he had previously discounted or only imagined, the hearer of the Gospel is then moved with Peter’s hearers to exclaim, “Men and brethren, what shall I do?” Already sensing the power of the Gospel message and the authority of him who speaks, he feels drawn to the minister of salvation and hungers for further word.

    Having already explained to his hearer the essential personages which should be part of his world-symbol, the messenger proceeds to relate the requirements of salvation, the opportunities which those divine personages have made possible. The hearer of the Word is told of the importance of faith, obedience to the directions of the Savior; of the wonderful opportunity of repentance; of the covenant and promises of baptism; and of the comfort and guidance possible after receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. In short, the messenger attempts to create certain ideas of divine standards of conduct, setting an ideal pattern after the fashion of the architect’s blueprint. But the missionary is not the architect, for his message is vague, general and in the vernacular. The Lord is the architect. It is his Holy Spirit which clarifies to the mind of the hearer the specific standards and ideas suggested by the missionary. The workings of the Spirit are analogous to the engineer who takes the rough intentions of his client and transforms them into precise and realistic specifications; so does the Spirit accompany the necessarily vague and limited utterances of the missionary to create in the mind of the hearer exact and precise symbols or ideal standards. All this is so that the demands of perfect justice and divine mercy might not be rendered inapplicable through total dependence on human communication with its necessary faults and limitations. The Lord sees that all men are sufficiently instructed in good and evil.

    Thus it is that a man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge. That is to say, his ability to please God is limited by the awareness he has of the exact ideal standards of the Gospel he must abide in order to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The first requisite for salvation is, then, repentance. In repentance a person must order his mental image of the universe to include all the following: the Father; the Son; the Holy Ghost; the spirits of men who are dead; the spirits of the unborn, angels, and devils; the Gifts of the Spirit; the powers of Satan; Adam and Eve; the Fall of man; the Atonement of Jesus Christ; the Priesthood and keys; the Day of Judgment; the Church of Jesus Christ; the prophets, seers and revelators; the Gospel ordinances; the visions and revelations of Joseph Smith; the historicity and divinity of the Bible, the Pearl of Great Price, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants; and the divine leadership of the living prophet, etc. Within the framework of these persons, things and events, the person must order his mental symbol of the universe to include the standards and laws of the celestial kingdom, the love for the Lord with all one’s heart, might, mind, and strength, and obedience to all His commandments. He will project in his mind the heavenly city which all the prophets have longed to see, where no one hurts or destroys, where all the pure in heart dwell in righteousness under the leadership of the Savior. While it is true that no one will receive precise concepts of all these things before he accepts the Gospel, in the process of earning his exaltation he must come to have a true understanding or mental image of all these things. The first step in salvation, then, is to order one’s mental image of the universe to include true spiritual realities as one is taught them. Only then is he prepared to live the Gospel, seeing and doing all with the perspective of spiritual eternity.

    Living the Gospel

    Having attained an adequate mental basis for the proper living of the Gospel, if a person then desires the association of the gods and the blessings they can bestow, it is incumbent upon him to act according to the specific prescriptions of those divine personages. If he can change the natural actions of his life so that he conforms to the new standards they have put into his mind, he then can be saved. For example, he learns that not only must he avoid fornication and adultery, but that he must avoid every thought or desire of physical pleasure which is outside the precise bounds of righteousness the Lord has established. He then labors to fill his mind with the words of the scriptures, to garnish his thoughts with virtue, to remember the Savior always, to be led by the Spirit to understand why unchastity is such a terrible abomination; that through all this he might come to have the pure love of Christ toward all men and no longer desire any kind of evil. This lifting of one’s actions to measure up precisely to the standards of celestial law is called “justification,” the process of becoming a just or law-abiding man. This achievement is possible only under the constant tutelage of the Holy Ghost. This process is also known as finding the strait and narrow way. We enter the gate, which is acceptance of the first principles and ordinances, and then begin the struggle to tread the path to exaltation. We must struggle against the temptations of good things apart from divinely prescribed conditions, temptations of pride, of intellect, of physical attainments, of the flattery and cunning of worldly persons, of the shame of the world, and against the taunts of unholy men. If we can humble ourselves sufficiently to receive and be obedient to the Spirit, then no worldly influence can block or thwart our treading of the straight and narrow. As a little child submits to his father, so we then become meek, submissive, patient, and full of love that we might receive grace upon grace, the light of truth growing brighter and brighter in us until the perfect day, the day we become perfect by obeying the enticings of the Holy Spirit in all that we do.

    The straitness of the way to exaltation varies as we progress. It always directs us squarely to our goal, but varies in its breadth. The closer we come to living celestial laws, the more particular will the Spirit be in warning us of pitfalls. What the Spirit allows us to do in our early weakness, it will forbid us to do in our later strength of increased righteousness. As fast as we can receive and live the principles of righteousness, we are led on unto perfection, wherein we do only that which we are directed to do. Living the Gospel, then, is bringing our treatment of real physical things and events into accord with the standard of saintly action prescribed by the Lord and described in detail to us by the Spirit. It is the adequation of the acts of a free agent to the specifications of a celestial symbol through human willingness and divine spiritual power.

    But the importance of symbols does not end with the mental image of the world which a saint enjoys. There is yet another level of symbolism which might be illuminated. For the real elements of the physical world—the persons, things, and events—are all themselves symbols of a yet greater reality. These are neither linguistic nor mental symbols; rather are they physical realities symbolic of things spiritual, present realities symbolic of things future. To distinguish these special symbols which are the referent and physical reality of the Gospel standard, and at the same time are the symbols of a spiritual and future reality, let us call them “surrogates”: that which stands in the stead of. Surrogates are special symbols because, in opposition to linguistic or mental symbols, they have more than instrumental or operational value. Surrogates are intrinsically valuable as realities in their own right, and cannot be expended or disregarded in favor of their referent. In fact, the surrogate provides a unique access to the referent. Whereas the linguistic symbol is a matter of custom and convenience, proper action toward gospel surrogates is the only way of obtaining the ultimate which they symbolize.

    Let us examine a specific instance of a surrogate. The celestial standard is that we treat each human being with perfect and complete kindness and love; be he friend or enemy, we must not condemn, but bear witness to the truth; not wish evil against him, but pray for him; not harm, but return good for evil. Each human being is a surrogate or symbol of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and whatsoever we do unto the least of our brethren, even so we do it unto him. If we would be exalted, we must learn and come to have in our minds that celestial standard. We must then bring our actions up to that Standard, treating each of our fellowmen as if he were the Savior. Thus realizing that each person is a symbol or surrogate of the Savior, we learn to relate properly to those symbols in the real world, that is, to treat that person in such a way that we may become worthy of enjoying the personal presence of the Savior and do for him directly what we now do only for his surrogate. Only if we treat his surrogate as we should treat him, may we receive the Lord. This surrogate is thus a unique factor in gaining the ultimate spiritual reward we seek.

    Other examples of the surrogate-symbol relationship are as follows. A man’s wife in the new and everlasting covenant is a surrogate of the blessings of that covenant and a symbol of the covenant itself. If he dishonors her in thought or in act, he dishonors that covenant; if he does not repent, he cuts himself off from the blessings of the covenant. The children a man and wife have are surrogates of a numberless posterity. Their physical possessions, of land, animals, and things, are surrogates of an eternal physical dominion. Their priesthood is a surrogate of the full powers of godhood. The Church is a surrogate of the heavenly Church of the Firstborn. The authorities who preside in the Church are surrogates of the Lord and his role as governor of the universe. The influence of the Holy Spirit a man enjoys is surrogate of the fulness of light and truth enjoyed by the exalted. The saving ordinances are surrogates of the eternal pronouncements of blessings in the eternal world. In short, earthly things are surrogates of an eternal and a future greater reality. Each is of great intrinsic worth, and only as we accord to each that intrinsic worth and order our lives and them in relation to celestial standards can we ever enjoy the eternal and ultimate reality. Those who are damned are those who abuse the intrinsic worth of surrogates here and now in order to satisfy an urge or lust or fear, being unwilling to abide the celestial image given to them in their minds by the power of the Spirit.

    Conclusion and Corollaries

    The force of the thesis of this paper should now be manifest as that thesis is restated: Qualifying for exaltation consists essentially in the proper ordering of symbols. This means, then, that the essential steps in becoming exalted are (1) ordering our mental symbols to conform to the spiritual realities of the universe, (2) ordering the affairs of our lives in accordance with those mental symbols. We should remember that each thing, event, or person in this world is a symbol or surrogate of an ultimate spiritual reality and that our actions relative to these things demonstrate how we would react in that ultimate spiritual situation. The following corollaries might now be drawn.

    (a) It will be noted that the most important element of ordering symbols in the two steps of gaining an exaltation mentioned above are changes of self more than of anything else. We change our world-image as we are taught to understand truth by the Holy Ghost. We change our actions to treat everything and everybody as we should according to the world-image which the Spirit has given us. The ordering of symbols thus consists in ordering the position of the self, each for himself, in relation to all things external. For the concept of self is itself symbol and surrogate as is everything else. My body is surrogate for the resurrected body I shall some day have. My present desires are surrogates for my eternal desires. My thoughts are surrogates for what I shall think in eternity. If I can subject my body, my desires, and my thoughts to the standards of thought and action prescribed by the Lord, I then can be blessed by him. Subordination of the self to the will of God, then, is the particular ordering of symbols which is in my power which will lead to exaltation. Any deviation must lead to damnation. But the Savior has said this more simply; Except ye “become as a little child, ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.” (3 Ne. 11:38.)

    (b) Another consequence of our human situation here delineated is the nothingness of man when he pretends to be anything without the help of the Lord. If we are not led by the Spirit, we cannot begin to know whether we have a correct or incorrect idea about things we cannot directly perceive. All human description of the unseen is a guess, “educated” though that guess may be. Men make sufficient errors to convince at least all who try that the theories of men can never be trusted completely. But even if a man learns for himself from the Spirit the true image of the universe, he is yet helpless if he then rejects the guidance of the Spirit in his daily actions. Without the guidance of the Spirit he will not know what to do in all things to be perfect, since light and truth are different things.

    Furthermore, we have not in ourselves the power, worlds without end, to change the past, to change the consequences of our evil deeds, that we might Stand blameless before a just God. Through the Atonement of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we may be saved from the consequences of our mistakes, and we may be led to sin no more. Both of these great values, guidance and forgiveness, depend solely upon the proper relating of our own concept of our self to our concepts and precepts of our Savior and the Holy Ghost. If we pretend to any merit, worth, or intelligence on our own that entitles us either to a necessary claim upon the Savior’s atonement or to an ability to dispense even temporarily with the guidance of the Spirit, we have so misordered the symbols that we cannot be made perfect and cannot reach exaltation. Again, the Savior has said this more simply: “Without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5.)

    (c) Heretofore little has been said of scripture, but the place of scripture can now be located within the framework already established. Written scripture is a collection of human symbols which have been ordered in a particular fashion by holy men as they were directed by the Holy Spirit. Contrary to what is often supposed, the purpose of written scripture is not, generally, to make clear and certain to men the ways of the Lord. The scriptures are written in a human vernacular which is not designed for nor capable of expressing spiritual truth with any high degree of accuracy. That fact may be coupled with the fact that there is no such thing as literal interpretation of any human symbol, all meaning being strictly a matter of convention. To these mechanical difficulties we may add the deliberate confusion created by the Lord, “that seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.” (Mark 4:12.) It is also obvious that the scriptures are not topically organized nor is any pretension to completeness made for any doctrinal question other than the simple message of the fulness of the Gospel as found in the Book of Mormon. These factors surely demonstrate that the scriptures are not intended to be a clear exposition of the mind and will of the Lord. Compared with the level of communication established in modern scientific discourse, the human interpretation of scripture is almost completely blind.

    What then is the intended purpose of our scriptures? They are intended to prick the conscience, to excite the curiosity, to stimulate one to search, and to baffle him who seeks for the wrong reason. They are intended as enigmas that must be unraveled by the same power as originally gave them. He who supposes that he can in any way determine the meaning of any scripture without the explicit guidance of the Holy Ghost, however literal or historic the reference may appear, has not yet learned the answer to the most basic of all religious questions: “Can a man by searching find out God?”

    All who have the enlightenment of the Holy Ghost regarding the meaning of any passage of scripture are of one mind with the Lord, with the Lord’s appointed prophets, and with all others who enjoy the guidance of the Spirit. The scriptures, are, then, a symbolic enticement to learn of the things of God and at the same time a barricade to the learning of spiritual truth. They are a blessing to humble men who seek true wisdom and a warning to proud men to humble themselves if they wish to know truth and light instead of the vain imaginings of men. Eternal life is found only in coming personally to the Savior as we heed the living prophets and the voice of the Lord through the Holy Spirit. Hence the Savior’s challenge to the mistaken Jew: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39.) The Jews thought the scriptures would guide them to eternal life. But they didn’t understand their own scriptures. If they had, they would have seen that the scriptures point men to Christ, and only in him can any man gain eternal life. Thus the Savior’s lament: “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:40.)

    (d) It is important to mention in connection with scripture a didactic symbolism employed by the Lord wherein physically real things on the earth are used to teach men of things they cannot now experience. Brief mention of certain examples of this must suffice. The sacrifice Adam offered was to teach him of the Sacrifice of the Son of God, through which Adam would be saved. The flood which ended the patriarchal world is a symbol of baptism. The ark wherein eight souls were saved by water is a symbol of the saving power of the new and everlasting covenant. The rainbow is a symbol of God’s forbearance and will not be removed until He is again about to destroy the world. The tower of Babel episode is a symbol of what happens when men attempt to find out God by searching. Light is a symbol of guidance and good; darkness and consequent stumbling of evil. Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac is a symbol of the sacrifice by the Father of his Only Begotten. Moses holding aloft the brazen serpent was a symbol to Israel that whosever should have faith to look, to believe on the Savior, should be saved. The rituals of the Law of Moses all were types and shadows, living prophecies of the Atonement. The cross whereon the Savior was crucified is a symbol of the evil of this world. The parables of the Savior were likenesses of things physical to things spiritual. The Liahona is a symbol of the guidance of the Spirit; the Urim and Thummim of the power of Seership. The destructions of the wicked, upheavals of the earth, and subsequent blessings of the righteous in Book of Mormon times were a symbol of the events accompanying the Second Coming of the Savior. Modern temples are symbols of the mountains where the prophets have gone to get away from the world and commune with God, and vice versa. Almost every physical aspect of the temple is symbolic of truths of a spiritual order. The temple ceremonies are highly symbolic but intended to convey important truths for both everyday living and for eternity. Every Gospel ordinance is a symbol: baptism, of death and burial, of cleansing, of rebirth; confirmation, of receiving the Holy Ghost; anointing with oil, of receiving the blessings of the Lord; shaking the dust off shoes, of leaving a witness; the emblems of the sacrament, of the body and blood of the Savior; our reaching out to partake of the sacrament, of our voluntary promise to obey God in all things. Obviously, this list could be extended almost indefinitely. The point is this: the Lord employs every opportunity to use physical things to teach us things spiritual. As we receive this teaching under the influence of the Holy Ghost, we are given an understanding of the truth sufficient for our salvation. If, after all this, we will not accept of the ways of the Lord, it is to our own account. After these many witnesses we cannot stand blameless.

    Suffice it to say in conclusion that symbols are at once the key to our exaltation and the lock that damns us. Only as we are honest in heart and hunger and thirst after righteousness do they become the means for our blessing which our Lord intends.

  • The Problem of the Academician – POINTS TO PONDER

    COLLEGE OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION
    CHAUNCEY C. RIDDLE
    16 November, 1966

                It is patent to observe that academicians often make a poor showing in the work of the Church; frequently they are a destructive, negative influence. The paradox is that sometimes these persons of destructive impact have the best of intentions. It is not intentions or desires which count in the long run, however; rather, it is performance. But the good intention makes this paradox worthy of further examination. The problem of the academician can be traced in part to the frame of mind engendered in his professional atmosphere.

                One principal aspect of the academic atmosphere at its best is extreme negative criticism. It is critical because of the necessity of constant analysis of one’s own and other men’s ideas, actions, and creations. It must at times be negative because it is concerned with excellence of product.  The producer, it is assumed, is enough of a scholar to know the positive aspect of production, to have delight in excellence, and not to take negative criticism personally. The criticism is extreme because of the necessity of making fine discriminations, again in deference to the ideal of performing as perfectly, as expertly as is possible for a given time and circumstance. This is one operation of the academic atmosphere at its best because the world would be flooded even more than it is with specious knowledge, with shoddy performance, with chicanery were it not for the academic crucible which attempts to eliminate the dross. In some respects the academic atmosphere is a great benefit to mankind, and one might lament that its influence is not more widespread. If academicians were not also human beings, the academic atmosphere might well be given far greater influence in society.

                In sum then, the academic approach is to achieve excellence of product through intensive, withering criticism of all that men propose, propound or produce. This approach has been of great and demonstrable beneficence to science, particularly, rescuing it from its origins in aesthetic rationalism and making of it a formidable, pragmatic giant.

                Contrasted with the academic frame of mind is a gospel frame which is in approach antithetical to the academic in almost every respect. The gospel frame begins with the premise that we are engaged in the work of the Lord, which work has come by personal revelation from the Lord. If we have that testimony, then we know that we are not here concerned with criticism of the projects of men. The man or men who present ideas and projects to us are the Lord’s chosen stewards, the prophets and presiding authorities. The task is not to oppose and criticize what they say, but rather to strive mightily to comprehend and implement what they say. What they say may appear to our critical minds to be irrational, shortsighted. But if we have the personal testimony that the Lord had appointed them as His stewards, to criticize them is to set ourselves us as the judge of the Lord.

                The gospel frame of mind has its primary focus on people rather than products. It sees all men as the children of God, as eternal souls who may, if they wish, come to a restoration of their heritage, to know their Father again personally, and to receive of all that he has. Programs and products are seen as devices and opportunities for the building of God-like character in each individual. The most essential ingredient of that character is faith—humble submission as a little child to all that the Father seeth fit to inflict. This is indeed the antitheses of academic criticism. It is learning to be deliberately non-critical of anything that comes from the Lord in order to achieve a proper personal relationship with the Lord. It is to see ourselves as weak, ignorant, biased potential servants of an omnipotent, omniscient and perfect God.

                Within this gospel frame of mind one does not criticize. He will search for the will of the Lord through personal revelation if asked for his counsel, but will only bear humble  testimony to what he believes the Lord wants. He will never attack a brother or a leader for his ideas, but will examine his own conscience for the necessity of repentance if he finds himself at odds with someone with whom he ought to be in agreement, leaving critical judgment to those who preside. If he presides, he will pronounce the Lord’s judgment, not his own. All things will be done in pure love, in genuine respect for all persons concerned, be they in agreement or disagreement with himself.

                In sum, the gospel frame of mind is a positive, joyful acceptance of all that comes from the Lord, with an earnest and eager desire to implement it.

                It can readily be seen that the gospel frame of mind employed in an academic situation would wreak havoc. To accept uncritically what is of men is demonstrably disastrous. And to apply the academic frame of mind towards the work of the church or towards anything which is of the Lord is at least equally disastrous. It will serve to alienate us from all good things—from God, from the prophets, from personal revelation—and with considerable alacrity.

                Should we then reject one frame of mind—say the academic—and adhere to the gospel? Rejection of either could be as disastrous as mis-application of either. If we reject the critical frame of mind, we might reject the possibility of finding the Lord, for it is only by a careful discrimination that we find the voice of the Lord among the welter of human and spiritual influences which play upon us. To reject criticism would be to leave oneself defenseless against the wiles of the adversary and his minions. And of course if we reject the gospel frame we cut ourselves off from all righteousness, choosing to remain in spiritual darkness and death.

                The solution then lies in a thorough mastery of the nature and skillful use of each frame of mind with a corresponding careful attention to the situation of the moment to know which frame to apply. The overall pattern will likely be to emphasize the critical frame until we find the Lord, then to emphasize the gospel frame thereafter. For if we are servants of the Lord, even when we act as acute critics in a proper academic environment, we must above all be saints and be responsive to the person and his spiritual needs even as we dissect what he academically propounds.

                “Every scribe well instructed in the things of the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a householder; a man, therefore, which bringeth forth out of his treasure that which is new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)

  • FREEDOM FOR WHAT? (Written in the late 1950’s)

    by Chauncey C. Riddle

    There once was a lord who desired to bless his servants. Calling to him his master-builder, he charged him to build a spacious and beautiful dwelling place for his servants. But the lord required of the master-builder one special restriction: the dwelling place must be of a heavenly order, not conformed to the habitations of the world. The master-builder was taken aback at this restriction, but he inquired of the lord as to what manner of buildings one would find in the heavenly plan; he was told that as he sought to know and partake of the order of heaven, he would be given a vision of the heavenly mansion required at his hands.

                Encouraged and enthused, the master-builder sought to ennoble his mind and heart to partake of the heavenly order. His sacrifice was not in vain for indeed he did begin to have small glimpses of the mansion he was to build. Carefully he treasured the insight he received, and began to draw the plans of the edifice. When his understanding of the footings and foundation was complete, he besought the approval of his lord. The lord’s countenance was radiant as he commended the master-builder for his faithfulness and bade him proceed with the foundations immediately.

                As the master-builder and his fellow-workers toiled at the excavations and forms, men of the world came to view their labors. Duly noting the strangeness of the plan, these men of the world delegated another master-builders among them to warn the lord’s master-builder. In a kindly but firm way they showed him how the plans were not of the pattern of the world, and therefore would neither yield a stable building nor would anyone want to dwell therein.

                The lord’s master-builder was pleased with the interest of his colleagues, but assured them that the plan was just what his lord wanted. But his colleagues pressed him. “Is your lord a master-builder, that he should know whereof he speaks?” “Anyone who is competent can see that these plans are formulated without due regard to the laws of physics.” “Do you have a right to squander the limited resources of our world in such a misguided undertaking?” “Where are the plans for the rest of the building?” “Do you mean to say that you would actually proceed to lay a foundation without having the total plans and specifications of your structure?”

                The master-builder calmly stood his ground, even though he could not answer his would-be benefactors. Horrified at such naiveté and with mutterings about “intelligence,” “sanity,” and “senility,” the delegation hurried over to the master-builder’s fellow-workers who were toiling in the afternoon sun. With earnest purpose the delegation fanned out among the workers and began to explain that this foundation was ill-conceived and would eventually cause the misery and destruction of many souls. Being master-builders they easily overpowered the reason and understanding of the workers. The combination of hot sun and powerful arguments soon had all but a few convinced that the leader was in error. Carefully they listened to the delegation of master-builders as to how a responsible builder would build a good, reliable worldly building. Even the workers who did not believe the delegation gave up in despair as they saw everyone else stop and cluster around the delegates. “Surely,” they said, “we cannot build this structure alone.”

                The lord’s master-builder spoke plainly and firmly to his fellow-workers. He told them to trust in their lord, not in these men of the world. But his voice was dim against the din of the delegation. With shouts and “hurrahs” the workers received the standard worldly plans offered to them, and hastened to tear down the forms and to lay the building out according to these new plans. The delegation cheered them on and even took up a collection and procured refreshments for the the workers. The workers who did not believe the delegates stood idly by and said, “Surely we will see the end of this thing. If our master-builder is right, perhaps our lord’s building will build itself; if this worldly building is sufficient to our needs, then we do not need our lord’s building. Meanwhile, we will not waste our labor in the hot sun.”

                Seeing no way he could convince his workers, the distraught master-builder went to his lord and prayed for relief. The lord instructed him to continue to plead with the workers and to fear nothing. “Your own mansion is assured,” he comforted the master-builder. “Those faithless workers cannot destroy your blessings. It is their own blessings which they reject, for now they will have no heavenly mansion wherein to dwell.”

                With the courage born of hope, the lord’s master-builder returned to the construction site and began to entreat his fellow-workers one by one. They listened respectfully to him, then went on with the new plans. The master-builder called them all together for an evening meeting. They rejoiced and commended him for his inspiring talk. But some said, “I understood him to say that the new worldly way is really better.” In the morning they all went back to work on the worldly building.

                Notwithstanding the fact that the delegation of worldly master-builders had successfully thwarted the work of the lord’s master-builder, they were worried that he might win some of the workers back and begin to build strange buildings again. They sought out the governor of the land and explained their case. The governor was sympathetic, but lamented that since men in that society were free, there was no law by which he could legally restrain the lord’s master-builder. The delegation then went to the legislature and with vivid descriptions portrayed the irreparable damage to morals and society which the plan of the lord’s master-builder would inflict. With anxious indignation the legislature decreed that it was society and not men which should be free, and it enacted into law a statute providing that no person had the right to promote causes that were not first approved by a council of the world’s foremost experts. This would guarantee that no person’s mind would be trammeled by anything but the best which the world has to offer. It would also block the squandering of resources on projects which did not serve the interests of the whole society.

                Armed with legal sanctity and moral indignation mixed with pity, the delegation confronted the lord’s master-builder with a writ and led him away where he could not disturb the workers in their enjoyment of their natural blessings. Triumphantly the delegation declared the elimination of all disunity among the people and proclaimed the era of universal peace and the brotherhood of men. But a peculiar problem haunted that millenial era. They could all agree on Mother Nature, but they never could quite agree as to who was worthy to be the Father of all those brothers.

                This parable portrays the problem of establishing Zion. Zion is the great creative work of the latter days. It is the preparation of a people and a dwelling place where the Lord Jesus Christ may come to live and reign for a thousand years. This task is more demanding of ingenuity, efficiency, astuteness and, above all, faithfulness, than any other task men could undertake. For while the world tries to create a utopia through force, coercion, control and propaganda, Zion is built only by laying a sure foundation of purity in righteousness in the heart of every person who would participate.

                The problem in establishing Zion, as in the parable, is to convert the workers to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and to serve him through the Holy Spirit. This is to say that every worker must himself be a master-builder. Any man who attempts to labor in the kingdom of God who does not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, does not see the vision of the goal, does not know the Lord, cannot stand. The pressures of the world, the ardor of the labor, but more especially the misguided thinking of the world destroy the effectiveness of him who does not know Christ. He who knows not Christ feels restricted by Christ’s Church, and is horrified that the Lord’s way of doing things is not in harmony with the thinking of the world. In warm appreciation of the things of the world, the misguided worker who knows not Christ rejects the prophets of God and proceeds to serve God and man after the image of the world—not even conceiving that he is thereby fighting Christ.

                The issue of freedom is plainly one of objectives if we are concerned with the work of the Savior’s Church. The man who knows not Christ feels hampered and destroyed because the prophets of the Church do not laud him when he promotes worldliness. He may sense something great and wonderful about the Gospel and thus remain bound to the Church, but he will likely deny the power thereof, which constant personal revelation from Jesus Christ through the Holy Ghost. Such an one can only be set free by converting him to accept and abide in the spiritual order of Christ’s plan for the salvation of men.

                Let us proceed to examine the matter of freedom from a more fundamental point of view. The issue at hand concerns the dual nature of man. It is not the traditional mind-body dichotomy that is pertinent. Rather should we look to the choice which each man enjoys to select for himself a nature, a character.

                Man may on the one hand choose to be “natural.” This means simply that he chooses to remain as he finds himself in the world: subject to the flesh and without Christ. This natural man has a carnal mind: his thinking is furnished data and influences only through the flesh. He relies upon his eyes, ears, and the opinions of other men as he communicates with them through the flesh. The natural man is not inherently bad. But in either not knowing or in rejecting the influence of Christ, he cannot keep the laws of God, and thus becomes an enemy to God.

                Man may on the other hand be born again, to have his spiritual feelings, ears, eyes, touch in turn become sensitive to the influence of Christ in this world. Adding to the senses of the body and the information derived thereby the senses of the spirit as he communicates with divine beings, the spiritual man sees, know, and judges out of a double insight. The law of the Gospel is no mystery to him and he delights in receiving commandments through the Holy Spirit, for he stays himself upon the God of Israel. Such a man is free from the blindness of the natural man, free to know the gods and to learn of righteousness, free to do and to gain every good and righteous thing.

                But the choice between remaining a natural man and becoming a saint is not a simple matter. It cannot be decided once and for all, putting on sainthood as we might don a robe. Choosing to be a saint is to choose to gain a divine character, to take upon oneself the divine nature of Christ. To become a saint is the adding together of thousands, perhaps millions of consecutive moment-to-moment correct choices. At each moment a man may yield to Satan by yielding to the impulses and ideas of his flesh, or he may, if the Holy Spirit is with him, choose to be obedient to the voice of Christ. As a man chooses to yield himself unto Christ, moment after moment, his nature and character are changed. With the increment that accrues with each correct decision he becomes more like Christ, to have the understanding, emotions, insights, expressions, appearance and powers of his beloved master. If he endures to the end, nothing will be withheld from him as he becomes a joint heir with his Savior.

                The greatest freedom in this world then is the freedom to become Christ-like. The alternative is to stay relatively as we are: to be damned.

                In all fairness it should be noted that to a man who wishes to be carnal and natural, the greatest freedom of becoming like Christ is not seen by him as a freedom at all, but as a threat. Not wanting to be different than he is, rather wanting to be conformed to the world, he resents any encouragement to repent and feels terribly put upon if in any way the Kingdom of God places any stigma on his speech, dress, work, etc. He wants to be free to do as he wants, to create and revel in greater and greater worldliness. He will cry in righteous indignation, “I am a moral man. I love children. I am active in my church. I am diligent in my work. How can you accuse me of being worldly? All I want is academic freedom, to do and say as I please, to investigate anything, anywhere, anytime. It is truth which I worship, and you and your narrow-minded religion are not going to stop me from finding and creating truth.”

                This natural man does not understand or accept several fundamental ideas. He does not know that why we act is even more important than what we do. He therefore cannot understand that only acts which are willing obedience to the personal commands of Jesus Christ are good and that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. He does not know that the greatest thing in the world is doing good, not knowing truth. He does not know that a man cannot know any important amount of truth except through Jesus Christ. He does not know that Jesus Christ will not and cannot fill him with truth except his goal is to do good. He does not know that the most difficult part of learning to do good is to be good. He does not see the necessity to transform his character and nature to be Christ-like so that he can stand to receive the knowledge and power that enable one to do real good, to love with a pure love. Not understanding or accepting these ideas, the natural man fights against the work of Christ, and even in all the charity he can muster of himself, he only promotes the damnation of himself and others.

                If this natural man is a member of Christ’s church, there are other important ideas he will not be able to understand or accept. He will not see that if there seems to be an anti-intellectual influence in the church that it is an anti-natural-intellectual influence, a resistance to the man who sets himself up as a light unto the world but who knows not Christ. He will not believe that to be spiritual demands intellectuality, and that the best way to solve any intellectual problem and to develop one’s intellect is to come unto Christ and to be tutored and reproved by the Holy Spirit from moment to moment. He will likely belittle the group of men who have the greatest intellectual attainments of any group of human beings on the earth today: the prophets, seers, and revelators of Christ’s church. And because he will not accept the constant influence of the Holy Spirit in his life, he cannot accept the prophets, and thus cannot accept Jesus Christ. He indeed may say, “I am a servant of Christ.” But when he rejects the Holy Spirit and the prophets, both of which are in agreement, he indeed rejects Christ.

                To the humble man of God, there is no boundary to this freedom or to his creativity. If he wishes to relieve the suffering of the poor, his master will show him how it can be done in righteousness and will give him the power to do it. If he desires to produce great art for the edification of the souls of men, his master will comfort him through the long struggle of gaining technique and judgment, and then will inspire the great themes to be portrayed. If he wishes to conquer the secrets of the physical universe that the kingdom of God may roll forth and fill the immensity of space, nothing will hinder him. If his soul hungers to bring happiness and salvation to men by bringing them the glad tidings of the Gospel, his feet will be sped and prospered, till they become beautiful upon the mountains to the nations of the earth.

                The servant of Christ feels no restriction because he does not want to create after the manner of the world. He delights in instruction and reproof, for his only desire is to create, to bless, to improve according to the heavenly pattern, which he sees only dimly at first. Barriers to the ways of the world are not barriers to him, because he seeks to go up, not down. The only barriers he fights are the chains of error in his mind, the evil impulses of his breast, the weakness of his physical powers, the shallowness and inconsistency of his own love. He does not need to rebel against any segment of society to quiet his fears, for he fears only himself and the degree to which his own character is yet unlike that of Christ.

                The servant of God seeks first, then, to bring to pass that greatest of all miracles, the creation of a Christ-like being out of his own natural self. He struggles through repentance to gain a new mind, a new heart, a new countenance, a new body, a new faith, a new hope, a new charity. Having gained that miracle, he then turns to the work of enticing every person and every thing to partake of the goodness of Christ, even as he has. He will create ideas, programs, cities, industries, families, friends, servants of Christ—all done by persuasion, by love unfeigned, even as he himself was drawn unto Christ without compulsion. He does not fear age or death, for his work and his creations are eternal. All he accomplishes will endure, and passing into eternity is but one further step of freedom.

                But in this life he hopes that he will not be the only master-builder. He hopes and prays that others will dedicate themselves to the Lord, that together they might perfect their characters, that together they might establish a Zion that never will be taken away. And all this for the glory of that great God who begat them unto a newness of life.