LeGrand L. Baker

Category: Chauncey Riddle

  • The Language of Heart, Might, Mind, and Strength

    Chauncey C. Riddle

    Education Week, 1991

    The title of these series of discussions is Language and Philosophy of Language, and their connection with religion. Yesterday we talked about communication, pointing out that everything we do is a communication. And our communication, or what we do, is the sum of our existence. We are what we do. In other words, we are how we communicate.

    Today I would like to talk about languages. Each of us is adept at many languages, and it is important to understand these languages. This changed from the schedule, I hope you don’t mind. I had to put this one first to make sense of the one that comes up tomorrow, which is the one that is scheduled for today. I hope you will forgive me if this upsets your plans. But anyway, we are talking about languages of heart, might, mind and strength.

    We assume this paradigm, which is fundamental in the scriptures. That human beings are composed of four aspects, that is to say that there are four parts of us that we control. And we are accountable for each of these four. Our heart and our mind are the spirit, that is to say they belong to our spirit body. We are talking about the heart of the spirit body.

    Apparently the heart is the thing that makes decisions. It is that thing in us that is the real us. That’s the personality we bring from eternity.

    The mind is what thinks, what understands, what plans, what executes the desires of the heart. Executes in the sense of giving signals to the body. The mind is the thinker, the place where ideas and representations are made.

    The strength is the body, the physical tabernacle. Into which we are placed at birth, and which we are relieved of at death, and which we again have at the resurrection.

    Our might is the trail of effects we leave in the world and the universe. Our might is the wake of our ship. It’s the swath we leave as we go through life, in other words, it’s the effects we have on the world. Now there are two aspects to might. One is our potential, which is sometimes spoken of as might. But the more real might is the actual thing we have accomplished.

    So we will talk about language in each of these four aspects. Because there are languages of heart, languages of mind, strength and might. So, what is a language? A language is a patterned and socially normed set of assertions by which one being communicates with another. Now, let’s take that apart a little bit. It’s patterned, that’s to say there are repeated sequences. There is a discernable pattern.

    If you were to record my voice you would find that I go through a repetition; certain phonemes, certain words, certain phrases, and these come up again and again as I speak. Every language has these patterns. We pick up on the patterns, the human brain is so constructed to pick patterns very readily. And things don’t have to be exactly the same. Our mind functions by analog, or by metaphor, which means it doesn’t have to be exactly alike to see a similarity. We are good at seeing similarities, at seeing patterns, Even though the details may not be exactly the same. Otherwise we couldn’t recognize each other from day to day.

    We all look a little different; wear different clothes, wear our hair a little different, appear in different circumstances. And if we couldn’t see the patterns apart from some particulars, of course we wouldn’t do very well.

    So languages are patterned, they are socially normed, in the sense that in a community (a community needs to be no larger than two people) the pattern begins to take a significant meaning which both the sender of the pattern and the receiver of the pattern understand to be associated with some idea or intention. And so to learn a language is to learn the social norms of a community. It is to acquire the culture of that community. There are no private languages in the technical sense. All languages are public, they are socially normed.

    Now a set of assertion codes is simply a way of manifesting ourselves. The assertion codes that we use as human beings are almost all of our body. Some our not, some are our might. But they come through our body. The body reveals the things that go on in the heart and in the mind. And if you become very good at it, you can read a person’s body and detect things that are going on in their heart and mind. There is also a spiritual power of discernment. Whereby one may read a person’s heart. Or read a person’s ideas and mind. And if a person is gifted spiritually and has that power then there is a direct, (you don’t have to guess that way.) You can look at a person’s body, or the results of their efforts and infer what is going on in their heart and mind. That is guess work, but if you have the gift of discernment, you simply read directly what is in the heart and the mind.

    Well, these assertion codes then, are the signals. Assertion codes for instance I am sending you a series of assertion codes which are noises I make with my vocal chords. And these are socially normed. You know approximately what I mean. By uttering each noise, and the sequence makes a difference to you and out of that you fabricate a meaning from these noises and attach some kind of set of ideas to this whole series of nonsense.

    Well, now let’s talk about the different languages:
    HEART
    Heart language is patterned expression of the human heart. There are many dimensions, I am not sure how many dimensions there are of the heart language. Let me mention a few to you that you will recognize. Some people (these come in pairs) and we recognize different personality types, as different people have different heart language. For instance, some people are strong personalities, and some people are weak personalities. That is a function of the heart. That is to say the strength of the person. The heart is what determines that.

    Some people are very sure of themselves, and move ahead. Other people are deterred by every wind that blows in their purposes. One is strong, the other is weak. To have courage (the word courage of course, cour is the french word for heart) courage is simply heart. Courage is being strong in heart, and to be afraid is to be weak in heart. And part of the gospel is to help us to have courage. And we are told that if the language we express is the language of fear that means we do not yet have faith, and if we do not have faith we cannot be saved. So those who fear are not saved. To be saved for one thing means to acquire something in which we can put our trust so that we don’t need to be afraid. So the heart speaks a language dependent on what it’s capabilities are internally and externally. If a person doesn’t know anything that is stable or good in the world, he can trust nothing, then the heart is automatically weak. If the heart can trust something, and as it trust in that, and it finds that trust vindicated, then the person grows strong.

    Some people are steady, other people are pragmatic, or variable, Some people are constant in the sense that you can always depend that when you see them they will always have a certain attitude and stance. Other people you will never know if they will be up or down. Now that again is part of the language of the heart. This I think is closely related to the strength and weakness part of the language.

    Now the person who is steady is the person again has something in which they can trust, they have an anchor for their soul. The gospel provides such an anchor in the Savior. Those who have come to know the Savior, know his work, and know his spirit, and find that he is eminently trustworthy, they are simply different people. They speak a different language. They speak differently because of the knowledge that they have.

    Some people are sober, that is to say they are serious about serious things. That doesn’t mean they are always long-faced. But the opposite of being sober is to be light-minded. To be light-minded is to be flippant about sacred things. And some people find that the only way they can pursue life is to treat everything as if it were a joke, nothing is sacred to them. Again, you see, that is closely related to faith. And the heart expresses itself, and shows it’s faith or lack of faith in whether a person is sober or light- minded.

    When Mormon was about ten years of age, Ammoron came to him and said “I perceive thou art a sober child” I presume what he meant by that was, `You take spiritual things seriously’. Therefore, I can trust you. That is the thing, of course, that we need to engender in ourselves, in our children. We can’t engender it directly, but we can encourage faith in the Savior. And faith in the Savior makes possible every good thing. Another attitude of the heart, is some person’s are proud or self-sufficient. That is to say, they are a law unto themselves, they have no trouble passing judgement on anything, anytime, anywhere. On setting the standard saying whether something is true or false, or right or wrong. They simply know of themselves, it is so because they say so. That is to say they are very self- sufficient.

    Other people are humble. These people who are humble do not pretend to know all things. Sometimes you can be humble and strong for instance some people are humble and they don’t know very much, but what they do know they feel very strong about. They don’t know very much. But some people (there are all kinds of variations) You see, as talk all these kinds of characteristics, and get them in different kinds of combinations, you begin to weave personality. You find a personality pattern. And interestingly enough, it is easier to read the heart of a person than it is the mind. Because the heart really comes through. You can see it in a person’s demeanor. In what they do, in how they speak, how they act, what they do, and so forth. You can read that.

    The final dimension of heart language is the person’s attitude toward good and evil. I say final dimension, I suppose there are many other dimensions of heart language. These are the ones that I have been able to identify surely to my own satisfaction. But I suppose there are others. But perhaps the most fundamental of all is simple the orientation toward good of evil. So a person either love’s righteousness, and seeks for equity and truth and justice and kindness and love, or they don’t. If they are casual about such things, and they don’t mind being good, if it suits their purpose, and they don’t mind being evil, if it suits their purpose; that is a special expression of the heart.

    And so the heart expresses itself in everything we do, in everything we say. We can’t do anything without the heart, because the heart is the basic aspect of the human personality; the most fundamental thing of any person.

    MIND
    Let’s move on to mind language then. Mind language is the patterned expressions of the human mind. We say these are harder to read. Father has given us the ability to hide our minds better than the ability to hide our hearts. The ability to hide is in a sense our agency. If everything were absolutely public and there were no place to hide, there would be no space for repentance.

    It is my understanding that in the celestial kingdom, every inhabitant of the celestial kingdom reads hearts and minds directly. That is to say the discernment is so great everybody knows exactly what everybody else is thinking and feeling inside. They don’t have to say a word. I presume there is no verbal communication in the celestial kingdom. Simply people read each other, read each other’s intentions and thoughts and feelings directly. Well now, if you’ve had a chance to repent and get yourself in shape that’s wonderful. But here in this world we get to hide that a little bit. We don’t hide it from Heavenly Father, or from spiritually gifted persons, but most people aren’t awfully spiritual, and most people have to guess what is going on in our minds. It is easier as I say to guess what’s going on in the heart, because there is so many evidences of that.

    But mind language is simply our ideas; what we think. And so we express our mind language in our concepts. We take concepts and put them together, for instance, if you’ve successfully navigated the various locations of these Education Week lectures the last few days that means you have some sense of a map in your mind about the BYU campus. And if it were not for that map in your mind, you couldn’t navigate the system. And so if you have a certain belief about the BYU campus, that belief doesn’t have to be exactly accurate. It can be skewed in various ways and you can still get to your destination on time as long as certain essential relationships are right. You might have the distances all wrong but the directions might be right etc. And so you eventually get there. But nevertheless, you’re mind language is simply the ideas in which you think about the universe.

    Now mind language has several dimensions. We have in our mind what we call the truth, but we also have in our minds other variations of that which for the past would be “what might have been” and for the future it is “What could be”. So, we have in our minds what was, what is, and what will be. That’s one set of beliefs, but we have another set of beliefs: what might have been, in the past, what might have been right now, and what could be in the future. And so we do a great deal of thinking about what could be.

    Now if we’re the recriminating type, we really like to lay it on people, and we go back and harbor in our minds all these “what might have beens”. When somebody challenges us and finds fault we lay on them “what might have been” had they done something different. That’s a way of counterattacking; defending ourselves. It isn’t especially effective, but it seems to be a rather popular way of acting.

    But we spend a great deal of time thinking about what might be. We had this sense of what will be if nothing changes. But then if we do something maybe something else will happen. And so we have to have this in mind and this and this is our ability to plan and to project the future and shape the future according to our own desires. So if we don’t want to be hungry tonight, we make some kind of thought as to what to do to prepare for that contingency. There are fifty different ways to solve the problem. So we find some solution that happens to be attractive to us. And begin to set in motion those thoughts and feelings that will lead us to do the things that will produce the satisfaction we want. So our mind language is connected both with truth “what is” and with possibilities of things.

    And so we express ourselves constantly. A little child, as soon as they come into the world, they begin to build an image of the universe. They are very good at it. Little children are extremely bright and quickly begin to construct a world to figure out what is going on, who’s good, who’s bad, what you can to depend on, can’t depend on, and so forth. Very soon, they have world all built in their mind. Now the interesting thing is when we actually think and act we don’t think and act in the real world, we think and act in our minds. That’s all our consciousness can get around.

    Our consciousness is limited to our brains, apparently to a small portion of the brain. And so in our brains we live and move and have our being. Now this body is and extension of that brain, but we know we don’t touch with our hands when I reach out and touch this podium. I’m feeling it back here, I’m really sensing it back here. In my mind I’m projecting it out to here. But where I’m actually feeling it is right here as if it were out here. And similarly with everything we experience. It is actually taking back here in the back of our heads. And so in this we represent the world in our heads, it is where we live and think and move and judge.

    Now it is true that our body is in the real world, but our body sends us sensations, some of which we can interpret, some of which we can’t. We make the best of these sensations, some noises we can’t interpret, some noises we can. Some sights we see we can get a significance for them and fit them into our pattern. Some we can’t. For different persons there is a different percentage of things they look at around them that they can understand. Some understand a lot some don’t understand very much. But everybody has to understand something to be able to survive as a human being.

    So, we need to be able to have a mind that is adequate to our environment. There are then, languages of mind. And these languages are the ideas that we build in our minds to represent the universe so that we can live and make what we think are wise decisions. Consisting basically of beliefs, of strategies for achieving our desires, and for readings of other people and their intentions.

    Now we build an image of each person we meet, and we interpret them in terms of that image. That image is our mind language expression or our caricature of that person somewhat like a cartoonist. Instead of drawing on paper we draw on our minds. We draw an image of the face, we draw an image of personality, we construct a heart with some of its variables that we talked about. We type the person as being smart or not so smart, linguistic or not very linguistic, and so forth. All kinds of things we characterize them as. Not that we are putting them down, we just have to know those things to know who it is we are talking to. Those are things we have to do to have a picture of one another. I say it is a caricature, because it is never exactly right. We are not given the ability to get the real absolute truth of things, we only approximate things. The more experience we have with people, the more our image of them comes in relationship to the truth. Each day it gets closer and closer. But we can be badly fooled. So we always have to be careful that’s why it pays to be humble. When we begin to suppose we know everything, that we’ve go everything figured out, that is when the roof is about to fall in.

    So we have these different mind languages in which we express ourselves. All mind language is simply an expression of the desires of the heart. We build the kind of world which we think exists, which we want to believe in. We build the kind of possible world that includes the things we would like to achieve. We build the kind of people the caricatures of people around us into the kinds of persons we’d like them to be.

    Again, we have to have a dose of reality with that and recognize we may be wrong. Well, anyway, that’s mind language. We use mind language constantly when we think. Some people have a rather narrowly developed mind language, others have widely developed. Vocabulary is a pretty good measure of mind language. It’s not the sole measure, because sometimes people are very good at thinking about things about which they have no words.

    Now reading is a form of mind language. When you pick up a book, you normally see black marks on a white piece of paper. The marks have to be. But what you do is you sit there and study the marks, and see patterns in the marks. And you take the normal meanings of those patterns and begin to build an imaginative world out of them. And your ability to read is usually just a function of the development of your mind language.

    The best way to teach somebody to read books is to talk to them a great deal. To expose them to a lot of verbal language so that they get used to building images in their mind. And then when they pick up a book and start looking at the black marks on the white page they use that same facility they’ve used with heard words to do it with the black marks and away they go.

    Children that are read to, normally have a very good vocabulary, and have a very well developed imagination by the time they go to school. The ones that are not read to do not have as well-developed imagination because they have not been exposed to as wide a vocabulary nor as varied a scenery as people who have been read to have.

    And so people who do a lot of traveling have a bigger mind vocabulary because they have all kinds of ideas in their mind about things and places other people just don’t have. To be parochial is to have a narrow mind language. To be broad means to have many experiences and to be able to interpret in many ways and variations.

    STRENGTH
    Now we come to strength language. Strength language is what we do with our body. Expressions of the human physical body. The strength language of itself does not have meaning. It is only a signal, and the signal is always indeterminate. The meaning of the signal is what is going on in the heart and mind of the sender. Since most people can’t read the heart and mind of the sender they simply “invent” or “guess” the meaning of the signal. And they build a projection on the basis of that guess. So we hear each other’s noises, see each other’s faces, see each other’s hand gestures and we create and imaginative scenario as to what they might be saying in that process.

    It’s amazing that we do well with language as we do. I’m convinced that in college classes the communication seldom rises above seventy-five percent. And the first day of class it is always about ten to twenty percent. As time goes on, things get better. But sometimes you read a book, or hear a talk in church, and the person is just talking way over your head and almost nothing gets through. We just don’t have the ability to imagine anything that fits with those words. So part of speaking, projecting language, is to size up what language your audience understands and speak in that language. It’s typical at times for people who don’t care about others for people not to do that. People who care, watch their audience, and try to read their attitudes by their reactions. As you sit there, you are reacting, every one of you to me as I speak. If I’m good at reading you, I can tell your positive input or negative input, and so forth. And if I’m wise I will use that to adjust what I say when I say it.

    So there are different physical languages. There is first of all body language. Body language is simply how we control our body to indicate certain things. All of our verbal language exists in the context of body language. Verbal language cannot be understood except you put it in the matrix or context of a physical surrounding and a body language. It is the only way we can make verbal language mean anything is by ostensive definition, that is to say, some fundamental definitions you have to point, show, and then the person begins to figure out what the norms are. And the meanings for those symbols. Now, with that we build up our entire repertoire of language. But strength language is the basic fulcrum of our communication with each other through which we build up our understanding. Now spiritual language is there also, and that’s very important. In speaking after the human — our strength is the fulcrum on which everything turns when we communicate with each other.

    So, there are different kinds of body languages. Dancing is a body language. Playing soccer is a body language. Carpentry is a body language. In each of these enterprises what we are doing is we are going through patterned expressions or motions of the human body by which to accomplish something in the physical world. And so, just about everything we do, we do by the way of the languages we have learned. It’s all patterns and norms and we express ourselves to achieve our desires. Not in a random haphazard way, that would not be a language. But in a specialized patterned way are our languages.

    So there are all kinds of these languages, anything we do regularly, all forms of acting, are simply languages. Then there are colloquial human languages. These are the mother tongues of the human race. Strictly speaking, there is a mother tongue for each individual family. No mother teaches her children exactly the same language as any other mother. Because no two mothers speak exactly the same language. There is no such thing as `the’ English language. There are several hundred english languages that have something in common. But the one on this end is totally incomprehensible to the one on this end. Even though they’re both english. Bill Meyers has demonstrated this very well if you’ve seen his series on the english language.

    So there is a family of languages. Languages are always familial. The same mother tongue is no accident. Mothers are the purveyors of language. It is the mothers that teach children language. The first language children learn from their mother is heart language. They learn whether the mother is afraid or confident, steady or not steady, and so forth. And the child picks up on that emotional pattern and begins to be like that from the moment of birth. The child picks up on body language, very quickly the child picks up on spoken language and begins to form ideas. And begins to build a mind world. A world where he can speak his own mind language. And by the time the child is two or three, it is well adapted into the human languages, doing very well with expressing itself in heart, mind and strength.

    Then there is another kind of language, there are artificial human languages. Most artificial human languages are `technical’ languages, or `specialized’ languages which people use to communicate with each other for particular purposes. Colloquial language, or the mother tongue language are always deliberately vague, ambiguous. That’s one of the glories of language. That is both deliberate and not deliberate. That is to say, we do it sometimes deliberately so that we can’t be pinned down as to what we are saying. Sometimes we would like to express ourselves more particularly, but don’t have the vocabulary.

    When human beings find themselves wanting to speak very precisely and do not want to be misunderstood, so that there can be absolute communication they always go to a technical language. And a technical language, there is only one meaning. And if the technical language allows two or more you haven’t got a good technical language. So you refine and refine and refine until the signals are all unambiguous. You can communicate exactly and know what your wants and needs of the situation are. So if you are a carpenter, and you go on the job, you have to speak the carpenters language. English will not do. If you are a basketball player, you go on the court, (Say you are a pro basketball player) you don’t speak english. The language of pro basketball is black english, and if you are white, you have to speak black english or you don’t play basketball. That’s all there is to it. And so forth.

    There are specialized languages, the language of science over the whole world is the same…bad english. Broken english is the standard scientific language anywhere you go in the world. Anyone who pretends to be a scientist will speak to you about scientific things in broken english. Now your english might be better than that, but that is the standard scientific language. And it works, that is the beautiful part of it. That there is sufficient communication plus it is a technical language because the person is expressing himself very carefully in specialized terms. And the communication succeeds. The grammar doesn’t have to right. It’s the meaning that you get that you formulate in connection with what you say that has to be right. The grammar can be terrible.

    Grammar is all artificial and invented anyway. There is no such thing as `correct grammar’. Grammar is always a matter of norms. Now that doesn’t mean to say I am against grammar. I am very much for good grammar. Because when you use a standard grammar you tend to stabilize a language. When you break the grammar patterns. You cause a change in the language. And change puts you out of touch with certain groups. Now some people do this deliberately. When you wish to have a clique of people that you control, what you do is you form a private language for that group. You invent new words for some common meanings, common terms, and speak in that language with the people in that group who know what you mean. And pretty soon you find that there are `insiders’ and `outsiders’ and that gives you a group identity. Because you have a language now.

    Now, language is the vehicle for group identification. If you wish to join a group, the only way you can usually do it is first of all to master language. You may have to do some other things to but if you don’t master the language, you’re never in. So, if you are in a group of college graduates, if you don’t speak college language, they will not count you as one of their number. It doesn’t matter how many degrees you have. If you can’t handle the language, you don’t count. If you can handle the language, (there are people who have never been to medical school who fake being MD’s.) they’ve been around enough that they can handle the language. They get by with other doctors and do beautifully. Because they know the language. That is the main thing you learn when you go to medical school is the language. In any profession, that is what you learn.

    I am a philosopher, what do we teach students in philosophy? The language of philosophy. And to become philosophical is simply to be able to express yourself in the normal historic philosophic patterns. Simply to learn the specialized jargon of philosophy. That is what constitutes being a philosopher. And so it is with almost every discipline in the world. These are artificial languages that people learn to accomplish specific tasks. The more languages a person knows, usually the more powerful they are. You can take any colloquial language and render it a technical language simply by being careful how you use it. So, if the need demands, you become careful. There are different ways of being careful. If you’re trying to meet somebody on campus that you’ve missed the last few times, you pretty soon get pretty good at doing it so that you don’t miss them. You have them say where they’re going to be and you say where you’re going to be and you repeat it about three times, you have a backup for where you’ll be if that fails, and so forth. Eventually you get to the point, if succeeding is important to you, you figure out a way to succeed. And the way to succeed is to be so technical about language that you cannot be misunderstood. So there are these strength languages.

    MIGHT
    Lets go to might languages. Might language then, is the result of all that we do from the heart, mind, and strength languages. So if you were to go to my home and look at it you would see my trail, and my wife’s trail, and our children’s trail. It is a collective trail, but nevertheless, certain features of it are mine, certain features of it are my wife’s, certain features of it are my children’s. But you can read us in the trail that we have left in our home. The way the furniture is arranged, the kind of art-work that what we have on the walls, the kind of dishes that we collect, the kind of layout of the house, the way the grounds are kept, the way the automobiles look. (Just don’t look in the garage, that’s my territory).

    But anyway, like it or not, all those things beray us, that is to say, they are our linguistic expression. And a person can look at those things and read us by looking at what we have left. So, to can read a person you see what is interesting to them, what is valuable to them, what isn’t interesting to them. Some people don’t care about clothing at all. They wear the craziest getup that don’t match at all. Other people are very conscious of clothing, and they leave a very different impression on us. The result on other people is the might language. Some people are orderly, and wish to be precise and careful about all things. Others are orderly about some things and not about others. And again, that is an expression of the self.

    So, our might is the trail that we leave. Again, like it or not, the happiness of our spouse is one way you can read your own might language. If your spouse is happy, that means you are expressing yourself well to your spouse. If you’re happy, they’re expressing themselves well. Our children are might language. Children have their own individual identities, we cannot control them. Nevertheless, a great can be read about parents simply by looking at the children. You can’t read everything, but you can read a lot. Some people use priesthood as their might, they perform lots of ordinances and do lots of things in the power of God. And the trail that they leave is a language trail which can be read and linked back to the nature of the person that left the trail.

    Now, the Savior tells us that we must assess people. He tells us to be careful about judging them. We must judge righteous judgement. If we have to judge the goodness or the badness we better do it by his power and his authority. We nevertheless have to assess what they are. And he tells us, “By their fruits shall ye know them.” Now the words people speak are not their fruits. The words people speak are their strength language. But the results of their deeds are their fruits. That’s their might language. The real way for us to read each other is the might language. And the Savior commends that to us.

    Now again, he doesn’t read us that way alone, he reads that, he judges according to our deeds, but he also judges us according to the thoughts and intents of our heart. Which means our heart and our mind. They are visible to him, he reads them directly. And thus knows us completely, and makes no mistakes in judging us. He knows exactly what we are and therefore can succor us in our need exactly as we need it.

    Well, these are the languages in which human beings express themselves. Repentance, to speak linguistically, is to change the way we express ourselves. Is to change our language so that our fruits are meet. That is to say so that they are more like those that Christ would produce.

    Repentance is changing our expression so that achieve different might results in the world. To do that we normally have to change our heart language. That is to say, to assess our own hearts. To size ourselves up and to find where we are weak and where we are strong. And to be very candid about that. And then pray for those aspect of heart that will enable us to do better. If we are vacillating, we need to pray for steadiness. If we are weak, we need to pray for strength. Those are all spiritual gifts we can have if we will pray for them in the right way. When we get the heart language correct then we pray for the correct mind language.

    The correct mind language means to really understand what is going on, to know the truth about things. And to see the real possibilities of things. Some of the possibilities are not real, that is to say we think that might happen but it really can’t. It isn’t in the cards we might say. But some things are possible that we don’t even dream of. More things can be done through the priesthood I think than most people ever suppose. Usually we have a rather limited view of what you can and can’t do with the priesthood. The possibilities, I think, are almost endless. And the time will come, when virtually all that we do, if not all, will be done through priesthood. As an expression of the language of God. It may turn out that the Adamic language is simply the priesthood language. I don’t know. Maybe just the language of God expressed in the pattern of God. To control things and accomplish results that are good using the principles of righteousness.

    So, as we correct our heart language and our mind language then we make more precise our strength language. What we actually do. And that makes better fruit. That is to say, our might language will then improve. We can’t say we have repented until the fruits change. But when the fruits are good then we know that we have repented.

    So, this is the message about languages. How many languages do you speak? Well, you speak many. And my understanding is it pays for us to be very good at language. We ought to study the expressions we make. We ought to study our own hearts, and correct our expression. We ought to study our own minds, and correct our minds as much as possible. We ought to study our own bodies, how we express ourselves, how well we communicate to others.

    Study our might, take a candid assessment. What am I? looking at my achievements, my accomplishments, what am I really? Where do I need to repent, what’s the next thing I need to do. What’s the thing that hurts most in my kingdom that needs to be fixed. And since it depends on me, it has to be fixed in here in my heart and mind first. And I will fix me, and then it can be fixed. Well, that’s what repentance is.

    Now we have a minute or two for questions:

    Q: The question is, what was the Adamic language like?
    A: I don’t know, I suppose with you that with the Adamic language, expression is quite precise. We know that when we go back to the old languages, the further back we get, the more complicated the grammar is. That is to say, the more precise the expression is. As we come forward, the vocabularies increase, the number of words we have increases, but the grammar collapses. And so we aren’t quite sure what’s being said. Even though we know what we’re talking about. So, there are these variables in language that I don’t know.

    Q: I a have heard that English has something like seven hundred thousand words, French has like two hundred thousand. I always assumed that English was there for (I can’t think of a better word right now) but a superior language. That there is more variation and that you can get more precise in your definitions.

    A: The comment is that English has many more words than French and therefore English is a better language. That doesn’t necessarily follow. The reason English has so many words in it, (the number I had in mind was 450,000 but the difference is not important) the reason English has so many words is because it is a smash of so many languages. It has all of French essentially, all of Anglo-Saxon, which is the Germanic background. Plus a lot of other things tucked in there. And therefore it has a big vocabulary. That doesn’t mean you can say more things with it. The French pride themselves on expressing themselves rather exactly. They believe that is something important to them. They want to be very clear and precise when they speak. That’s why the language of diplomacy for a long time was French. Because that was cultivated in that language. The French are very careful not to let their language shift. They are very conservative about language. They have their national board that tries to hold things down, and not let all these foreign words creep in and adulterate the language and so forth. So they specifically hold it.

    Now, the acting vocabulary of a normal American is about ten thousand words. That isn’t very many compared with the 250,000 say in French. The passive vocabulary of the normal American is about fifteen thousand words. Somebody who is really educated might have a passive vocabulary of about 30,000 words. But you see, none of us tap the language. We don’t use the power of the language. To be quite blunt about it, most of us don’t need to. The kinds of endeavors that we are engaged in from day to day don’t require a great vocabulary. Because you can make millions of combinations out of five hundred characters and that suffices for most things.

    So, the power of language is not in the extent of it’s vocabulary. Usually in the extent in which you can be precise in expressing yourself. That is to say, to be understood very exactly. And that’s something again, that’s hard to come by.

    Q: Sister Nello points out that in a dealing with people of foreign nationalities, when you are trying to teach them English, you have to begin with going on feelings and on emotions using body language.
    A: I think that’s very common. When two cultures meet there is always this inability to communicate. The people want to communicate, so when two cultures meet there is always an adaptation. That’s what is called pidgin. Pidgin language is where part of one language and part of another starts to be used by both of them so that they can begin to communicate. Pidgin is almost always all physically oriented. It is full of nouns, very few verbs, almost no adjectives at all, no adverbs and only one tense. People find that that doesn’t do very well. And so they develop it further. And you get the next stage of language which is creole. Creole language is the next stage. It is a language that has adjectives and adverbs and tenses. And then the full- blown language has all the cases.

    So, we find that it takes a good many parameters to trust what we wish to express. But, sometimes we don’t wish to express. English, for instance, is losing the subjunctive. It’s virtually gone for all intents and purposes as a grammatical form. Now the function is maintained and people still can understand when we mean a subjunctive. But we have lost the ability to express it clearly. And so the language has degenerated in that sense, though the function we were still able to save.

    Q: What is the relation of ordination in the priesthood to the expression of the priesthood as a language.

    A: What is the explanation of ordination to the expression of the priesthood as a language. Well, my understanding is that ordination is simply an expression, one of the expressions of priesthood language. And that blessing is another. Sometimes they happen in the same speech, by the same laying on of hands. But that ordination is a specific transfer of some kind of power or authority.

    Q: ?

    A: The language, the occasion of the ordination as I understand it is the occasion by which the power is transmitted to the person by God. But the language itself does not transmit the power. It is simply the signal by which the power is being transmitted. If that makes sense.

    One more and we have to quit. Brother.

    Q: Here on this earth, can we be perfected in any of the languages.

    A: Can we be perfected in any of the languages on this earth. Well, I think, yes, the important language to become perfected in is heart language. If we will study what the heart of the Savior is, and then work and work until we get that down. There are just a few parameters there. It is not a complex language. And if we go out of this life with that language learned everything else good will follow. But apparently if we fail on that, we have kind of missed the boat as a human being.

    Q: In your opinion, would God’s language have a very limited vocabulary?

    A: Does God’s language have a limited vocabulary. My answer is no. I take it that his language is different from ours. Our language is all generalizations. I use the word `chair’ and it covers fifty kinds of pieces of furniture. When he uses a word it always means a precise thing. Now he probably has the ability to use general words to. But he expresses himself, I take it the language is actually mind language, ideas. He shapes an idea in his mind and communicates it as an idea. It does not need to go through a symbolic vehicle. And therefore his communication is always precise and sure. When he gives a message he speaks to us in our heart and mind in our language. So that we cannot misunderstand. We don’t have to interpret, we know what he says. Does that make sense?

    Q: That makes sense, but what that is saying to be is that he always speaks in generalities.

    A: No.

    Q: Because what you are saying is that if he has one word for `chair’ and we have one word for `chair’ we need to create a specific brown chair.

    A: He tells us to build a chair, he will show us a specific chair to build, I think. Like he did Nephi with the boat. He showed him the boat he was to build. And it wasn’t a generic boat, it was a specific boat. And he built it and it worked beautifully. For whatever that’s worth.

    Q: Well, he showed the brother of Jared to build a barge. And that barge was different from a boat, he used a different word there.

    A: I agree, what’s your point?

    Q: So you’re saying there is only one kind of boat.

    A: No, I’m not saying that at all. I’m sorry, we’re over time, thank you very much.

    END

  • Faith and Repentance

    Chauncey Riddle

    The time has come for us to begin.

    This series has to do with the principles of the restored gospel. It may seem a little peculiar to talk about faith and repentance since that’s the main theme of everything that is talked about in the Church. Still, I find for myself there is a certain refreshment in going back over the basic things. I don’t listen to music because I have never listened to it before. I listen to it because I have heard it before, and I like it. And I find the same thing with the gospel.

    One of the beautiful things about the gospel is that it never gets old. In fact, it continually grows, and sharpens, and refines. So I would like to talk about the principles of the gospel.

    The principles by themselves are not enough. That is to say, this is a complicated discussion, because the principles have to be put into a context. The context is what we call theology, our situation. When you put the theology, or our situation, and the reality which we find ourselves together with the principles then we have the gospel. The Savior outlines the two of them together very wonderfully in 3rd Nephi 27, if I could review that with you. This is setting the stage for what I have to say.

    He says in verse thirteen, (3rd Nephi 27:13)

    “I have given you my gospel, This is the gospel, that I came into the world to do the will of my Father. Because my Father sent me.”

    The most fundamental thing to know. Is that the Savior came for one purpose only, to do his Father’s will. That is to say, to keep His covenant with Father.

    “And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up on the cross.”

    The main thing the Father wanted him to do, besides obey him, was to die for us, that the New and Everlasting Covenant might be made possible.

    “And after that I had been lifted up on the cross, that I might draw all men unto me. That as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father to stand before me. To be judged of their works, whether they be good, or whether they be evil.”

    And so, here we come into the scene. We also are children of God. Also having the opportunity to do the will of the Father. But because the Savior came and was perfect, and atoned for our sins, He will draw us unto Himself. He will judge us. And we will see how many times we chose for God, and how many times we chose for self, for selfishness or evil.

    “For this cause I have been lifted up, therefore, according to the power of the father, I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works. And it shall come to pass that whoso repenteth, and is baptized in my name, shall be filled. and if he endure to end behold him will I hold guiltless before my Father at the day when I shall stand to judge the world.”

    Enduring to the end, as I understand it is to fulfill the purpose of repentance. Repentance begins before baptism, but ends long after.

    “He that endureth not to the end, the same is he that is hewn down and cast into the fire.”

    From whence they can no more return, because of the justice of the Father. Justice is Father’s law. And they cannot return to Him if they have broken the law. And there is no way to mend it. We mend it, of course, through Christ.

    “This is the word which He hath given unto the children of men, For this cause he fulfilleth the words which he hath given. And he lieth not, but fulfilleth all his words.”

    He fulfills his own law. He is exact and precise in doing so.

    “And no unclean thing can enter into His Kingdom. Therefore nothing entereth into His rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood because of their faith and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfullness unto the end.”

    “Now this is the commandment, repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name. That ye may be sancitified by the reception of the Holy Ghost. That ye may stand spotless before me at the last day. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel.”

    Now, with that as a background, let us focus on faith and repentance. Let us begin with repentance. Repentance is a “what.” Whereas faith is a “how”. Repentance is what we are supposed to become. What we are supposed to leave, and what we are supposed to come to. And faith is how we do it. So, as I understand it, very simply, what we are to repent from is our old self. That is to say, our old habits, our old ideas, our old feelings. In other words, our sins. We repent from our sins. And we turn to Christ. To come into the measure of the fullness of his stature. To think his thoughts, to have his feelings. To do his acts. And thus to fulfill what he is.

    Now, that Latin root for repentance, is to turn. The Greek root means to change one’s mind. The Hebrew root means to return to God. But the important thing about repentance is that you have taken all of those things into account. No one of them captures fully what repentance is. Repentance is simply turning from wherever we are, from whatever we are, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We have to change our minds in that process. Not only our minds, but our hearts, We have to return to God. We have all gone out of the way, that is to say we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, we must return to God, and that return is repentance.

    Now the scriptures give us a very careful account of what it means to repent. Let’s read from Alma chapter 5.

    “And now, if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye? Behold I say unto you,” This is Alma 5:33. “Behold I say unto you that that the Devil is your shepherd, and ye are of his fold. And now who can deny this? Behold, whosoever denieth this is a lier and a child of the Devil.”

    We have two alternatives, and two only. Do we serve God, or do we serve ourselves. In other words, righteousness or selfishness. Good and evil. There are many degrees of evil. There are some who mix a little good into their evil, there are some who mix a lot of good into their evil. But the question is, will we turn to good. My understanding is, that before we entered into eternity, that is to say, before the judgement, everyone of us will have made the decision to turn to Christ. We will finally see that selfishness will not do it for us. Even we don’t want the selfishness. The only ones that doesn’t apply to, of course, are the Sons of Perdition. They accept Christ, and then turn back to selfishness, preferring selfishness to Him. But everyone else, will eventually see that only in Christ is their good.

  • Spiritual Survival in These Last Days

    Dr. Chauncey C. Riddle

    Talk Radio 1400 AM, May 19, 1991
    “Friends and Scholars,” hosted by Dennis Warlaw

    And now it’s time for “Friends and Scholars,” made possible by the friends and scholars listeners club. Here’s your friends and scholars host, Dennis Warlaw.

    Our guest this evening, our friend and scholar, is Dr. Chauncey Riddle, Professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University. Welcome, we’re pleased to have you here this evening, Chauncey.

    Thank you.

    By way of introduction to our audience, let me make mention that you studied at Brigham Young University as a student. I understand,

    Yes.

    Received your bachelors and Masters there, and then went to Columbia University?

    Bachelors at BYU.

    Oh, and your masters and Doctorate at Columbia. And that since 1952 you have in the College of Religion first, then served as Dean of the Graduate School, Assistant Academic Vice President, and a Department Chairman in Graduate Studies of Religion. That’s quite a broad area of interest. We would like to ask by further way of introduction, you and your wife Bertha have how many children?

    We have eleven living children.

    That’s wonderful. And in your church service, by the way, how old is your oldest child now?

    Our oldest child just turned forty-five.

    Do you have any in the mission-field presently?

    Yes, we have one serving as a missionary in the Helsinki, East Mission.

    And where is he stationed at present?

    He is stationed in Leningrad, in Russia.

    Isn’t that exciting?

    He is really excited about it. The work is going well there.

    We’re pleased to get the reports of such missionary endeavors. Your church service yourself, you’ve served as a bishop, have you?

    Yes.

    How many times?

    Three times.

    Understand you have had a number of experiences in high council assignment.

    A few.

    You’re presently serving in that capacity, are you Chauncey?

    I am, in the Oak Hills Stake.

    And have served in the Stake Presidency, previously.

    Yes.

    As far as your writings; you’ve published in the BYU Studies?, The Ensign, have you?

    Yes.

    I should be letting you tell me more about this. I will turn you loose here in just a minute. Because we’re anxious. You may note that I have in front of me some two tapes I acquired of your presentations over the years. One of them on the subject of “Crown Jewels, and Royal Purple.”

    A most interesting tape. By the way, I received this from the media department at BYU. And a presentation you made, my, nearly thirty years ago on the second coming. It was very well done. Significant information and a sound approach. I recommend. And then I one which you apparently gave as the honored lecturer at the Talmage lecture, on the subject of abortion and capital punishment. I wish there might be time tonight, for you approach this, if there isn’t, we may invite you back. Because that’s so intriguing. What is on your heart tonight, Dr. Riddle?

    Tonight I would like to talk about “Spiritual Survival of These Last Days.” I think this is a very interesting time to live, and a time to be especially careful about what we do with our time.

    Do you think we are approaching the Second Coming of our Savior?

    Well, clearly we get closer, one day closer, every day. I don’t wish to make any predictions as to how close we are, but the thing that’s important about these times is the rising tide of opposition, of evil that forces every one of us, to recognize we have to do something. We can’t just be complacent in this situation.

    Mary and I serve presently (One of our assignments) as preparedness advisors, helpers, in our ward. And have been doing research and getting materials together. And we were most appreciative when we learned you would be talking about spiritual preparation, or survival, in these days. What is the first step?

    Well, my understanding is that we have to understand something about our situation. Our Father in Heaven gives us to start with a good deal of knowledge about who we are, why we are here, and what we are doing here. And from that, we then, have to find our way.

    For instance, It’s very important to understand that we are on an eternal journey. We did not begin here. We do not end here. This is one scene in the play. It is as if we were on stage. We don’t see the audience, but there’s a vast, eternal audience that is watching us. But because the lights are dim, we only see ourselves, and those playing parts with us on the stage at the present time. And so it’s important to realize this because we have to see things on an eternal perspective.

    Yes.

    One of the great short-comings of so much of the world’s thinking right now is that it’s short run. But if we learn to think in terms of our family, of our whole ancestry, of our whole posterity, and their welfare. And what we do affects them in both directions. Then we begin to have the perspective of eternity.

    I don’t believe that the attitude we should have toward life is really any different in these last days than it would be at any time since the fall of Adam. Because the basic problems have always been the same. It’s true that the physical problems have changed. We aren’t in a war right now, we don’t have a famine right now. There are places on the earth where there is war, there is famine. Where people are suffering. And in any of these circumstances, the real key to survival, spiritual survival, is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it pleases me to discuss this issue in that frame, this evening.

    We appreciate the preparation you have made.

    I would like to suggest, first of all, there are some ages and stages of life that are important to comprehend. I speak now from the perspective of the Latter-Day-Saint. And what Latter- Day Saints should accomplish in this journey. While we act on the stage in this time. And my belief is that if we fulfill these stages successfully, we will be well prepared for anything that will come in eternity.

    The first age and stage of life is to be as a little child before our Father in Heaven. That is to say, to learn from Him. Especially, to learn to receive spiritual signals from Him. The nice thing about a little child is that little children are teachable. And if we can become teachable, in the Spirit of the Lord. And learn the truths from our Heavenly Father that He would have us know, Then we have a sure foundation for every other thing we might do with our lives. Little children who are acquainted with the Spirit of the Lord from the time of their birth are fortunate indeed. Children can grow up in the homes of Latter-Day Saints, and be taught to pray, be taught to feel the spirit, taught to live by its guidance in their lives, well before they are eight years old. Before Satan gets a chance at them. If parents wait until after they are eight or ten to start telling them about those things, it’s very late. The little children are especially sensitive to spiritual things, and can learn that well.

    My belief is that the first ten years of a person’s life, I don’t mean to say just the chronological years. If you are born in the Church, that does mean chronological years. But if you are converts the Church, the first stage of life is always to be as a little child. To learn the language of the Spirit of the Lord. And we want to learn to govern our lives under the influence of that Spirit. The basic problem that we have in this life is simply to choose between good and evil. And our Heavenly Father gives us the Light of Christ, and for members of the Church, the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is limited to members of the Church, but we have the special opportunity to have Him as a constant companion. And if we receive those gifts from our Heavenly Father, then we can make un-erring choices between good and evil. That’s the business of life. And the time to learn that is right at the first. You need to learn what is good to eat, and what is not good to eat. With whom we should associate, and those with whom we should not associate. How to spend our time, how not to spend our time. What’s good music, what’s bad music. And so forth. As we learn to discriminate in all things between good and evil, between good and bad, we lay the foundation of spirituality which makes it possible to be a Latter- Day Saint in every other thing we do.

    The second age and stage of life that I understand, is our youth, as it were, having learned to discern the will of our Father. Then we need to learn much about this world. Now chronologically, for members of the Church, this would be ages eleven through twenty. Most of us, in those years, spend our whole time in school, learning. But learning is not enough. I believe, that though we learn good things in our schooling, the essential thing we need to learn as we are going through those time is to learn to serve. If we see that our learning in Mathematics, in Science, in Physical Education, or Drama, or whatever we do, is to help others, to bless other’s lives, to render service, then we are indeed on our Father’s pathway, on the strait and narrow. If we use the Spirit of the Lord that we have gained in the first decade, to learn how to serve in each capacity we find ourselves in. We live in an age where the concern of most people is: “What are we going to get out of this situation, how can this profit me?” Whereas, servants of the Lord come from a situation that’s very different.  We have a Father that as unlimited resources. We have a Father that is kind and good. Our job is to learn how to share all that He has given us with others. And to learn to do it willingly, and in a friendly way, not begrudging, and to do it well, in the spirit of excellence as we give this service. Now if every person could learn this as the second stage of life, to find that their happiness consists in serving others, in doing good. I remember President Lee used to say all the time, “It’s amazing how much good you can do in this world if you don’t care who gets the credit.” And I think that’s a profound saying. If we do, behind the scenes, many good for others, simply delighting in the opportunity to serve our Father in Heaven, and benefit His Children, then we are mastering this second stage of life. The culmination of this second stage should be a full time mission for most young LDS people.

    The third age and stage of life is the post mission opportunity to marry, to find our companion, and marry in the correct way and begin to found an eternal family. My belief is that this is probably the most important single thing we do in our lives. No, let me back up on that, it is the second most important. The most important thing we do is to commit ourselves to the Savior Jesus Christ. And having committed ourselves to Him, then the most important thing we do is to find our companion. And then in the Savior, build a bond with that companion that will see us through hell, through heaven, through all eternity, as best friends and good cooperators. So I think this exciting challenge in mortality has as one of its main features first to learn to love the Lord, and then to learn to love our husband and wife. With such a sure and wonderful bond, that nothing can break it. No temptation, no strain, no opportunity for service will ever come between. But we together, working, will forge this bond, and cooperatively be much stronger than either one of us would be separately. Because we serve the Lord and we serve together.

    Latter-Day Saints should be particularly responsive to these thoughts and this counsel because of what we have been taught with reference to covenants. That we, of all people, should keep covenants, above all decisions, above all commitments and responsibilities. We should keep our covenants, especially marriage. Is that your feeling?

    Indeed, the covenants sort of outline the path, the strait and narrow path for us. And the first stage of life, zero to ten, is when we make the covenant of baptism, and there receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So we can be surely on the path, not in doubt as to what Father would have us do. The second stage of life, we receive the Priesthood, and learn to serve. In this third stage of life we are married in the temple. And receive that binding, that opportunity for binding, that can become an eternal union.

    We’re visiting with Dr. Chauncey Riddle, Professor of Philosophy, at Brigham Young University. Our Friend and Scholar on tonight’s program. What is the next stage?

    Well the next stage of life is a combination of three decades, roughly from the ages from thirty to sixty. And I see that there are three main things that must go on simultaneously in this particular age and stage of life. The first of these three, is (this is our adult life now) once we have laid the foundation and established our marriage, then the main responsibilities of this load-bearing stage of our lives, is first of all, to raise a family in the Lord. To bear children, but most especially, to bring those children up in the nurture of the Lord. To teach them to know Jesus Christ and His Spirit, and Father, and the Holy Ghost. And to treasure the opportunities and responsibilities of the Restored Gospel. We are told that if no other success can compensate for failure in the home. That is to say, failure to establish this bond in marriage, and failure to nourish our children in the good word of God. So that’s the first responsibility in the load-bearing responsibility of this adult stage.

    The second is being a stalwart in the Church and Kingdom of God. Now I have a little different understanding of the Church I guess than some people do. It is my understanding that the Church is not here to save us. But that we are here to serve in the Church. And through that service, we show our love for our Father in Heaven, and for our Savior. It is true, the Church can give us many things, especially at first. And it does help us. But the thing that is going to save us is our personal relationship with the Savior. The Church cannot save us. It makes available to us the ordinances. And in that respect is a great benefactor to us.

    This approach applies also, does it not, to our responsibilities with reference to government. There are those who feel government is here to take care of us. When really, we’re here to be good citizens. To do what needs to be done in our communities, and in our homes and even more broadly. Not expecting to be waited upon, but to be a servant in that area.

    Indeed. And if we have learned to serve, that will be our natural course of life. To do that. Yes, being a pillar of the community, to foster good government, with sound civil practice in our society is the third load-bearing activity that I envision should consume our mature years. So, if you’ll notice I haven’t mentioned earning a living so far. It’s understood that we must earn a living as we go. We must support ourselves and our families and the Church and the government. They should not support us, unless of course, we are incapable, totally incapable of doing so. But nevertheless, we have the opportunity to give this service, to render this support. And I see this period of thirty-forty-fifty years we have as a load-bearing adult as the prime of life in a sense. Where we are raising our family, working in the church, strengthening our local and national government, contributing to the welfare of everyone, everywhere we can. This is a great load to bear.

    Then we come to the final age and stage of life.

    We aren’t quite ready for that are we?

    Well, it depends on how we conceive it. If we conceive it in the correct way, we will hardly be able to wait to get there. I’m talking about the period after retirement from our earning years. And to my mind this age and stage of life means that we go into full time service of the Lord.

    How marvelous.

    And we spend the rest of our lives on missions, doing genealogy and temple work, family history, on working with our families, enjoying and teaching our grandchildren, being a strength to our community, being a good neighbor. Now that we have accomplished many of the great works of life, now without reservation we can turn our time fully to the service of our fellow man. Now all of the activities up to this time have been geared, by Father, to shape and polish us into accomplished servants in his sight. One of the interesting things about the concept of Priesthood in the Restored Gospel is that the words Priest and King as I understand them in the restored gospel, mean literally, servant. The world turns that upside down. The world believes that the priest and the king are the one that runs things, the ones who preside over all, who call the shots.

    One in the area of religion, the other in the area of civil government.

    Correct, and it’s the mission of Latter-Day Saints to be both Kings and Priests, but to be King and Priests unto God. Or, to administer for Him.

    What you’ve brought to my mind is the great example and message of King Benjamin.

    Indeed, King Benjamin is a good role model in this respect. He who labored with his own hands to support himself so that he would not burden the people with taxes. Who sought diligently all the days of his life to bring to them civil order and spiritual prosperity. And he accomplished a mighty work, he did so well, that the Lord was able to instruct him in what to teach his people in a special way that goes beyond what we have yet enjoyed in this dispensation. And so I enjoy thinking of him as a role model.

    Now this retirement stage of life I think should be the crowning experience of life. This should be a time of glory, some people call them the “Golden Years.” They should be golden because of our living the golden rule and doing the golden deeds, cramming everything we have attempted in our lives with this wonderful, good service to others. As we go into the temple and look at the people who are serving there, the ordinance workers, I think we can catch a glimpse of this. These people have a special spirit, a willingness to serve, a desire to be pure, a desire to be holy. Now, if we can attain that, and we can, then we will do well, and we will find the true happiness. The purpose in life is to be happy. The Lord did not give us the strait and narrow as a strait jacket. He gave it to us as an enabling principle. That we might, through him, have a fullness of life. And if we stay on his path, which I think these ages and stages outline, then we will indeed have a fullness of life.

    I am enjoying this marvelous presentation, Chauncey Riddle, we will pause here for a Church produced home-front message, and be back with more of the wisdom and counsel that you might bring us.

    We are visiting with Dr. Chauncey Riddle on “Friends and Scholars” this evening. He’s discussing the subject of “Spiritual Survival in the Last Days” and I might say that this man has been to me and exemplar, one who has not only studied deeply, taught with the spirit, but has also endeavored to live the gospel, both in his family, (I might mention that I tried to reach you here about a week ago, Chauncey, and one of your children indicated you were out in the yard doing some plowing. Is that correct?

    Yes, I believe that one of the commandments was that we subdue the earth. I believe in that very literally. I believe that part of the tutelage that Father gives us, part of the training, for His work, is to be an efficient and an effective workman. To subdue the earth, to produce something of value. And I think as we pursue that, Father can bless us and help us. I don’t believe that everyone has to follow exactly the same path in doing that. Not everyone has to do what I do. But I believe that everyone should spend some time working with his or her hands.

    We have encouraged (my wife and I) in our preparedness assignment even those who live in condos such as ourselves to get a little plot or have some miniature trees, as well as flowers. With some vegetables along in that row of flowers.

    That not only we maintain that closeness to the soil, which I might confess my wife does better than I, but also that we are still preparing. And in an event of more dire circumstances, be prepared physically as well as spiritually.

    A man after my own heart. Very good. Well, we have talked about the ages and stages of life. I would like to talk now about how we do these things. Because knowing what we do is fairly simple. Doing it is rather difficult. In fact, I don’t know any more demanding task that there is in this world than to be a faithful Latter-Day Saint. It takes everything we have. The Lord tells us that we must serve and love Him with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.

    The first problem that we have is to learn to discern His voice. And I think this is the number one intellectual problem for every Latter-Day Saint. How do we know when it is the voice of the Lord as separated from the temptations of Satan, as separated from our own thoughts and desires.

    Many of our listeners may picture the audible voice of the Lord to be expected, which of course, is not impossible, but you perceive something even beyond that or other than that, don’t you Doctor?

    I perceive that we should search for the Lord, I believe that, even as we search for food, and very carefully prepare it to nourish ourselves many times a day, we should search for the very best spiritual nourishment, and learn to discern what is Grade A.

    Where do we turn in that search?

    The thing that we are given to guide us is our own spirit. We have a spirit within us, and that spirit registers. Now our physical body registers things. Our physical body registers light waves, sound waves, and chemicals, and touch, and so forth. But none of these things can save us. That is to say that the information we need to be saved will never come through the physical senses. The information we need to be saved comes by becoming alive spiritually. So if we will become conscious of our inner experience, we will then discern that there are within our heart and mind, different influences.

    Now our job is to sort out the good from the evil. That’s the business of life. That’s what makes a truly intelligent person. We see some people who are fairly intelligent about the physical things. The things they hear and touch and smell. But it’s important to be spiritual about the things we feel on the inside. The light of Christ comes into the life of every human being who reaches normal mentality. And the light of Christ witnesses to us of truth and of good. But Satan is there for every one of us, and unless we can tell the difference we may be greatly fooled. And then people tell us things. Now the traditions of the world say “Don’t pay much attention to those voices within you, just listen to human beings. And let them be your guide.” And that’s why most people get most of what they believe from other human beings. We call that authoritarianism. But we are told in section one of the Doctrine and Covenants that the restored gospel was brought to earth specifically for the purpose that man would not counsel his fellow man. That each of us could speak in the name of God.

    So our job is simply to go work and pay enough attention to these spiritual influences that we will be able to separate them out very carefully just like you would separate out the poisonous from the good mushrooms when you are hunting for food in the forest. Or we want to make sure that you separate out the kinds of herbs that are beneficial from those that are poisonous. So are the ideas that come into our mind, some are good and some are evil. Now, if we have any clue as to which is good, the thing which we must do is to follow that clue, and test the spirit that’s saying something and see if the result is good and beneficial.

    If our hearts are good we will be able to find that there are some good spirits that come and tell us good things to do. And as we do what they say, and draw ourselves closer to that spirit, we engender the good spirit in ourselves until it comes brighter and brighter and stronger in our lives. Eventually, of course, if we go all the way, if fills our lives. The scriptures say the light becomes brighter and brighter until the perfect day. But we are the ones that have to make the selection and the search. And as we do that very carefully, making it the most important business of our life, that enables us to fill stage one that we talked about. Then, through that light… Oh, before I lose that topic, let me say there are some places and things we can do to foster that good spirit. We go to church because the spirit of the Lord is there. We go to the temple because the spirit of the Lord is there. We associate with good people because they carry the spirit with them. We read the scriptures because they foster the Spirit of the Lord in us. Now it’s true we can read the scriptures with an evil spirit telling us what to believe about it. But you see, we eventually have to contradict what the words say if we listen to the evil spirit. There are intellectual clues that we can receive. But the main problem is that our heart must tell us which is the good spirit and which is the evil. As we foster the good spirit it will begin to teach us what’s true about ourselves. To realize, that precious bit of knowledge that we are literal children of the Gods. We did not evolve from so lower form, or animal.

    This is true not only of our intelligence or spirit, but where did Adam come from, who was his father?

    My understanding that Adam was born, just as you and I are. And that he traces his lineage to the Gods. Now, I don’t know just exactly how that tracing is done. But the scriptures tell us that he was the son of God.

    Now, once we have gotten the spirit, then we learn these great truths. And they provide the framework, or the backdrop of our lives. All of our understanding is against a backdrop. And, as the backdrop gets truer and truer, the significance of our daily lives becomes truer and truer to us. You can put any act, and against different backdrops it looks very different. And so, we need to get the right backdrop. Then we will know what to do. Knowing what to do, of course, is the bottom line of the whole thing. Because what we do, the choices we make, the acts we carry out in this life determine our eternal destiny. My image of eternity is something like this: That we’ve been on a journey since the beginning, that is to say, we have always been on a journey. There was no beginning, but we talk about a beginning because the story has to start somewhere. And we have been on a path, we will be on a path forever after this world. The peculiar nature of this mortal existence is that we get to adjust the path while we’re in mortality. So, should we wake up and find that we aren’t as pure a spirit as we would like to be. In mortality we can repent and change. And our Savior Jesus Christ has wonderful things that he can do to help us. He tells us that His goal for us is that we learn to love Him with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.

    Yes.

    Now, we can’t do that by ourselves. That is an impossibility for we human beings, as I understand it, to achieve any one of those four. But there is a program called salvation. And the Savior saves us from ourselves. He saves our heart, mind, our strength (which is our physical body) and our might (which is our influence in the world). He saves each of them beginning with our heart. If we enter into His New and Everlasting Covenant, and become faithful servants to Him. We are told that the day comes when we have done all that we can. That we may apply for a new heart. This is what King Benjamin got his people to do before he died. In that last great sermon he asked them to ask for a new heart. And they did, they wanted to. They were prepared, and not only did they ask, but they received it. And the marvelous they reported then was that they no longer had any desire to do evil. Now this is how we overcome the world. By receiving from our Savior a new heart. The scriptures call this the process of purification.

    Is the reference to a broken heart in the scripture of a point here?

    A broken heart is the preparation for the pure heart. Until we are willing to break our own hearts because of our sins, and admit before our Father in Heaven that we are nothing, that is to say, there is not enough good in us that we can claim anything from Him. Until we can come to that point of broken hearted-ness, we will not be sufficiently humble before our Savior to do His works and to be able to receive that new heart from Him.

    The second thing he does is He is willing to go with us through our minds by the help of the Spirit and check each idea that we have, each of our beliefs. He will check us to see if we believe what is true. Satan’s great weapon is lies. And all it takes is a few lies in a system. Think of a great computer system, just throw a few bad commands into it, it doesn’t have to be more than a half of one percent, it destroys the whole functioning of the whole program. Similarly with the work of Satan. Only when we serve God with all of our mind can we be sure of doing what’s right. So the Savior is willing to go through our minds with us. Combing our minds, getting rid of every false idea that has its source from Satan, leaving only the truth.

    Then He’s willing to save our bodies. First in this life by helping us to have those practices of life which lead to health and strength. But secondly, to give us in the resurrection a perfected body, like His. So His resurrection is a way of saving us.

    It’s interesting you’ve mentioned deception being a tool of Satan, and mentioned also the importance of us caring for our bodies. One thinks of the eighty-ninth section and the fact that deception is mentioned there as a primary introduction to that whole subject. In consequence of evils and designs …

    From conspiring men who wish to make money off of us, so we let people dictate to us certain fads and fashions of food and drink which are not good for us. And we need to go back to the fundamentals which Father has given us. That’s why I say that first stage is being a little child, and getting the spirit of the Lord so that we eat and drink by the spirit. Not according to our physical appetites, not according to the ways of men, but according to the ways of God.

    Let us introduce you again, for those who may have missed the earlier introduction. Our guest tonight on “Friends and Scholars” is Dr. Chauncey Riddle of the faculty of Brigham Young University. Go right ahead Chauncey.

    The next thing the Savior does for us is to save our might. Our might is the power or influence we have over others or with others in the universe. Now the thing that destroys might is sin. And as we sin, Father must take away our might, and cause us to be less and less mighty, until such time as we repent. But if we repent, and start doing good instead of evil, then he can give us more and more might. Now the process by which he cleanses our might is called in the scriptures sanctification. Or, the forgiveness of sins. And if we are forgiven of our sins, and are on the right track. Then the Savior can give us great power, because He knows we will not abuse it. We will use it only for good.

    Now the overall of this whole thing is what the scriptures call, justification. The world has a justification that is a false justification. The false justification says, “Well, so-and-so isn’t very good, but we’ll pretend that his efforts are sufficient.” That’s the world’s justification. The Savior’s justification is different, the Savior’s justification says, “We will take this man and give him every opportunity to rise to the full measure of righteousness, and if he is willing to learn, and to repent, then we will make him fully righteous.” The scriptures call this a just man, made perfect. Now, through all of these processes, the Savior saves us.  That is to say, he makes a new creature out of us. Our problem is, are we willing? Some of us say, “No, I’m quite content the way I am. I wish to feel my feelings, think my thoughts, do my deeds, and have my affect in the Universe, and I do not wish to change.”

    Is that referred to as a “law unto oneself?”

    Exactly, that is what the scriptures call selfishness. And selfishness is the great enemy. But on the other hand there is righteousness, which is selflessness. Those who have a hunger in their hearts and minds to be righteous, find in the Savior Jesus Christ a great delight. Because He not only sets the model for complete righteousness, but has the wherewith to help each of us become fully righteous even as He is. And that’s what salvation is. My understanding is that salvation is to be saved from ourselves, from our selfishness, by the combination of our own efforts. To hear, and to believe, and do the works of Christ. In His saving power, His grace. We are saved by grace, but only after all we can do. We must do our part. He will do His part, if we will just do ours.

    Now the way that the Savior signals these things to us, and gives them to us is through the New and Everlasting Covenant. That precious opportunity to bind ourselves to Christ. I envision the New and Everlasting Covenant as, if I may use a homely example, as sort of a wrapping. Most of us are so spineless, we don’t have bones in our body that we can stand up straight. And so what we do is we come to the Savior and use His frame, His strength, His skeleton. And we come to Him and try to assume His stature. And we use these covenants to bind ourselves to Him. So that He becomes the framework in which our life is then spent. And He becomes our strength, He becomes our skeleton, He becomes the power of our words. We become His words, He becomes our words, and thus we are saved. Now this through the New and Everlasting Covenant.

    First the covenant of baptism. We make three marvelous promises in the covenant of baptism. We promise first of all that we will take upon ourselves His name. My understanding is that the word “name” in this usage is a code word for the glory, the power, the honor, of God, which is received through the fullness of the New and Everlasting Covenant. So what we essentially promise is that we are willing to endure to the end and receive all that Christ has to give us. I don’t know of a greater promise that anyone could make than that.

    Secondly we promise that we always remember Him. We will never forget that He is our new Father under this covenant. And that we are His covenant servants. And that we dedicate ourselves fully and wholly to Him, to serve Him, day and night, summer and winter, young and old, all of our lives. That we might bring to pass His righteousness.

    Thirdly we promise that we will keep every commandment that He gives us. And He is willing to give us commandments from time to time. At first it may be only one or two a day. But as our faithfulness increases, and our power to do His will increases, He gives us more and more. Until eventually, the scripture says, “He will tell us all things that we should do.” Then we have risen to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

    In the words of Paul. In the words of Paul. I love that passage. Well, now, that is the first part of the New and Everlasting Covenant.

    We then are privileged to receive the Holy Ghost. As a gift. Hands are laid upon our head. It is said unto us, “receive the Holy Ghost.” That does not mean we have it. That is a command to seek it and to receive it into our lives as a constant companion. As we do that then we have been, indeed, born of the water and of the spirit. And have fulfilled that essential step the Savior told Nicodemus that we must do to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But then we must continue on the path.

    The other part of the New and Everlasting Covenant is to receive the Holy Priesthood. Again, keeping in mind, what the priesthood is for: The priesthood is to become a servant. Not to be a Lord, not the master, but a servant. And as we are ordained to the priesthood then we begin our service to others.

    There are three basic stages to receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood as I understand it. The first stage is to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. Incidentally, I like that word Melchizedek, In the Hebrew, it means “King of Righteousness.” Mel-chi-ze-dec, I take it that is actually one of the names of Christ. He is the King of Righteousness. And when we take upon ourselves the Melchizedek Priesthood, we are receiving that special power that belongs and pertains to our Savior.

    Of course, that great King of Salem was himself a great and honored man.

    And he was a disciple of Christ. My guess is that he was given the name Melchizedek in honor of Christ.

    Others have similarly been given the names of Christ for key roles that are under and through the authority of Christ.

    As Abraham, “Father of Many People.” I take also to be a name of Christ. And there are many others of course. But coming back to this receiving the priesthood.

    The second stage of receiving the priesthood is to go into the temple and receive our endowments.

    The third stage of receiving the priesthood is to be married in the temple. And then we have, basically, all the priesthood that there is. Our Heavenly Father is a husband and father. And these are the things that we receive the power to do in the temple.

    And these things are received also by, and shared in, wives with husbands.

    Indeed, there is a marvelous statement in the Book of Mormon that I think is the key to the whole book and perhaps to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I’d like to bring that in at this point. Moroni 10, verses 24 and 25. “Now I speak unto all the ends of the earth, that if the day cometh that the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief. Wo be unto the children of men if that be the case. For their shall be none that doeth good among you, no, not one. For if their be one among you that doeth good. He shall work by the power and gifts of God.” I don’t know many more fundamental things to know than that. The basic problem in our lives is this difference between good and evil. If we’re going to do good it is only by the gifts and power of God that we can do it. That’s why Father sends the Light of Christ, the Light of His Son, to lighten every man that comes into the world. Then those people can do good. He also sends Satan so they can do evil. And thus we have a choice. Thus we are agents. And thus when we come to the New and Everlasting Covenant it is because we have hearkened to the good spirit. And the purpose of the covenant is then to give us more and more of these gifts.

    We start with the gift of the Light of Christ. Which is the spirit of excellence, the spirit of truth, the spirit of good, that all men enjoy. Some partake of it and follow it and foster it, and they are ready then for the Holy Ghost which comes to witness of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. If they profit by the Light of Christ then they will profit also from the Holy Ghost. And they will accept the Gospel, and take the Covenant.

    Now, one of the precious gifts is the gift of the Holy Ghost. And it brings in it’s train the special gifts of the spirit. The gift of understanding, the gift of knowledge of the mysteries, the gift of speaking in tongues, the gift of healing, the gift of the knowledge of operations, and so forth. Then in the temple we receive further gifts. The word endowment means, “gift”. And the gifts of God that come there are the special gifts we need for our marriage, for our missions, to truly be servants to all mankind. Israel is called to be servants of the rest of the earth. Not to be the Kings and Rulers, but to be the servants of all mankind. It is our mission to go to each and every nation, in the spirit of the Lord, using the gifts and powers we have received, through the New and Everlasting Covenant to minister righteousness, and salvation, and hope, to every nation, kindred tongue, and person on earth. And that is the glory and opportunity to be a Latter-Day Saint, and to know of Jesus Christ through the Restored Gospel.

    Chauncey Riddle, we appreciate this marvelous presentation you given us on the subject of “Spiritual Survival in the Last Days.” We wish there were more time, I think we will take time on another occasion, if we might, and have you extend your remarks on these most significant areas.

  • Agency Isn’t Free, 1991

    May 1991

    Like freedom, agency isn’t free; it is preserved and enhanced only by very intelligent use. He who takes if for granted soon finds himself in narrow straits.

    Agency is power to choose how to act, then to carry out the chosen act. The more power we have, the more agency we have. The more choices for action we have, the more agency we have. Knowledge is what makes choice possible.

    To have a lot of knowledge does not mean that one should do all of the things one knows to do. A good person probably does less than 1% of the things he could choose to do.

    Our Father in Heaven gives each of us our agency. He stimulates our minds to understand our environment and gives us power to act. His purpose is to see how well we use this agency. For He has also given us a knowledge of good and evil, and He wants to see which of His offspring will only do good with their agency.

    Our heritage as children of a kind and powerful Father in Heaven is to be heirs all of the knowledge and power which Father enjoys. But he can share with us only as we very carefully use the little bit of agency we now have for good: to bless the lives of others through sacrifice. But we are also free to use our agency selfishly, to feather our own nest at the expense of others. The scriptures testify that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the greatness of the blessings Father purposes to share with us if we will use our present bit of agency for good. (D&C 133:45)

    One of the false notions about our agency is the idea that even God can’t take it away. While it is true that Father will ultimately let us choose our own destiny, that does not mean He will tolerate whatever we choose. As we choose evil, he shortens our agency; that is why he drowned the world in a flood and will yet burn it with fire. As any individual sins, he or she limits his or her future access to knowledge and power. Were it not for repentance, most of us would not be very free.

    Though we have sinned, our eternal agency is vouchsafed to us through the atoning blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Only in Him can we qualify for more knowledge and power, and only through His forgiveness can we have any hope of inheriting all that the Father has.

    The Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in these latter days so that you and I, and all others whom our Father calls may enjoy a mind and heart expanded through spiritual gifts and power beyond that of natural man to do the good works of godliness. As our minds are filled with the truths of eternity through prayer, study of the scriptures, and meditation in the Lord, our understanding begins to grasp eternity and the purposes and the goodness of our God. As we use the natural power we have as mortals to guide our actions in light of those eternal spiritual gifts, Father sees that we are responsible children and gives us more power, specifically in receiving the Holy Priesthood. If we use both the knowledge and the priesthood power well, He will eventually give us the key to the greatest freedom and agency possible: the gift of a new heart, which never again will choose evil.

    With the new, pure heart, there is no limit to the knowledge and power Father can bestow upon us. He will remake us, in combination with our own efforts, until we have attained the measure of the stature of the fullness of His son, Jesus Christ. Then we are free indeed.

    If we are intelligent, we will seek to know good from evil unerringly, then to apply all of the knowledge and power, all of the agency we have, in the doing of good. This is the price we must pay to gain an increase of that precious agency which is Father’s gift.

    May we say with Joshua: “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and truth: …And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14–15)

  • Language, Reality and Sanity, 1991

    March 1991

    1. Communication: One thing affecting another. Two-way communication is conversation (action-reaction cycle). Some conversation is language facilitated. A language is a patterned and socially normed set of items used to converse. All language conversation is based in non-language conversation.

    2. For humans there are four important kinds of conversation:

    1. Conversation with other humans.
    2. Conversation with nature.
    3. Conversation with God (good).
    4. Conversation with Satan (evil).

    Each of these conversations is important because each is inescapable.

    But humans vary greatly in their conversational (language) competence. Mastery of languages makes possible cooperative (mutually beneficial) conversation, which is competent conversation.

    • Cooperative conversation with humans: E.g. exchange of goods and services.
    • Cooperative conversation with nature: E.g. growing a garden which is very productive.
    • Cooperative conversation with God: Hearkening to His guidance as to how to help His other children.
    • Cooperative conversation with Satan: Impossible. Satan acts only to disadvantage those with whom he communicates. But he teaches those who say “yes” to him how to disadvantage other humans and nature to their own temporary advantage; so these persons think they are wise because of the temporary advantage. But it is necessary to master Satan’s Language (temptations) to be able to say “no” to him.

    Humans who have not mastered the respective necessary languages are incompetent communicators. A person may be competent in one kind of conversation (e.g., with humans) and quite incompetent in another kind of conversation (e.g., with nature).

    3. Ability to carry on a competent conversation is sanity. A person who should have become able to be language/conversation competent but has not is unsane/insane (unhealthy).

    Insanity relative to humans: Inability to carry on a cooperative conversation.

    Insanity relative to nature: Inability to get nature to give one what one needs without destroying it.

    Insanity relative to God: Inability to recognize that conversation with Him leads to cooperative conversation with humans and nature, and to have that conversation.

    Insanity relative to Satan: Inability to say “no” to him, to believe that the temporary self-     advantage he promotes are possible long run.

    4. Reality consists of conversations. Be-ing is conversing. To be able to converse competently with humans, nature and God and to say “no” to Satan is to gain a firm grasp on reality and sanity.

    5. The principal barrier to grasping reality and sanity is to learn to converse competently with God and to reject Satan. If one only recognizes the horizontal dimensions of human experience, neglecting the vertical, they cannot grasp reality and sanity.

    God teaches and enables competent conversation (mutually beneficial conversation) with humans and nature, and how to reject Satan and evil.

    Satan promotes evil, which is conversing to benefit self only by disadvantaging the partner in the conversation, which is how to reject God.

    Why do not all humans immediately recognize the presence and difference between God and Satan (good and evil)? This is to ask, Why do not all humans immediately grasp reality and sanity? Some humans grasp reality and sanity immediately, and all will in the end. Meanwhile, some are blinded to reality and sanity because they simply don’t care about anyone but themselves.

    What the long run will bring to them is that they will eventually recognize that as they destroy others, they are actually destroying themselves, for we all exist and prosper only in our conversations with and in the welfare of others. That realization will eventually bring them to reality and sanity.

    1. It is impossible to make sense of reality and sanity without learning to converse correctly with God (good) and Satan (evil).

    The purpose of mortality is not to see who is smart (able to grasp reality and sanity immediately), but rather who cares about others, who can and will carry on cooperative conversations. Those who do not care about others but only about themselves buy and practice Satan’s lies (insanity), that to do evil is advantageous. Thus they temporarily deny reality and revel in insanity.

  • Language, Conversation, Sanity and Reality

    DLLS PROCEEDINGS 1991

    PROCEEDINGS OF THE DESERET LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS SOCIETY 1991 SYMPOSIUM

    BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY MARCH 7-8, 1991

    Language, Conversation, Sanity and Reality

    Chauncey C. Riddle

    Brigham Young University

    PROCEEDINGS OF THE DESERET LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS SOCIETY 1991 SYMPOSIUM BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY MARCH 7-8, 1991 Language, Conversation, Sanity and Reality Chauncey Riddle
    PROCEEDINGS OF THE DESERET LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS SOCIETY 1991 SYMPOSIUM
    BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY MARCH 7-8, 1991
    Language, Conversation, Sanity and Reality
    Chauncey Riddle

    The thesis of this paper is that human being consists of conversations, and that the ability of a person to converse with other beings to the advantage of the other beings is the measure of the person’s sanity.

    1. Human Being is here taken as a verb form, not a noun form.

    While it is possible to understand human beings as entities, as essences with accidents, another way of understanding human beings is to see each of them as what each one does. This does two things. It changes the emphasis from the kind or type, the universal, to the individual. And it also puts the focus on accomplishment rather than on potential. A human being, taken as an essence, is a being of a certain material nature, seen as a standard anatomy with a standard physiology and as a being with special capacity to communicate and to reason. But a human being seen as a doer of deeds is individual­ized into just where and when the individual lives, with what environment that person must cope, and the particular effect that person has on his or her total environment While both analyses are useful, the latter understanding is more pertinent for purposes of this paper.

    2. Communication is one being affecting another being.

    The word communication etymologically means to be within the walls together. Beings which com­municate are not walled off from each other. They are able to affect one another. The affect may be reciprocal or not. Communicative affect may be received as sensory effect, as kinetic effect or as chemical effect Sensory effects are hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, etc. Kinetic effects are such as being moved, as when one person shoves another, or being shot by a bullet or an arrow, etc. Chemical effects are such as being burned by an acid or inhaling carbon monoxide. One special case of sensory affect/effect is using symbols to communicate.

    Everything which happens to a person is communication from some other being. Everything a person does communicates with other beings.

    3. Language is patterned and normed affect/effect. Pattern is configurations of affect and effect which are repeated. Normed patterns are patterns to which some receiver/reader of patterns reacts in some typical manner. To send communications in a patterned and normed manner is to use a language. To react to the patterned and normed affect of another being in a typical and understanding way is to “read” the other being. There are natural languages and artificial lan­guages. Natural languages are seen to operate when a candle flame exhibits a characteristic pattern; a moth reacts in a typical manner by veering into the flame as it flies. Or a pistil reacts chemically to one type of pollen while ignoring others. Or DNA recombines in various ways to form an organism. Artificial languages are human languages which use symbols, the combinations of which are patterned and normed to facilitate human sensory communica­tion. The special case of language communication is a standard human language such as English.

    4. Conversation is continuing language communication between two or more beings.

    Bees converse when transmitting data about nectar sources by dancing. A bird converses with a nest using twigs and grass until the nest satisfies it for nesting. All deliberate human action is a form of conversation with something or someone. Growing a garden is a conversation with a plot of ground and living plants. Playing flute is a conversation with a musical instrument, and the music is a conversation with an audience if the audience responds. The special case of conversation is when two human beings speak back and forth with each other in a language such as English.

    5. There are four special kinds of conversations which human beings participate in, each being differentiated by the different kinds of partners in conversation.

    The basic partner in human conversations is nature and physical objects. Learning to observe, read, and react in conversation with one’s physical surroundings is the initial human task. This task is to develop a language ability to relate to other natural and physical objects so that one may converse with them. Such basic conversation is seen in a baby crying and being comforted, in the baby tasting everything, or in reaching for everything.

    The second partner in human conversations is other humans now acting as symbolic communicators rather than as physical, natural beings. As the child begins to associate sounds and actions with each other, consciousness of spoken language is formed. Then other persons are no longer just physical objects, but physical objects with whom the child can converse, say in English.

    The third partner in human conversations is God. Little children have an awareness of communi­cating with a spiritual being who teaches them of good. If they are taught to honor this opportunity, it grows and increases in importance in their lives as they mature. If they are taught to disavow this opportunity, they turn from it and the opportunity atrophies while it is no longer part of the person’s conscious conversations.

    The fourth partner in human conversations is Satan. Satan is the spiritual person of evil who promotes lies and selfishness. When humans do not acknowledge the existence of Saran they attribute his influence to themselves or as the residua] effect of some other person upon them; this causes misinterpretation of the conversations with Satan. But if Satan is recognized as a conversational partner, his influence can be dealt with directly and more effectively.

    Conversing with natural and physical objects and with human beings as symbolic communicators serves as a horizontal axis of human conversation, or communication within the physical realm.

    Conversing with God and Satan serves as a vertical axis of conversation, or communication within the spiritual realm. It is popular to pretend that only horizontal communication exists or can exist. But to ignore the spiritual is to ignore the inner feelings and idea development which human beings experience. To attribute all of our inner experience to natural, horizontal sources is to deny the existence of the spiritual realm. Part of the thesis of this paper is that such denial is an important source of insanity in the human population. To be sane one must deal with all of one’s experience and conversations, not with just a selective part of it.

    6. Some regularities which pertain to human conversations:

    Law 1. Conversations with all four partners, with natural/physical things, with other humans as symbolic communicators, with God, and with Satan. are necessary for normal human life. (Not to deal with one or more of these partners in a deliber­ate conscious way is to abdicate agency or steward­ship in !lull area. To do so is to be less than fully human by not conversing with a potential partner, only receiving communication, not responding in deliberate conversation. That is like owning a piece of property but not paying any attention to it, letting it go wild and letting whoever and whatever to dwell and act thereon.)

    Law 2. If human beings converse only with natural physical things, they never develop normal human language capacity and are limited to conver­sations with natural/physical things. (They do not gain human language, nor agency. Having a devel­oped human language is what makes it possible to converse normally with other humans, with God, and with Satan. Without a language we can receive influence, but cannot converse as an agent may.)

    Law 3. God communicates with human beings in many ways (in God men live, move, have mentality, etc.), but he converses with them princi­pally to enable them to advantage other humans and natural/physical things in their communications with other beings.

    Law 4. The ability to advantage other beings has its ultimate source in God, and he is the sole ultimate source of such conversational ability. This is to say that God is the sole source of good. But human beings also help each other and help natural beings through the influence which derives from God.

    Law 5. Satan converses with human beings only to teach them to disadvantage other beings (other humans. natural/physical things, and God) in their conversations.

    7. Conversational competence is being able to converse well enough with a partner in conversation to have the option either to advantage or to disadvantage that partner.

    To advantage a partner is to give the partner more being (conversational attainment) by sharing with the partner truth. kindness, power, etc. To disadvantage a partner in conversation is to converse so as to disable the partner through lies, insults, wounds. etc. Thus conversational competence is the measure to which one is able to do both good and evil to a partner in conversation. One may be minimally competent to converse with one human partner, but be able to have a hundred times the competence to communicate with another human partner. To be a minimum normal human being is to have minimal conversational competence with all four kinds of partners, physical and spiritual. Which is to say that most human beings can and do converse with all four kinds of partners. Some are very good at such conversing, and some are not. Some have conversations with many kinds of natu­ral things and many human beings, while others have few such conversational partners. To be a god is to have maximal conversational competence with every other being. Agency begins with minimal human conversational competence and maximizes in the power of a god.

    8. Sanity is the use of human agency (conversational competence) to advantage natural, human and godly partners in conversation.

    Since the power to advantage partners in conversation comes only in conversations with God, humans are sane only when they are able [0 converse with God and then use that conversation with God as a basis for advantaging natural and human partners in conversation. When one advan­tages natural or human partners in conversation one automatically advantages God. When one uses conversation with Satan to disadvantage humans, or nature, or God, one is not sane.

    The reason for me connection between sanity and advantaging partners in conversation has to do with the nature of reality. The reality of a being is not what it is but what it does. (What it is an artificial attempt to capture the being apart from what it does, bur this is always a caricature of the being.) What every being does is communicate. Most of the communications of every being are conversations. Most of what a being is, its reality, is its conversa­tions with other beings. Thus every being has a career, which is the history of its conversations with other beings. Few beings are static entities, but are also being advantaged and disadvantaged (enlarged and diminished) in every conversation (hey have, and are advantaging and disadvantaging others in every conversation, each being using its agency. When humans converse with God, he only advantages them. When human beings converse with Satan, he only converses to disadvantage the human beings, thus to advantage himself at the expense of others as his kingdom and dominion increase. Human beings are agents, which means they may choose either to advantage those with whom they converse (deriving from their conversa­tions with God) or to disadvantage them (deriving from their conversations with Satan).

    When a being disadvantages another being, that disadvantaging of the other being results in reduced conversational competence for that other being. But if one being reduces the conversational competence of another being, the one being thus reduces the opportunity to converse with that disadvantaged being. Since the amount of being a being has is the sum of its conversations with others, when one reduces the conversational competence of another being one reduces the being of that being and also reduces the being of the self because one can no longer converse as much with that being. A classic case of this kind of disadvantaging is found in Cain killing Abel. Cain disadvantaged Abel in slaying him, hoping thereby to gain his brother’s goods. But the goods soon perish, and Cain is diminished because he no longer has a brother Abel with whom he can converse and rejoice. To disadvantage another being results in the reduction of one’s own being. Pursued far enough. disadvantaging others results in the attainment of the narrowed being and diminished stature of Satan, as do the Sons of Perdition.

    Sanity is wholeness. The ultimate of wholeness is God, who advantages all beings and thus enjoys greater being by conversing more and more with all those beings. Whenever a person learns from God how to advantage another being and does so, that person enlarges the being of the other person, also enlarges the being of God, and also enlarges his or her own being. This is sanity, or a reaching towards wholeness. To disadvantage another being is to diminish that being, to diminish God and to diminish self; which is insanity, that which detracts from wholeness.

    Satan is the advocate of insanity or unwhole­ness. His basic ploy is: If you disadvantage your partner, that will advantage you. That lie is answered in the paragraph preceding. But Satan has another ploy: If you disadvantage others, I (Satan) will give you special advantages. And he sometimes does: short-run, physical advantages. To accept a short run advantage from Satan in order to disadvan­tage another being is selling that other being. The question every person should then ask is: Can a being who tempts you to disadvantage others and who pays you to disadvantage others in the short run be likely [0 give you any advantage 1n the long run? To accept a temporary advantage from one who promotes disadvantage is also insanity.

    One of Satan’s lies is that the amount of goods and happiness in the world is a finite sum. In such a zero-sum situation, the less my neighbor has, the more J can have. So part of the human reaction is based on whether one believes Satan’s lie that this is a zero-sum game or whether one believes God’s promise that his riches are infinite. Those who believe in advantaging others have little trouble believing in God, and those who truly believe in God have little trouble believing that it is good to advantage others. Those who don’t mind disadvan­taging others are fearful for their own welfare (selfish). do not believe in nor trust God, and are willing to believe the zero-sum idea. So they go on disadvantaging others. Eventually (the long run) they will understand that disadvantaging others also disadvantages themselves, and they will stop acting insanely.

    9. The cure for insanity is conversing with God. Those who will not learn to communicate com­petently with God are doomed to some measure of insanity until they learn to have such competent con­versation with God. The more competent one becomes in conversing with God, the more one can advantage one’s partners and the more sane one can be.

    10. Happiness is being sane. Happiness is increasing the being of one’s partners in conversation by continually advantaging them. It is a rejoicing in helping others to grow in helping others to grow in helping others to grow. .. ad infinitum. Man was created by God to be happy. Satan was given to man by God to provide an opposition so that the choice to advantage one’s neighbors or to disadvantage them would be a real and live option. Only when people converse compe­tently with God can they chose to be like God in advantaging others. But only as they also converse competently with Satan by saying an explicit “No” to his influence does conversation with God and chosen obedience to God become meritorious. Thus one can freely choose advantaging others over disadvantaging others only if one is conversationally competent and makes a deliberate, explicit choice to favor the affect of God over the affect of Satan.

    11. The conclusion of the matter. The more competent one is to converse with nature, people, God and Satan, the more agency one· has. If one uses that agency to serve God, one’s ability to converse with nature, humans and God will increase to the maximum possible, because God advantages those who advantage others. This increase of agency and advantaging tends to maximize the agency and advantaging of the person who does so, which is the process of becoming as God is.

    Conversing with nature is a key to this process of learning to be conversationally competent. Nature never lies, Nature is always regular, constant, dependable, Nature is always available and will always converse. Conversations with nature help us to be concerned about reverencing and advantaging natural things as we are influenced by God, or they help us to harm and destroy as we are influenced by Satan. The help or the harm always has an imme­diate reaction (though some reactions may be delayed), and thus one learns to read the influence of God and Satan in nature as one pays attention. Learning to read nature is a better index to differen­tiating between God and Satan than learning to read humans, because humans listen to both God and Satan and thus the spiritual influence of persons varies from person to person and from time to time in the same person. To have better conversations with nature is to order and beautify the earth and to respect and honor all natural things as God’s handiwork. To have better conversations with humans is to see in each of them the face of Christ and to honor and advantage each one of them as God inspires one to do so. To have better conversations with God is to learn to love him with our heart, might, mind and strength. To have better conversations with Satan is to recognize him whenever he approaches, then firmly to say “No” to him, But conversation with Satan must not be engaged in to bring railing accusation against him, for he, too, is a son of God. The maximum of reality, which is conversing, and of sanity, which is ‘advantaging in conversation, is found for human beings only in inheriting all good things from Father by learning to be conversationally competent with God, then to use that competence to advantage both him and our neighbor (nature and other human beings.

    To learn better conversational competence with any partner is to be attentive and to learn from experience how to do better. God gives guidance, but that guidance must be sought in competent conversation with God. How better to converse with God? By trying. To converse with him is the most advantageous of all conversations, for he is the great advantager who advantages everyone as much as possible, teaching them how to be more competent in conversation with any partner including Satan.

    12. The moral of the matter. Humans who wish to be sane would do well especially to concentrate on improving their conversations with God, with natural/ physical things, with other people, and with Satan. From natural/physical things we learn to be exact. From God one will learn to be true and to advantage others, as well as how to converse more competently. In conversing with Satan to deny his influence, one will learn to overcome selfishness, the insanity of disadvantaging others. Some humans serve God and some serve Satan and some serve both; thus conversing with humans in general does not promote exactness, or fidelity, or advantaging, nor does it quell selfish­ness. But a human who is greatly sane in conversing with nature, God and Satan is well prepared to converse sanely with other humans, and will become able to advantage each partner (except Satan) in a pure manner, which is charity, the pure love of Christ.

    Biographical material: Born Salt Lake City, Utah; graduated from high school in Las Vegas, Nevada. Attended Brigham Young University majoring in mathematics and d physics, graduating in 1947. Married Bertha Allred of Fountain Green. Utah and McGill. Nevada. Attended Columbia University in New York City, receiving the MA degree in 1951 and the PhD degree in 1958. Joined the BYU faculty in 1952. Served as department chairman (Graduate Religion), Dean of the Graduate School, Assistant Academic Vice President, and Professor of Philosophy.

  • Take Up Your Cross

    Chauncey C. Riddle
    Nov. 1990

    One of the strong teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the injunction of the Savior to each person to take up his or her cross. This is clearly made a condition of salvation. This teaching is given in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, and in the Doctrine and Covenants.

    In Matthew 10:38 the Savior says:

    “He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.”

    The idea is even more emphatic in Matthew 16:24:

    “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

    In the Book of Mormon Jacob tells us: “But behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.” (2 Nephi 9:15–23) In the Doctrine and Covenants, it is revealed to Thomas B. Marsh:

    “Now, I say unto you, and what I say unto you, I say unto all the twelve: Arise and gird up your loins, take up your cross, follow me, and feed my sheep.” (D&C 112:14)

    It is plain from these quotations that the Savior is our pattern. To take up our cross we must do as he did. The Savior’s cross was given to him of his father. It was something he had to endure to complete his mission on this earth. He bore it faithfully and in so doing he completed his mission to bring salvation to all mankind.

    The cross the savior bore was to atone for the sins of each and all mankind. His mission of bringing salvation included the necessity of satisfying the law of justice, to suffer for each infraction of Father’s law which ever had been or ever would be committed on this earth. In one twenty-four hour period he suffered for these sins, finishing the suffering on the cross. The cross upon which he was crucified was not his cross; but it was the symbolic representation of his cross. Thus the symbol of the cross becomes the symbol of the suffering each human being must do to follow in the footsteps of our Master, Jesus Christ.

    And suffer we must, even as did our Savior. He tells us that we must bring a sacrifice to him to be saved, that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The broken heart is doing away with all pride, to come down in the depths of humility, because of our sins. To be contrite means to suffer with—to suffer with our Master. As he suffered for the sin of all mankind, so we must be willing to suffer. Sometimes we must suffer for sins, our own or the sins of others. But some human suffering has no obvious good cause or reason. Some of it simply happens as the result of Father’s omniscient benevolence, and we discover that benevolence only after the suffering is completed. Thus we have crosses.

    It seems that every accountable human being who wishes to be saved must suffer. Not every human being suffers his or her assigned cross; sometimes it is possible to avoid it, and thereby avoid salvation. Sometimes the cross cannot be avoided; then the question is, is the cross borne in humility before Father’s will or in angry rejection of him. But it is clear that if we are to be saved we must take up our cross and bear it well. The Savior did not enjoy his cross. He asked that it be taken from him. But when it could not be, he manfully shouldered it and bore it off triumphantly. In this each of us must follow him.

    Let us now turn to ten examples of human beings bearing crosses well in Christ.

    Friend No. 1 was born with a clubfoot. He was born before orthopedic surgery could cure this problem. So his only course was to suffer it. He suffered it well, through his faith in Christ. He earned a living as a woodworker, raised a fine family, and triumphed. The really hard part was not being crippled all of his life. The worst part was enduring the taunts and the shame his fellows heaped upon him, and especially the many persons who considered him to be demented, as humans are wont to do with crippled persons.

    Friend No. 2 was widowed at age twenty-six with four small children in the depths of the Great Depression. She had no money, poor health, no family to help. But she had faith in Christ. She bowed her head and struggled against all the odds to raise those children in righteousness. In abject poverty she eked out a sustenance, bearing the shame of poor clothing and having little but life itself. When her children were raised things were a bit easier, but her health was no better. Still she pursued genealogy, was faithful in all church assignments, was the most dependable person in her ward. She bore her cross well.

    Friend No. 3 had a mother who took Thalidomide when she was in the womb. She was born without arms. But she was the soul of cheerfulness and determination. She learned to swim to paint to do virtually everything a normal person would do in school. Though she required help every day of her life, she tried to give something to others every day of her life. And give she did, being an inspiration to all who knew her.

    Friend No. 4 was a prosperous professional. Having come from a background of poverty, he was generous withall, enjoying giving his wealth to others that they also might be well off. Then one of his business partners embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and left him in virtual ruin. He picked up the pieces, held his firm together with sheer grit and a good name, and gradually brought things back from the brink of disaster. The irony of it was that the man who wounded him so badly had done the same thing once before. But the embezzler had asked forgiveness and proclaimed repentance in the first instance. So he was trusted again and became a cross to be borne.

    Friend No. 5 was a superb academician and a top university administrator with a national reputation. A faithful Latter-day Saint, he was a kindly mentor to budding professors and anxious leaders. As he approached the climax of his career, he was an obvious choice for the position of chancellor in the university system of which he was a part. But he was passed over and a man with but a fraction of his ability was selected for the position. Patiently he watched the new man struggle, and patiently he tended to his own professional labors, not complaining once. For his trust was in the Savior, not in the honors of men.

    Friend No. 6 was the soul of friendliness—outgoing, warm generous in every way. He married a beautiful young woman and they were blessed with four handsome, intelligent children. Oh how he loved his family. But his wife was frigid. After the birth of the last child she refused to let him touch her ever again. He could have divorced her. He felt it was not right to do so. So he suffered his cross, year after year of complete denial of physical affection. He felt it was right simply to bear the cross, to give all the love he could both to his wife and to his children.

    Friend No. 7 discovered in his childhood that he was not like other boys. He did not know why, and did not want it to be so, but he could only like and love men. As he became a teenager and it came time to date, he was horrified at the prospect. He was homosexual and dating a girl was equivalent to hell for him. So he did not date. But he knew he was in trouble. He went to his priesthood leaders for help, but very little was forthcoming: they simply did not know what to do to help him. Eventually he came into contact with one of the General Authorities of the Church. This kind man spent hours and hours with him helping and encouraging him. In all of his wild twisting and turnings to shake off this malady, he did not give in to his sexual desires to have physical sexual relations a man. Determined to fulfill the Savior’s pattern, he married and he and his wife raised a fine family. He held many church positions, helped many people, and sought valiantly to proclaim the testimony of Christ.

    Friend No. 8 was born to goodly parents, and she was a bright precocious youngster, head of her class all through school, fine athlete, devout Latter-day Saint. Her great goal in life was to have twelve children and to teach every one of them the love of the Savior. But she was six foot three inches tall and very intelligent. Though she longed to marry, she was never once courted. So she lived her life in loneliness, taking her students in school and church as her children, hoping in the savior that in some other world she might be fulfilled.

    Friend No. 9 was abandoned by his parents when he was ten years old. They were poor and he was told to go out on his own. With only the clothing on his back, he left home, never to see his parents again. He ate out of garbage cans, slept on rooftops in the mild climate of his hometown. And he went to school every day! He studied hard, though that was hard on an empty stomach. He finally found work and someone who would let him sleep on their floor in the winter. He worked his way through high school, then through college, and became a top government engineer. He married, had a fine family, and how he loved those children. He forgave his parents, found and helped his brothers and sisters, and did great good with his life.

    Friend No. 10 had a fine professional career and a model family. Then his wife became ill. The illness was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. She progressively was debilitated, first losing her strength, then her sight, then the ability to move. For seven years she lay bedridden, and her husband personally cared for her when he was home. He had to turn her in bed often to avoid bedsores and muscle spasms for every night of those seven years. But he did not complain, nor let on that he had lost any sleep. He was attentive and loving, loved his children, and did what was right, bearing his cross in Christ.

    Our Savior is trying to exalt each of us, to make us equal with himself in purity, wisdom, knowledge and power. But before he can bestow these blessings upon us we must show that we can be trusted. The way, the only way which we can demonstrated that is to do what he did: to take the cross which Father gives to each of us and bear it, at the same time keeping all of Father’s commandments, our lives are not given to us for pleasure. There is pleasure in living, but to live for the pleasure is to show that we cannot be trusted with the riches of eternity. But if we can be as little children, meek, submissive, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all that which Father sees fit to inflict upon us, then we prove ourselves trustworthy.

    There is a plan of salvation. The plan provides the opportunity for each child of Father to prove that he or she is trustworthy. The plan is that each person must deny himself or herself, that is, each must not seek first to please himself or herself, but each must sacrifice personal desires to do Father’s will, to bring to pass his righteousness. This sacrifice involves taking up our personal cross, and while bearing it, do everything within our powerto keep every commandment of God. This means for each of us to be an exemplary Latter-day Saint no matter what troubles or problems we might be called upon to bear.

    This is not to say that a Latter-day Saint is masochistic. We do not self-inflict pain and suffering to show our devotion. It is not that easy. What we must do is take the cross assigned to us and bear it with faith in Christ. Sometimes the cross will be lifted by Father: the disease may go into remission, fortunes may change, love might come to the forlorn. But these reprieves are Father’s doing. We do not bear our cross just because Father will soon lift it from us, for he might not. We do not assign our own cross and we should not reject our own cross, just as in the Church we do not seek callings from the Lord nor do we reject them. If a cross is not assigned by Father, we need not bear it. But if it does come from him, and we can know this through the Holy Spirit, then bear it we must or we cannot be saved.

    There are two kinds of burdens we humans bear. One kind is a cross: a handicap in life assigned to us by Father which we must bear while keeping the commandments to demonstrate that we love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. The other kind of burden is suffering for our own sins, the just consequences of our own choice to sin. Part of being intelligent is not to mix these two, not to confuse crosses with consequences.

    To repent is to deny ourselves (to deny the lusts of the flesh). That helps to stem consequences, but does not remove crosses. The Savior’s atonement can remove the eternal suffering of the consequences of sin, but only after repentance. (Even after repentance, we sometimes must continue to suffer in mortality for the consequences of our sins.) To be really intelligent is to bear both patiently and humbly, letting both crosses and consequences be constant reminders to remember the Savior and to repent, thus to put ourselves firmly in the narrow way of total obedience to his commandments until we have endured to the end.

    Mortal life is a handicap race. We do not race against each other. Indeed, we can greatly help one another. We race against time, to see if we can learn to keep every one of Father’s commandments while carrying our individual crosses and the burdens of our own sinning before our mortal probation expires. This race is not to the swift. Victory comes only to the humble children of God who are willing to bear all things Father sees fit to inflict upon them.

    For any who are tempted to think that this race is too much to bear, the voice of the Master is heard:

    “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

    And again:

    “He that will not take up his cross and follow me, and keep my commandments, the same shall not be saved.” (D&C 56:2)

  • Creating a Testimony, 1990

    Talk given by Chauncey Riddle
    23 October 1990,
    at Weber State College Institute, Ogden, Utah

    Suppose with me for a moment. Let’s pretend that you have acquired a passion for Granny Smith apples. You buy and keep them on hand whenever you can, and enjoy them every day while the supply lasts. You become so fond of the fruit that you decide to plant a Granny Smith apple tree. A fast trip to the nursery, a quick hole dug, and the tree is on its way. Then you settle down to wait.

    The next spring the little Granny Smith tree puts forth leaves and grows apace, but no blossoms. Ah, but the tree is just a young thing you sigh, and wait till next spring. But the next spring there are again many leaves and much growth, but no blossoms. You decree patience and settle down to tend the tree and wait another year. You wait another year, and another, and another—what on earth could be wrong?

    At this point you demand knowledge. You search for someone who will tell you what to do. You don’t want to fool around any more. You demand an expert witness who will help you to solve your problem.

    You first encounter Neighbor One. One is a very smart fellow; he reads all kinds of things all the time. He tells you that he has read that cutting the bark of the tree all the way around the tree will scare it into producing blossoms the next year. “What! Kill my tree!” you explode. Neighbor one says all he knows is that he read it in a book and suggests you go read the book for yourself.

    Dissatisfied, you pin down Neighbor Two. “I’m desperate,” you say. “What can I do to get my Granny Smith tree to blossom?” Neighbor Two says that it is easy. Last year he watched Neighbor Three go out to his apple tree one fine spring day and cut the bark all the way around the trunk of the tree. This spring the tree is loaded with blossoms for the first time.

    By now the idea of girdling the tree isn’t quite as new and alarming. But you are properly concerned. Is it possible that the girdling of the tree followed by the blossoming this year was pure coincidence? Thanking Two you seek out Neighbor Three with your problem.

    It turns out that Neighbor Three loves plants and trees and has been pursuing horticultural expertise for half a century. His yard shows it; it is a veritable Garden of Eden. He receives your query with a smile and takes you out to his yard.

    Says he, “To get an apple tree to blossom sooner than normal, you must girdle the tree in the spring between the time of leafing out and before the hot weather comes. I have used this technique on hundreds of trees with positive results, and have never lost a tree in the process. Come look at these apple trees and you can see the scars of my therapeutic girdling. It really works.” Then he takes you to one of his new trees and coaches you while you girdle his tree so that it will blossom next spring.

    Now you are assured. You hasten home, girdle your own tree and sit back with grateful anticipation for a tree full of blossoms in one more year. And it does work. You enjoy your Granny Smith apples ever after.

    What these three good neighbors illustrate is three kinds or degrees of knowledge. Let us examine each of these kinds.

    Neighbor One gave you a witness based on understanding. He had strong associations in his mind about the way the phloem and the zylem work in the cambium layer of the bark of a tree and understood that interrupting the flow process would produce the desired result. This was book learning. It turned out to be true, but you were not sufficiently assured by it. You demanded a better kind of testimony before you would act. Neighbor One’s kind of knowledge is called by the word wissen in German, and is the root of our English word “witness.” The corresponding word in Spanish is saber; in French it is savoir. This is the kind of knowledge all of us get out of history books or from reading scientific explanations of things unfamiliar to us.

    Neighbor Two gave you a witness based on a second kind of knowledge. He had actually seen the process performed. Had he seen the process without understanding it, even seeing would not have helped, for he could have supposed as you first did that girdling was an attempt to kill the tree. But Neighbor Two was an eye-witness to something that worked. His testimony to you brought the problem out of the realm of the theoretical to the arena of actual and personal experience. The German word for this kind of knowledge is kennen or erkennen; in Spanish it is conocer, in French it is conaitre. This is the kind of knowledge we all get as we travel or as we go to the zoo or inspect a factory. It is better than mere understanding of what one is seeing. Without understanding, seeing is essentially blind.

    Neighbor Three bore the strongest witness of the three. He not only had understanding of trees and had seen what he was talking about, he had actually performed the operation in question successfully and many times. This kind of knowledge, the ability to do, is called konnen in German, as in “Ich kann Deutsch:” I know how to speak German. When you find someone who understands a matter, is personally acquainted with what he is talking about, and has learned how to control the thing in question to produce desired results when necessary, you have someone who really knows what he is talking about. He bears a strong testimony.

    A person can have a testimony of anything, any subject matter, and can have it in any of the three kinds or degrees we have mentioned. If you want knowledge of the usefulness of a new medicine or of what will make your garden grow, or of how to extract oil from shale efficiently, you would do well to use these three kinds of knowing. But you will quickly discover that you know best only when you can do, when you can control the thing you are studying. Thoughtful and intelligent persons seek out and construct a testimony of what is important to them. They search for the knowledge and assurance that they are not being fooled, that they can rely on the information they have.

    A testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can also come in these same kinds and degrees. Let us explore the evidences and experiences which make for these three kinds of knowledge, of testimony.

    The first kind of knowledge, understanding can come by any of the standard ways in which we humans know things, and each of these can be an important piece of information to bolster our testimony of the Restored Gospel, the Restored Church, and the Savior. You may gain understanding by the testimony of others. If you know intelligent, reliable people who say that they know the gospel is true, that should strengthen you.

    If you learn the gospel message and see how the scriptures give a consistent account of it in all ages, that consistency begins to satisfy the desire in you to be reasonable. As you see the beauty of the gospel system and how there is an answer for everything which we need to know at this time, your reason is further assured.

    If empirical evidence is your demand, it is furnished. The Book of Mormon is a solid piece of such empirical evidence. It exists; you can pick up a copy in your hand. The question is, of course, how did it come to be? Books don’t grow on trees. All of them are written by people. So who wrote the book? Joseph Smith’s contemporaries, friend and foe alike, agreed that he could not have written it. If not he, then who did write it? The search of all the enemies of the church is to find another author. But they have looked in vain. No other hypotheses fits the known historic facts to this day except the explanation offered by Joseph himself: He translated it by the gift and power of God from ancient plates, but did not author it. The Book of Mormon is solid empirical evidence for a testimony of the Restored Gospel because it is the only explanation which fits the known historic facts.

    Suppose you insist on statistical evidence. You want to see the Restored Gospel correlated with something very beneficial in a contrast which assures that the correlation did not occur by chance. To satisfy this demand you might look at health statistics. It is noteworthy that persons who live the gospel standards are markedly more healthy than the general population. While not an overwhelming piece of evidence in itself, it nevertheless is an evidence and fills a place in one’s scheme of things.

    If you demand pragmatic evidence that the Restored Gospel is true, you may just look at the lives of recent converts. The gospel changes their lives. As they accept and live the teachings, they become different persons, uplifted and enlightened, more hopeful, more helpful, more cheerful, nicer to be around. The Restored Gospel works. It lifts and ennobles lives, and therefore is good.

    Each of these five kinds of evidence; authoritarian, rational, empirical, statistically empirical and pragmatic give a person understanding that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ might be true. I say “might be” because not one of them or the collection of them is solid, sufficient evidence. All of these things are circumstantial evidence. They are what the scriptures call signs. Included in this category is archaeological evidence like the tree of life stolen from Central America and the corroboration of other documents (like the Dead Sea scrolls), mention of the stick of Ephraim in the Old Testament, and many other such evidences like the archaeological evidence found on the shores of the Indian Ocean in Oman that match the Book of Mormon description of the land Bountiful where Nephi and his brothers built the ship that carried to the Promised Land. One would rightfully be very uneasy in believing that the Restored Gospel could be true if one had no such signs or circumstantial evidence.

    The second kind of knowledge is conocer knowledge, or that which we personally have experienced. The message of the Restored Gospel is delivered with the promise that is we pray in faith, in the name of Jesus Christ, we may receive a divine spiritual assurance that the gospel is true, that the Restored Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ, and that Joseph Smith was his prophet. This knowledge cannot be a physical or earthly thing. It must be from out of this world, from a recognizably divine source, to suffice. It exists only when we do pray in faith and in the name of Jesus Christ about the gospel and do actually receive some kind of answer, a personal and spiritual answer, which speaks to our heart and mind in a way that no earthly, physical or human source can.

    The very point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that to do good we must receive help from him, from outside this mortal sphere. Getting an answer from outside of this mortal sphere is thus the only sufficient basis for knowing that the Restored Gospel is true. If there is nothing outside of the mortal sphere, the gospel could not be true. If we receive a message from outside that sphere, then we are assured that the general hypothesis might be true. And if the witness we receive from that source is that the Restored Gospel is true, then and only then do we begin to have a solid base of evidence of the truthfulness of the gospel.

    The first kind of knowledge, the sandy foundation, is knowledge about the gospel. The second kind of knowledge, receiving an answer from God, is building our house upon the rock. Now we have real assurance that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. This is knowledge of the gospel, for the message is beginning to work in our lives. What is says is true in our own experience. But our knowledge could yet be more sure. We must now add the third kind of knowledge.

    The third kind of knowledge, the surest kind, comes only from doing. It is the knowledge that one possesses who has used an idea or technique over and over again with good results. As applied to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this sure knowledge is only obtained by those who live the gospel and do the works consistently, over some period of time. It is the voice of faithful experience.

    Whenever the power of God comes to a person to give that person personal knowledge of the second kind, a divine witness that the gospel is true, another kind of message always accompanies that attestation of truth: there is always an instruction to do something. That something to do is a moral obligation. It is what the Lord requires of those who come to learn wisdom at his hand. He is not primarily a God of truth, though he certainly is a God of truth. He primarily a God of wisdom. Wisdom is doing what is right, the most intelligent thing to do. Our God wants us to become wise, as he is. Therefore, he never speaks to us without instructing us to do something wise.

    The very point of being mortal is to have the opportunity to choose between good and evil. Good is righteousness, God’s wisdom. Evil is anything else. Human beings profit from mortality only as they choose and do good when instructed as to how to be wise by God. One can gain a testimony that the gospel is true without being wise, without doing whatever it is that God says to do. But one cannot be wise without a testimony. For only through receiving a testimony can one also receive those instructions which lead to the kind of wisdom which makes possible a place in the kingdom of God.

    As a person receives instruction from God along with the assurance that the gospel is true, certain kinds of actions are commended by that divine influence. One is guided from time to time to be more kindly, to be more generous, to pray and fast for others, to share one’s food with the hungry and one’s clothing with those who have none. One is told to believe only that which is attested to from above, and to do only that which can be done in love. One is told to eschew all pride, anger, covetousness, hypocrisy and greed. One is told to seek to perfect one’s soul rather that to seek wealth. One is told to marry and raise a family in the nurture of the Lord rather than to fall into the ways of the world. One is called to serve missions, to witness of Jesus Christ, to share the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to strengthen those who have covenanted with Christ. Through faithful obedience and heartfelt sacrifice the servant of Christ does His will and knows of the doctrine. He knows the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true because it works, because there is divine testimony and guidance, and because following that divine guidance leads to the works of love, which are good. There can be no surer knowledge that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.

    Looking back over all of this we now see that a testimony of Jesus Christ and his Restored Gospel consists of all three kinds of knowledge. It consists of understanding, sandy as such a foundation might be. It consists of personal knowledge through the revelation of God’s voice as received from another world. This personal revelation is the rock of testimony. It brings sure knowledge. This rock is solid enough and broad enough that each of us may build our house on it. That rock will never leave us wanting when the winds and waves of time and temptation come to try all things. But only as we build our house upon that rock do we really profit from having a foundation, a testimony. The house we build with our good deeds becomes the habitation for ourselves and our posterity in eternity. By godly means we may build a godly house on the rock of Christ himself. All other works will be washed away when the time of reckoning comes.

    The reason for having a testimony is the reason that God gives each person a testimony if they honestly seek it: so that we can do God’s good works and be a bastion of love and blessing to all those we know, both in time and in eternity.

    Thinking back over all of this, let us now review the laws and principles of testimony that relate to what has already been said.

    Principle 1: Testimonies of the work of Jesus Christ come in many degrees. Some persons claim testimonies even without any basis to do so. Such testimonies are not helpful to anyone. Some persons do have circumstantial evidence that the gospel is true and have the beginnings of a real testimony. Others have better knowledge because they know by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ. Those who know best are those whose lives have been filled with doing good and godly works of compassion under God’s direction. Then they really know and their testimony is almost as powerful as human testimony can be. What they then know surely is God’s goodness, which is a greater testimony even than knowing that he lives. The final and climactic knowledge of Christ is that which comes to his faithful servants when he comes to one of them, embraces him or her, and says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

    Principle 2. God gives mortals a sure testimony of his work not only so that they can know the truth, but more so that they can live as he does and come and dwell with him. Some human beings want to know the truth, but are not particularly interested in doing what God says. God seldom gives such persons a testimony.

    Even the manifestation of the truth of the gospel is temporary if the person does not do the good works. To do the good works is to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus. Not to do them is to know of Christ but to be ashamed of him. Mercifully, many who are ashamed of him come to forget that he once spoke to them. The memory of his speaking to them fades or is pushed away, and they are left to flounder in misery with those who know not Christ. But they are different. They have had their opportunity to know and do good.

    Principle 3. No one is or can be saved until they obtain a testimony. Only in Christ can any man be saved. We are saved by Christ only after all we can do. What we can do is receive wisdom, gifts and power from God and by those means do good in the earth. But the wisdom, gifts and power come only to those who accept and depend upon a testimony. But a testimony by itself saves no one.

    Principle 4. All lasting testimonies of God are created by the possessor. If a person wants a testimony, he or she must seek evidence. When the evidence is found, it must be carefully marshalled until it is sufficient to depend on. A person may have all the materials for a testimony, yet not want to put them together. Thus Laman and Lemuel had no testimony even though they had received many marvelous signs and manifestations. They did not want a testimony, apparently because they did not want to do the good works of God.

    Thus, a person who does not want a testimony will not be bothered by one until it is too late. It is too late when the time of repentance is in the past. Even after it is too late, every human being will construct a testimony, for each will eventually have such overwhelming evidence that God lives and loves that every tongue will confess the same. Many will then have to admit that they really knew this all along.

    Principle 5. Bearing a testimony of what we understand about the gospel is the weakest and least helpful testimony. This testimony is sand to us and to anyone who receives it. Sand makes a good back fill, but surely is no foundation for a house of good works.

    Principles 6. Bearing a testimony of our spiritual experiences is a strong and valid witness. This kind of testimony encourages others to seek to be founded on the rock, to know for sure for themselves.

    Principle 7. Bearing a testimony by our good works (not by speaking about them, but simply by doing them) is the strongest testimony we can bear that God truly lives and is good. To speak of them is a sort of bragging and leads to pride. It may entice others to seek the power of God so they can bear similar testimony rather than for the correct reason of wanting to bless others.

    Principle 8. Bearing a sure testimony of personal spiritual experience coupled with the silent testimony of good deeds done as obedience to God provides the greatest help to others. This is the maximum that any human being can do to assist another to be saved. No human being can save anyone else. But doing this will be the greatest of all helps.

    Principle 9. A person can construct a testimony of anything. People build and bear testimonies about foods that taste good, medicines that work, friends that are true, books that are insightful, experiences that are breathtaking. But only one testimony is a foundation upon which salvation can come, the testimony of Jesus Christ and his New and Everlasting Covenant.

    Principle 10. The most intelligent way to live is first to seek and build a testimony of Jesus Christ, then to build a house of good works on that foundation. Many of us seem content to wait until we have had our fun or until we are at the end of our lives to find the rock. But then it is sometimes too late to build a house on it.

    In conclusion, I bear to you my testimony that Jesus Christ lives, that his work is sweet, and that his burden is light. I have learned that if we do not try to please the world, but only try to please him, we will be able to please him and at the same time do everything in this world which he appoints as our mission. He is a good master. He has the words and the power of life. Of this I bear solemn witness, in the beloved name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

    Creating a Testimony Handout

    1. Testimony is:
      • Knowledge that we have.
      • Witness we bear of the knowledge we have.
    2. Traditional ways of knowing:
      • Authoritarianism
      • Rationalism
      • Empiricism
      • Statistical Empiricism
      • Pragmatism
      • Mysticism
      • Scepticism
      • Fabrication
      • Scholarship
      • Science

    All of the traditional methods of knowing focus primarily on truth. But none of the traditional methods can guarantee truth. At the best they afford ability.

    • There is another, almost forgotten way of knowing: It is the knowledge of good and evil. Good is righteousness. Evil is anything else. (Moses 4:3–13)
    • Difference between focus on truth and the focus on righteousness.

                Salary:

    1. Truth: Did I get paid all to which I am entitled?
    2. Righteousness: Did I give everything to my work that I should have?

                Football:

    1. Truth: Will we win the game?
    2. Righteousness: Will we play honorably?

                Money:

    1. Truth: Will this stock go up and make me a lot of money?
    2. Righteousness: Should I support this business?

                Salvation:

    1. Truth: Will I be saved?
    2. Righteousness: Can I help someone to be saved?
    • Note: An enquirer after truth is likely to be selfish.
    • There is no way to get at righteousness through truth.
      The best way to get at truth is through righteousness.
    • Righteousness is a personal relationship with God. It begins with the light of Christ, develops through receiving the witness of the Holy Spirit, and is fulfilled through the ordinances of the New and Everlasting Covenant.
    • He who ignores good and evil rejects righteousness, and therefore rejects God.
    • He who cultivates the knowledge of good and evil until he can discern each clearly will then be able to tell the good spirit from the evil spirit. (The evil spirit will sometimes tell the truth, but never will commend righteousness.)
    • He who can tell the good spirit treasures the witness of Christ given by the Holy Ghost.
    • He who treasures the witness of Christ comes unto Christ and makes covenants with Him, with Father, and with the Holy Ghost.
    • He who loves righteousness does the works of Christ, which is to build a house upon the rock of revelation.
    • He who has built his house upon the rock is entitled to know all things. Nothing can be kept from him.
    • He who pretends no knowledge of good and evil is left out of all eternal things until he can get the fundamentals straight, and get on the path of righteousness.
    • The tests of truth given in the scriptures only work for one who already has sorted out good from evil: Alma 32:28, Moroni 7:16–17
    • Conclusion: Anyone who wants a testimony can surely build one if he or she will begin at the right place, with careful attention to good and evil. This is a matter of the heart. Only through the heart can a person surely learn real truth and have a sure testimony of the truth of the important things about mortality. Testimony is a matter of heart and mind, and only when both are satisfied in the actual work of righteousness with the flesh will a person have the surest testimony.
    • The surest testimony comes when the Savior comes to a person, embraces him or her, and says: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
    • May everyone who desires to have this surest of all testimonies gain it, soon.

  • Pride and Riches

    Chauncey C. Riddle, “Pride and Riches,” in The Book of Mormon: Jacob through Words of Mormon, To Learn with Joy, eds. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr., (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1990), 221–34.

    Chapter 13: Pride and Riches

    Chauncey C. Riddle

    One of the most memorable and striking passages of the Book of Mormon is Jacob’s instructions to his people on the subjects of pride and riches. Our purpose here is to examine the detail of this message and to apply it to our own day. We will proceed by giving a verse by verse commentary on the short passage on this subject found in Jacob 2:12–21, and will then draw some relevant conclusions for our own time.

    Parentheses and superscripts are used to mark the portions of the text upon which specific commentary will be made. Commentary is then made without further reference to substantiating evidence. The supposition is that each reader will compare notes with the author’s opinions and submit any differences of opinion to the Lord in prayer for resolution. That, of course, is what must be done with any evidence or opinion, footnoted or not.

    The setting for Jacob’s message is that his older brother Nephi, the son of Lehi, and leader and prophet unto the Nephites, has died. Jacob has been consecrated to be the spiritual leader of the Nephites, and on the occasion of the message concerning riches he is addressing those whom we might well presume are the more faithful of the Nephite peoples because his discourse takes place within the confines of the temple (Jacob 1:17). In response to Jacob’s prayer, the Lord has given him instruction, specific word, to deliver to these covenant people on this occasion, and Jacob delivers that word as quoted below.

    Jacob 2:12. And now behold, my brethren, this is the word which I declare unto you, that many of you have begun to search for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores, in the which (this land, which is a land of promise unto you and to your seed)a, doth abound most plentifully.

    a. A land of promise is a place designated by the Lord where he will go before those who are assigned to go there. The promise is that there they may find righteousness and the Lord himself, to be personally redeemed from the fall of Adam. There is no guarantee that a promised land will be fruitful or that it will abound in ores, such as Lehi’s promised land did. If it is fruitful and abounds with treasures, this may actually prove to be a snare to the people if they forget the real purpose of their being in the land and if they then substitute temporal desires for the promised spiritual blessings.

    13. (And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches)a; (and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren)b (ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts)c, and (wear stiff necks and high heads)d (because of the costliness of your apparel)e, and (persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they)f.

    a. The Lord is the provider, the hand of providence. He wants his children to enjoy the good things of the earth.

    b. The Lord gives different gifts in differing amounts to each of his children. He deliberately does not equally bestow his temporal blessings. He wishes to give each of his children the opportunity voluntarily to share with others who have less of some temporal gift. Sometimes the temporal blessings are given to those who seem to deserve them least. The initial distribution of spiritual blessings also often seems to be unequal and unearned. But any subsequent spiritual blessings must be earned upon the principles of righteousness. In this area of further spiritual blessings, the Lord is immediate, equitable and absolutely just in bestowing his blessings, even as he will be in bestowing physical blessings in the next world.

    c. We lift up our heads in pride as if we were something special among men, supposing that it has been our intelligence and industry which have provided for our desires rather than the Provider. Thus we look down on those whom we consider to be less industrious and less intelligent.

    d. We have stiff necks in that we will not bow to the God of the land and acknowledge the source of our blessings. We have high heads in the haughtiness of pride.

    e. The common way of showing wealth the world over is to wear expensive clothing. Expensive clothing is labor intensive, and wearing it shows that we are able to buy the time and skill of others more than most persons can.

    f. Persecution comes in so many forms that it is impossible to name them all. But standard ways of persecuting are to look down on others, to speak down to them, and to segregate them because of their lack of wealth.

    14. And now, my brethren, (do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing)a? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. But (he condemneth you)b, and (if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come unto you)c.

    a. God justifies men by teaching them what is just or righteous, then empowering them to live up to the standard. He never calls an evil thing just, and can never make a person who persists in doing evil things into a just person. The only hope an unjust person has to become just is personal repentance through faith in Jesus Christ.

    b. Jacob is the Lord’s anointed; he represents Jesus Christ to them. Thus they need to take very seriously his flat statement that the Lord condemns them.

    c. This is a plain warning of peril. The Lord will not always immediately bring misery and woe upon a people who are wicked if they know him not. But when a people have covenanted to become his children and obey his commandments, he warns them through his prophet and then shakes them temporally if they will not hearken to the spiritual warning. This has the goal of causing them to be humbled through physical suffering if they will not be humbled by spiritual warnings. Only as they are humble can they repent and receive the promises.

    15. (O that he would show you that he can pierce you, and with one glance of his eye he can smite you to the dust)a,

    a. Jacob seems to be saying: I would that he would impress you by letting you see his great power, without having actually to smite you so that you and your children suffer.

    16. O (that he would rid you from this)a (iniquity)b and (abomination)c. And, O (that ye would listen unto the word of his commands)d, and (let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls)e!

    a. It is the Lord who makes it possible for a person to repent. He does not take the iniquity out of the world or the person, but enables the person to depart from the iniquity by turning to the corresponding righteousness. When we have departed from iniquity by making the good things the Savior would have us do part of our character, then we can also receive a permanent forgiveness for the iniquity once committed.

    b. Iniquity is inequity, and it is never seen more plainly than when some are rich and some are poor and there is no attempt on the part of the rich to create equity in righteousness. Unrighteous ways to create equity in wealth are theft and governmental redistribution. Both of these attempted solutions use force to negate agency, and never do create real equity, for they are based on the faulty “wisdom” of men. The righteous way to attain equity in society is for the rich to humble themselves before God and share their wealth with the poor as he directs, until they have achieved a just equity (D&C 104: 11–18).

    c. Abomination is that which departs from, is different from, the revelations of God. All righteousness comes through faith in God, which is loving obedience to his revealed instructions “Omin” is the equivalent of “omen,” which refers to revelation. “Ab” means away from.

    d. Faith comes by the hearing of the word. If only they will inquire of the Lord to know for sure that this is his word and then do what he says in full faith, they can and will be released from the curse under which they operate.

    e. The curse under which they operate is their own doing. They have departed from the way of the Lord, and the destruction of their souls, spirit and body, awaits them if they will not now return to that strait and narrow way.

    17. (Think of your brethren like unto yourselves)a, and (be familiar with all)b and (free with your substance)b, (that they may be rich like unto you)c

    a. The Lord’s celestial way is for us to love one another even as he loves us. If we are not quite up to that, at least we ought to think of and treat our brethren and sisters of the covenant the same way we treat ourselves.

    b. The desire to make money, especially to benefit unduly, is one of the great spiritual traps of the world. Spiritually, we might well be much better off if there were no money and we were under the necessity of trading labor. That would be one step toward equity. But another, more immediate step, is simply freely to give of our possessions to those who have less than we do, being aware of their needs and circumstances and imparting to them under the direction of the Holy Spirit.

    c. Richness is relative. It is not required that all men rise to a certain absolute level of physical wealth. It is only required that we of the new and everlasting covenant be equal, voluntarily equal, with each other in whatever we have. Then the Lord promises that he will give us the abundance of spiritual blessings. (D&C 70:14)

    In any mortal situation, a righteous person who has the strength to do so will be voluntarily producing physical goods and services for the society in which he dwells. He will consume only what is necessary of these self-gained benefits, and will voluntarily share the surplus with others who are in need of his surplus.

    One such surplus is knowledge, skills and tools which enable us to produce physical benefits. These may be righteously shared with others and are even more helpful to the recipient in most cases than are consumable goods.

    18. But (before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God)a.

    a. There is nothing wrong in itself about seeking for riches. But we must put things in proper perspective, in proper order. The correct order is first to straiten our hearts and minds into the pattern of the Lord’s love. That we do by finding his kingdom, accepting the covenant to enter that kingdom, then fully participating in the proffered salvation of our souls from the evil which is within our own breasts, which evil keeps us from becoming just and upright in all that we do.

    19. And (after ye have obtained a hope in Christ)a (ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them)b; and (ye will seek them for the intent to do good)c—(to clothe the naked)d, and (to feed the hungry)e, and (to liberate the captive), and (administer relief to the sick and the afflicted)f.

    a. Hope in Christ is the pivotal concept which helps us to bridge from the beginnings of faith in Jesus Christ to the attaining of the fullness of faith, which is charity. After we receive a manifestation from the Savior which reveals his will, we have the opportunity to exercise faith by believing and obeying that instruction. Obeying the Savior gives us a right to hope for the spiritual blessings which the Savior can so richly bestow. The principal blessing which a person of faith can hope for is to receive a new heart, a pure heart which no longer desires any form of evil. This pure heart is called “charity” and is the greatest mortal attainment of any human being. Attaining it makes it possible to be able to ask for and to receive any other blessing from the Savior. Such a further blessing can be either spiritual or temporal. Additional gifts can then be given freely by the Savior to the individual who has charity because there is then no danger that the person will use any gift for an evil purpose. Thus to attain to a genuine hope in Christ is another way of saying that we have attained unto charity, which is the pure love of Christ. Then we are ready to endure to the end of our lives in righteousness, in doing pure and godly works in behalf of others. We are then ready to seek riches of any kind to be used for righteous purposes.

    b. The Savior tells us that when we are pure and cleansed from all sin, we can ask for anything and will surely receive it as we obey him, because we will not ask amiss but will ask for good things to do the work of righteousness.

    c. The intent to do good is the intent to do the will of God, even Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of all righteousness for the inhabitants of this earth. This good sought may be of four forms or types, each one corresponding to part of the nature of each individual human being.

    We humans consist of heart, mind, strength, and might. The heart is the heart of the spirit body and is the decision center in the human being. The mind is the brain of the spirit body and is the knower, planner, executor function of the human being. The strength is the mortal human body especially including the power of procreation. The might is whatever power or influence the person has in his or her sphere of action resulting from the abilities of the heart, mind and body and also from any wealth, property, persuasive power, or ability to command the efforts of other persons which anyone might enjoy. Thus there are good things of the heart, such as pure desires; good things of the mind, such as truths; good things of the body, such as health and strength; and good things of might, such as food, clothing, shelter, fuel, money, land, political position, priesthood power, etc.

    d. The naked may be those who have no clothing with whom we might share our excess clothing. Or they might be naked emotionally, such as the bereaved or hopeless to whom we can extend love. Or they might be naked intellectually, and we can share with them a knowledge of just how this world works so that they need no longer be so buffeted because of their ignorance.

    e. Some hungry persons need physical food. But others are hungry in heart; they need love and kindness in a world that offers much hate and tyranny. Or they may have an insatiable curiosity which they cannot satisfy because they lack the opportunity to learn.

    f. Some captives are political or military prisoners who are incarcerated through no fault of their own. To use our might to free them may be most important. Or they may be justly imprisoned, where influence might be brought to bear to help them to square a debt with society so that they may be honorably released. They might be emotional captives who are under the spell of an evil person and need an alternative to which to turn. They may be intellectual captives whose vision of the world is constrained to the point that they know not God. They may be captive to drugs or sin, from which they might be released through the assistance of the ordinances of the holy priesthood.

    g. Administering relief to the sick and the afflicted may be caring for someone who has had a stroke or a debilitating disease. But it may also be nurturing someone who is suffering under a load of guilt and does not know of the mercies of the Savior. It may be to help someone who has a preoccupation with a false idea or cause, who needs to see the world another way. It may be to help a person who is possessed of evil spirits who can find no relief except in Christ.

    Whatever the virtually infinite variety of need, the Savior has a solution which faithful servants may obtain and administer for every malady save one: A hard heart which will not admit the Holy Spirit. Only that person himself can change that.

    20. And now, my brethren, I have spoken unto you concerning pride; and those of you which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, (what say ye of it)a?

    a. When the prophet speaks to those of the covenant, they of necessity must respond. If they are repentant, they will confess their sins and forsake them; thus Jacob asks his people what they will say. If they wish to continue the apostasy, they will murmur under their breath and persist in the way of evil. In either case they are judging themselves and setting the direction of their own future unto good or evil, whichever they choose; and out of their own mouths they are exonerated or condemned.

    21. Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and (for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever)a,

    a. God is a god of righteousness. He desires that we should worship and glorify him because that increases the righteousness in the universe and enables him to enlarge us without end. The dust of the earth and we humans were both created, or organized, for that same purpose, but most of the time the dust is more faithful than are most humans.

    Reflection on Jacob’s message brings three strong conclusions to mind. The first is that there is a good reason why it is hard for people to share: the differences of values and commitments which they have. The second is that to live the gospel of Jesus Christ we must be willing to be poor. The third is that before we do anything else in our life we should seek for a hope in Christ.

    Having differences of values and commitments does not make sharing impossible or unnecessary, only harder. When people have the same values and allegiances, it is easier to share. When they do not, sharing can become more difficult. To use an extreme example to emphasize the point, let us suppose two families living as neighbors. One family is very frugal and saving, and through years of living by those principles have gathered a small surplus. They are in a position to share. Suppose the other family is very needy. The first family sees that need and takes part of its hard earned savings to the other family to buy groceries. Then suppose that the second family takes the gift, rejoices in it, but decides that the best way to spend it would be to invite all of their friends over for a big alcohol bust. In one evening they squander the hard earned savings of the frugal family and are even poorer than they were to start with. Sharing has gone awry there.

    For this reason, the first thing people should share with one another is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in the hope that there can be a common set of values, and service under a common Master. That would greatly facilitate sharing. But even if those in need will not change their values, they may yet have needs that must be addressed.

    This brings us to the general rule laid down by the Savior: Sharing needs to be done under his instruction and in his way. That is why there is a gift of the Holy Ghost, for men are not wise enough to know how to do all things in righteousness. That is why there needs to be a priesthood structure in the Church to be an established channel of inspiration and sharing among the children of the Savior. Difficult though sharing maybe, it must be done, but in his own way by the guidance of his own Spirit. When done in the Savior it is always worthwhile to impoverish ourselves in the service of our fellowmen.

    Clearly we do not need to be impoverished or poor to be servants of Christ. But we must always be willing to be poor. If we are already poor, we are admonished to remain poor before seeking wealth until we have obtained a hope in Christ. Thus we must be willing to be poor. If we have wealth, we must be willing to share our wealth with our brethren to the point that they are equal with us in physical wealth; if we have many brethren, our wealth may help many only a little, leaving us and everyone else in relative poverty. Sometimes our mission in life may cause us to be impecunious, as are some persons who spend most of their lives on a series of missions, or who may be dedicated to an enterprise which completely drains them financially, such as sustaining a fledgling educational institution. Or they may be moved to contribute heavily to the construction of a new temple, and making that contribution leaves them impoverished.

    The general principle is, of course, that all we have is at the Lord’s disposal. Whenever he instructs us to give it all away to the cause of righteousness, we gladly do so, knowing that we are pleasing our Master and furthering his work. We cannot be faithful servants of Christ unless we are willing to be poor, even as he, the Father of Heaven and Earth, was willing to be poor to fulfill his earthly ministry in righteousness.

    But who can look so dispassionately on material possessions as to count them nothing dear when the time comes to be stripped of them? This is not easy for most mortals. It surely is not the natural inclination of the vast majority of mankind. But it must be the attitude of all who are true followers of Jesus Christ.

    The true followers of Jesus Christ know that the only riches worth counting are the riches of eternity. They know that all flesh is as grass and will be gone tomorrow. They know that God is good, and amply rewards the faithful for any sacrifice of worldly goods they might make. They trust completely in the wisdom of their Master, having tried him and having found him to be trustworthy in every particular. So their faith commends only one thing as the first priority in their lives: Seek first for a hope in Christ before doing anything else.

    The time called “youth” is looked upon by the world as a time of freedom from responsibility, a time of learning, of indulging, of exploration before settling into the sacrifices and rigors of adulthood. That largely perverse view is a very poor preparation for adult, responsible life for most of its adherents. No wonder so many want to be supported by society throughout their lives, or to be perpetual students, or to indulge their ever increasing desire for pleasure, or to avoid the responsibility of family and a productive life.

    The ideal pattern for Latter-day Saint youth would seem to be that of the life of Jacob himself, who in his youth sought for a hope in Christ and found it. As a youth he beheld the glory of the Savior (2 Nephi 2:4). Then Jacob could ask for anything and know that he would receive it because of the promise of his God. If we become pure and spotless, we may ask whatsoever we will and we will receive it, for we will not ask amiss (D&C 46:30). We will ask to be able to succor the weak, the helpless, the poor, the abused, the ignorant, the hopeless. The riches of both time and eternity are standing ready to be given to the faithful to minister to the needs of the poor of all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples if only the covenant servants of Jesus Christ will seek first for the kingdom of heaven and for a hope in their Beloved Master before they seek for anything else.

    The real problem is not with riches, of course. The real problem is with hearts. When our hearts are not pure, we cannot love with a pure love. We cannot love the Savior as we should, nor can we love our neighbors as we should. The Savior came to save us from this deficit of love by extending the arms of mercy, through our own faith and repentance, to each of us.

    Why do some of us resist? Is it not because we somehow see ourselves as being sufficient as we are? Do we not believe in our hearts that we are already good enough, that the Savior may indeed have to forgive us of a few things, but his love and generosity will easily take care of those things and we will then be ushered ceremoniously into the blessings of the great beyond? (2 Nephi 28:7–9). Such a belief is what the scriptures call pride. It is the belief that we are good, though perhaps our deeds are not. This is the belief that the old us does not need to die and become a new creature, but only our garments need to be cleansed. In pride we see ourselves as eternal creatures who may need to be forgiven and lifted up by Jesus Christ, but who do not need to be essentially changed by him. We do not need that new and pure heart which only he can give to us.

    My understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that no mortals are just and righteous enough of themselves to go to the same kingdom as Jesus Christ unless they are remade in the image of Christ, heart and mind, body and soul. For without that pure heart, that charity, we are nothing (Moroni 7:44), and can, of ourselves, do no good thing (John 15:1–5). We must cease to exist as the old selfish persons we were and take upon ourselves new hearts and new minds.

    Then in the humility of being salvaged from damnation by the Savior’s love, we will never again consider that we are better than anyone else. Then we will know that we stand only in the grace of Christ, and will never be found looking down on anyone, including the worst sinner and Satan and his angels. We will then know our true place and being in the universe, and will say of the sinner, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

    Pride is the root of our evil, the source of our selfishness, the great barrier to our salvation. It is the pride of our hearts from which we need to be saved more than from anything else. Once we are saved from that, then all good things can be added to us. Then we will see as we are seen, know as we are known, and we will be familiar and free with our substance, treating all men as brothers. Then indeed we will have heaven on earth.

  • Philosophy 110 – Class Notes

    Chauncey C. Riddle
    March 15, 1990
    8:35 am

    Today’s question, what is the metaphysical point of this story? There was a maiden in Judea who was married to Heavenly Father and had a son. He was born Joshua, the name Jesus was attached to him by the Greeks. He was never called Jesus but that’s all right he answers to Jesus when you and I call upon him. We use that name, that is now one of his names.

    All right, what’s the answer to the question? Yes, it does explain how Christ became both God and man. What’s another one? There’s a big metaphysical point to be made in that story, a tremendous metaphysical point. This is one of the big places where the restored gospel gives us information that’s absolutely essential for our understanding. This little story ought to set the world on its ear. But you see people don’t think about what it means. The world in general has no idea what … The story is told over and over again without any understanding. What is the fundamental metaphysical point made in this story?

    One of your basic metaphysical questions was, what is the nature of man? Man was created by God. That’s true, but that’s not the point of this story. What is the great metaphysical point of this story? That’s what we’re after. Ah, thank you. Man and God are exactly the same species, the same kind. You see that is a tremendous metaphysical point. If you don’t know that you miss the whole point of what salvation is. The Christian world doesn’t believe that. Therefore, the Christian world misses the whole point. It doesn’t understand God, Jesus Christ, nor man. And all that the Christian world really gets out of Christ is some good ethical teachings. It does not understand salvation. Why? Because the metaphysics is all messed up. How did it get so messed up? You’d think that that story being told thousands and thousands of times in everybody’s lifetime would put a point across. Why doesn’t it? Because Satan has been very careful to sow lies in the minds of the children of men. Many of them want to believe the lies, so they do. They don’t inquire of God what the story really is. They just assume what they’ve always heard by some authoritarian source. That God is some non-material being. Therefore, man and God can’t possibly be of the same race.

    This isn’t the origin of man, this is the origin of Christ who came so the rest of us could become as he is.

    What does the `Son of Man’ mean?

    What is God’s name? His name is the Man of Holiness. Jesus Christ is the son of Man of Holiness. You and I can also become sons of God or Man of Holiness. That’s what salvation is.

    All right, are we all settled on that metaphysical point? What class do people belong to? That is a very important metaphysical question. What is the nature of man? What is the nature of God? The point is that they both have essentially the same nature. You see, that if Heavenly Father could actually beget a child by Mary in exactly the way you and I were begotten, we have to be the same species. That’s really good evidence in fact.

    Because they can’t imagine that she was married. When the story starts she’s a virgin. They don’t know the whole story, they don’t know that she got married. You see therefore the big question in the minds of a lot of peoples, was he born an illegitimate child? We know he wasn’t. He was born under the covenant. There’s a great deal of difference, you see. No, the Father wasn’t around, so she had another husband for time. As often happens to sisters in this world they’re sealed to their husbands who are not around. They also have other husbands for time.

    Now, do you have a Heavenly Mother? It’s a good metaphysical question, isn’t it? One of the important metaphysical questions about God is, does he have a wife? In the LDS situation the answer is, of course. Eliza R. Snow said, the thought makes reason stare. If you have any sense at all you know if there is a Father in Heaven, there has to be a Mother in Heaven. It’s just so simple. The world you see confuses this, it’s not using it’s own common sense. I can’t prove it to you but I believe it. And I have fairly good evidence. But the evidence isn’t your evidence. So why am I throwing it out to you for? As a hypothesis by which you might wish to seek evidence.

    All right, we are discussing the nature of man.

    Joseph was a good man. My guess is Joseph knew full well what he was doing. And he won’t miss out on his eternal blessings at all. He performed a very great service by being a good foster father to the Savior.

    Well, where do children go? They go with the mother. So brethren, be good to your wife or you’ll lose your posterity. Seriously.

    Now, what does that mean about the eternities? Do you know who Adam’s father is in the patriarchal order? Who is Adam’s father? His father in the patriarchal order is Jesus Christ. He is sealed to Jesus Christ. Who is the father of Jesus Christ? He is sealed to our Heavenly Father. Why are you and I trying to get our genealogy work done? So that you and I can also be sealed into that line. Because if we’re not sealed to Adam we cannot get sealed to Christ. And if we’re not sealed to Christ … it descends only from father to son. See, what we’re asked to declare ourselves for in this mortality, we’re asked if we wish to claim the race … the race to which we genetically belong. We belong to the race of the Gods. If we wish to relinquish that we may. That is man’s agency. We don’t have to inherit it. But anybody who’s willing to undergo training to inherit. What is the training to inherit? It’s schooling in righteousness of Christ through the laws and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    Anybody who wishes to inherit may inherit. There’s no soul on this earth that can’t inherit and receive the full blessings of his rightful heritage. You see, if the world understood these things … take advantage but most people don’t know, they don’t know where to find them. It’s our job to get it out …

    Now we need to ask some other questions about it. It’s important to know about the kind of being man is. The most important thing to know is, that man is of the race of the Gods. The key to theology is that they are of the same species. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand theology because that’s the key to the whole thing. It’s the key to the whole understanding of salvation, of covenants, of everything that goes on in the kingdom of God.

    OK, what are some other questions concerning the nature of God? We discussed last time, are we all the same or are we all different? Let’s ask the question a little bit differently. Let’s ask the question in this way. Sure we all have these individual … but does that mean we are actually different creatures in essence or are we all pretty much the same? For instance, do we all have the same heart? No. Since the heart is the independent variable, what does that tell us about ourselves? People come to the world different but can grow to become one with Christ, to look like Christ. (Al 5)

    That’s right, sin is never justified. Why did the Father create the fall so we would sin? Why did the Father want us to sin? It’s not necessary to sin. A third of the people that come into the earth don’t bother to sin. They take a body and leave without sinning, they don’t need it. How come the rest of us need to? One of these days there will be a whole generation who will grow up without sinning. Not everybody who comes to earth needs to sin. Most of us are so hard headed, most of us apparently have to sin and see for ourselves how evil it is before we will not do it.

    The world is Satan’s kingdom on this earth. The world was created, Satan was given a kingdom on this earth in the fall. So that we would sin and we are told exactly why that was done. Why was that done? So that all would taste the bitter and know the difference between the bitter and the sweet. So that when we make up our minds to choose either the bitter or the sweet we’re doing it out of our own power, not out of (supposition). That’s important.

    Father doesn’t want us to sin, nevertheless, is it not true he put us into a situation where we have to sin. So that we could all taste the bitter and know it. So that we could choose by our own knowledge. Now, why? There has to be opposition. In the Celestial Kingdom there is no sin, but there is opposition. What’s the opposition in the Celestial Kingdom? Not evil desires, no one will be there who has evil desires. So where do you get the opposition? You see unless there is the opportunity to be evil, the opportunity to be good means nothing. The Celestial Kingdom could not be Celestial if there was not opposition. So where does in come from? Ah, yes. Just not outer darkness but the other kingdoms. All right, the opposition in the Celestial Kingdom is provided through the other places to go and those in the Celestial Kingdom see those other places constantly. They know, they know what’s going on there. That is the opposition in the Celestial Kingdom to go to some other place. That’s the option that’s there. that’s why there is opposition in the Celestial Kingdom. The only people who stay in the Celestial Kingdom are the ones that want to. Who choose to, thus they reject the opposite.

    … point of doing good. There has to be the constant opportunity of doing evil. Can God lie? Yes, anytime he wanted to. Why is he God? Because he chooses to. He doesn’t do it because he’s beyond temptation. In the sense that he couldn’t do it. He does it by sheer will. He holds himself on the path of righteousness. It isn’t outside him that holds him there. He doesn’t have a big gyroscope that keeps him upright on the line. By his own will he chooses in every act he does to do what’s right. And you see, the only way you and I can qualify to be in that kind of a kingdom is also to learn in every act of will to choose what is exactly right and nothing else.

    You see that’s what is … it makes it possible for us to be saved. We cannot be saved except by our own will power, we get on the path and choose what’s right, by our own choices. (Al. 5)

    Every day is precious to fashion in ourselves a new character, to make the change in the time we have to do it.

    Repentance is a strategy of religion, to stop sinning.