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The atonement of Jesus Christ has its focus on redeeming mankind from the two deaths which are the result of the Fall of Adam. The first of these two is the temporal death of the physical body of each human (the separation of the spiritual body from the physical body of the individual). The second is having the senses of the spiritual body cease to function. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve could perceive with the sensory organs of their spiritual bodies as well as sensing with the senses of their physical tabernacles. Because Adam obeyed Satan rather than God, these two deaths came upon Adam and Eve and upon all of their posterity, the human race.

When Adam and Eve were created by Jehovah (Jesus Christ) they were immortal and could have live forever, having the same DNA as the gods. Their immortality is testified to by Lehi: “If Adam had not transgressed he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.” (2 Nephi 2:22) Having the same DNA as the Gods is testified by the fact that Elohim was the literal father of Jesus Christ in the flesh with Mary of Nazareth, a mortal woman.

The physical death which ensued upon the disobedience of Adam and Eve was doubtless imposed upon them by Jehovah under the Father’s direction, and as all of God’s gifts, was a blessing to enhance their future possibilities. This physical death which came upon mankind in the Fall would be reversed when appropriate by Jesus Christ (Jehovah), but that physical death would not be reversed to the same status for every person. In order for the resurrection to be a true blessing to each individual, it was decreed by the Father that each would receive a body appropriate to the degree of power the person could and would use it for righteousness. Those who showed in their mortality that they would and did fulfill all righteousness through Jesus Christ would receive the same physical body and powers of the gods: be exalted. Those who proved in their probation that they could and did act in some lesser degree of righteousness would receive a body with all the powers appropriate to the degree of their demonstrated righteousness. Some would be like the greatness of the sunshine (celestial), some would be like the diminished light of the moon (terrestrial), or some like the faint light of the stars that bless the earth (telestial). And there would be some who demonstrate an eternal hatred for righteousness, who would receive a physical body but with no power to do any righteous act. This because they were in mortality totally overcome by and followed the enemy of all righteousness, Satan.

The spiritual death, having the senses of their spiritual bodies stopped up so that they could no longer sense the spirit world around them was likewise a blessing imposed by Jehovah to make possible for Adam and Eve and their posterity to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. For God would prove all human beings as to their inherent desires of the heart, not the knowledge of their minds. The desires of the heart are the indicators of the true nature of the person. Some knowledge and understanding in the mind are necessary for the heart to make a meaningful choice. But the knowledge and understanding of the mind give power but not direction for choices. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:8)

The proving of the true desires of the heart of each person was to be shown by giving each of God’s mortal children two opportunities. The first was that each person who would come to accountability and thus have a true mortal probation would be given the light of Christ as a guide. This light of Christ would manifest itself as the conscience of the person, and would steer each person to avoid succumbing to the temptations which would come from Satan to do evil. The mission and work of Satan and his followers would be to oppose all righteousness by enticing each individual to be selfish and use others to fulfill selfish desires. Thus each accountable child of God would be free to demonstrate his or her true nature: to choose righteousness through the light of Christ, or to choose selfishness through yielding to the temptations of the Satanic influence. But it was also set by the Gods that the influence of the conscience would be relatively weak as compared to the temptations of Satan.

Thus everyone would find themselves giving in to selfishness to some degree. This was deemed by the Gods to be a good thing because it meant that every mortal child of God would taste both the bitter and the sweet, the evil and the good. This would be an important part of their mortal probation, to have tried doing both good and evil, both righteousness and sinning.

But this beneficial experience of doing both good and evil while helpful in determining the true nature of each person also brought a problem. Each giving in to the evil influence of selfishness would be a breaking of God’s commandments, a sin. And every sin the person would commit would separate them from God and make it impossible for the sinner ever to return to the presence of God. This is because every sin is a wounding of someone or something else, taking advantage of that person or thing for some supposed personal benefit to the sinner. Thus every sin diminishes the happiness and blessing of those someones or somethings, God’s creatures. God, who only acts to bless others, cannot then accept that sinner back into his presence, for that would pollute the heavenly place where the gods dwell. Thus the mortal experience of proving ourselves throws up a barrier to our ever returning to the presence of our gods, the Father and the Son: “for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” (Alma 45:16)

God, knowing that we, his children, would have this problem, prepared a way to overcome the predicament. He not only sends each of his children the light of Christ, a conscience, but he sends also to those who largely obey their conscience a special heavenly messenger, the Holy Ghost. The task of this messenger is to bear witness to the individual who will receive that witness that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God the Father, and that Christ has been sent into this world to rescue each child of God who will accept salvation from sin and sinning. Christ, the specially anointed rescuer, is sent by the Father to help each of his human children both to stop sinning and to help each pay the debt incurred by each sinful act. Stopping sinning is possible only by trusting Christ unto coming on to the path of righteousness and staying there. Stopping sinning is called repentance. Paying the debt for past sins is called restitution, and total restitution for human sins is possible only in and through the atonement of Jesus Christ. So any child of God who wants to repent of sinning and restore the blessings he or she has denied someone or something else in that sinning may do so. They may do it through their own efforts and through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and can become clean and acceptable back into the presence of the gods. But that repentance needs to be celestial repentance. Telestial repentance is saying, “I am sorry for having done that.” Telestial repentance is restoring one for one, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Celestial repentance is replacing the sin with a blessing, and involves at least fourfold restitution.

Thus the full satisfaction for having sinned necessarily includes both replacing the sinning with acts that bless, repentance, and making full restitution. Both of these can be accomplished fully only through the atonement of Christ. Full repentance is possible only under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, for only God knows what acts will bless and not harm. And full restitution must also be guided by the Holy Ghost to be efficacious, besides it often being out of the scope of the power of the sinner to make full recompense to the one(s) sinned against.

Restitution is an important part of the Law of Moses as found in Exodus 22: “If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it: he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking in … he should make full restitution; if he hath nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep; he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. Etc.” (Exodus 22:1–5+)

Likewise is restitution part of the New Testament, in the testimony of Zacchaeus: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him four-fold.” (Luke 19:8)

We also find the principle of restitution in the Doctrine and Covenants. “But if [thy neighbor] trespass against thee the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him, but shall bring these testimonies before the Lord; and they shall not be blotted out until he repent and reward thee four-fold in all things wherewith he has trespassed against thee. And if he do this, thou shalt forgive him with all thine heart; and if he will not do this, I, the Lord, will avenge thee of thine enemy an hundred-fold; And upon his children and upon his children’s children of all them that hate me, unto the third and fourth generation. But if the children shall repent, or the children’s children, and turn to the Lord their God, with all their hearts and all their might, mind and strength, and restore four-fold for all their trespasses wherewith they have trespassed, or wherewith their fathers have trespassed, or their father’s fathers, then thine indignation shall be turned away; and vengeance shall no longer come upon, saith the Lord thy God, and their trespasses shall never be brought any more as a testimony before the Lord against them.” (D&C 98:45–48) This passage makes it plain that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, and that therefore a given individual’s repentance must necessarily take account of the sins of his or her fathers. All of this emphasizes the importance of restitution as part of the atonement of Christ. For Christ must restore and make restitution for the sins of those who he forgives and blesses through his atonement.

There are then three main aspects of the atonement of Christ: the sacrifice, the suffering and the restitution. The sacrifice is the Savior giving up His potentially unending mortal life and all the good He could and would have done by living forever as a mortal. The suffering was that He suffered all the pain that anyone who has been trespassed against suffers, pain for every sin of mankind. The suffering is finite and was completed on the cross of Calvary when he said, “It is finished.” The restitution was that he makes whole the damage done by every particular sinning, (the reason sin is sin is because every breaking of the commandments of God causes hurt to something or someone, and these hurts have a chain of reaction that would go on forever if not blocked. The Savior blocked all of these damaging ramifications that would go on forever. Insofar as an individual human being can make restitution for his or her sins on his or her own, this will be part of his or her repentance in coming unto Christ. But it is likely that the vast bulk of the restitution due for human sinning cannot be completed by human power and this larger burden falls upon our Savior. Since the consequences of sinning and the necessities of restitution extend into eternity, even so must the restitution extend into eternity. Thus, the atonement of Christ must be infinite in its power and scope.

Thus, how grateful we humans should be that our God offers to each of us the forgiveness of our sins on condition of repentance. There would be little point in forgiving us if we did not repent, for we would then continue to wound and damn others by sinning against them. But if we have truly repented, have changed our natures so that we now bless others and never harm them, there is real benefit in Christ’s suffering for our sins and making eternal restitution for them. Oh, the greatness and the goodness of our God, Jesus Christ, who has atoned for the sins of all mankind. All who will accept his grace will have future glory in blessing others.

[It is interesting that in our LDS society today repentance is given great prominence, but restitution is seldom mentioned. Repentance is for the most part portrayed as stopping some wrong act, but usually does not include going on to replace the harmful act with a beneficial act. Restitution is not even a topic in the scriptural Topical Guide.]

The Savior has been very clear about the temporal order he wishes his servants to create on this earth: “For verily I say unto you … it must needs be that there be an organization of my people … for a permanent and everlasting establishment and order to my church. … That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things; For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things.” D&C 78:3–6

And again: “For Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments. … And you are to be equal … you are to have equal claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just. … Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.” D&C 82:14–19

As we attempt to create a Zion in preparation for the Second Coming of our Savior, one of the great tasks is to get every faithful person to be so unselfish that we will again have all things in common, every person a steward, all having the same standard of living. As you can see, we have quite a ways to go to get to that point. But we can all pray for and work for that goal.

As I think about departing this mortal sphere, my mind keeps coming back to why we are here. And we are here for two reasons. First, to get a physical body. Second, to choose what kind of body we will have, which we do by choosing the kingdom we would like to live in for the rest of eternity. [Some persons believe we do not live after mortal death. I cannot prove that we do, but there surely is a lot of evidence that we do. And I believe the evidence. Of course, accepting or rejecting the evidence for an eternity of existence is part of choosing the kingdom we will be in for the rest of it.]

We choose a kingdom for eternity by how we treat others:

If our desires and actions are to bless others in mortality, we are choosing celestial eternity.

If our desires and actions are to deal justly with others in our mortality, to keep the Ten Commandments, then we are choosing terrestrial eternity.

If our desires and actions are just to feather our own nests in our mortality, then we are choosing telestial eternity.

If our desires and actions deprive others to obtain what we want, then we are choosing perdition eternity.

And we choose each day in each action which one of these patterns we wish to follow.

But some follow one pattern one time, then another the next. Where will they wind up? We all finally settle into the pattern with which we are most comfortable. And in each kingdom apparently there are degrees.

So it all boils down to whether we at any moment choose to do good or evil, to bless or to use those whom we affect. And we get help from Satan to use others and from Christ to bless others. At every moment we can choose to follow Satan or Christ as each welcomes us to do so.

We do not get to choose our temptations. But we do choose which temptations we give in to. That is our agency. And that is our eternity.

Definition: Communication: The effect one being has on another being.

• May be reciprocal or not.
• May be relational (static) or affective (dynamic).
• May be agentive or not.
• May be intentional or not.

Human communication is not a transfer of meaning or ideas. Such is impossible given the ego-centric nature of each self.

The process of deliberate agentive human communication:

1. The sender-self creates a sender message.
2. The sender-self acts to project that message (speaking, writing, signing) through its body.
3. The receiver-self perceives the code signal used by the sender.
4. The receiver-self creates a message which he/she hypothesizes the sender is sending.

Definition: Message: The mental unit of deliberate agentive communication. It exists only in the self and is associated with agents only.

A sender message always consists of three parts:

1. A desire or intention
2. A message-action (physical and/or verbal) intended to fulfill the given desire or intention.
3. Creation of a hypothesis as to what will happen next.

Postulates and laws of communication:

1. To exist is to communicate. Not to affect anything is not to exist. All real beings communicate with something.
2. Some beings exist only to be acted upon. Other beings exist both to be acted upon and to act.
3. Communication produces two kinds of effects: change of accident and change of essence. (Example: To give someone information is to affect that person in accident. To cut off a person’s leg is to affect the person’s body in essence. There is no way for communication to change the essence of a self. Self does not equal body.)
4. An agent is a being wherein the only changes made by communication are changes of accident. All change of essence is made by the volition of the agent.
5. An agent self affects change of essence in that agent’s self mainly by choosing accidents in which to immerse the self (we affect ourselves by choosing the communications we will receive). The choice of certain types of accidents and the persistent dwelling in them to the exclusion of other choices of accidents create habits of choice and satisfaction which in time will create a new essence of the self.
6. There is no being which is not acted upon. There is no unmoved mover in regard to accident; the closest thing to that is perdition (to be lost). There is an unmoved mover in regard to essence: God.
7. Only agentive beings created messages.
8. Agentive communication is always moral or immoral. (Value considerations are part of every action.)
9. An agent is a being whose sending is not fully controlled by its receiving.
10. All “natural language” usage is elliptical in communication. Always much is assumed which is not said.
11. No receiver recapitulates the full intended message of a sender. Full recapitulation is approached only asymptotically. The communication situation is always entropic, never complete.

Definition: Total Communication: Observing and accounting for all of the (possibly observable) acts of the sender, not just present speech acts.

Ways to maximize communication:

1. Strive for total communication. Know the values, beliefs and habits of the sender or receiver.
2. Communicate about many things. Communicating about everything enhances communication about anything.
3. Sender variables: (i) Strive for redundancy, (ii) Reduce ellipsis. (iii) Define and act out messages ostensibly. Paint a picture. (iv) Encode appropriately to receiver’s ability to decode. (v) Attain and maintain correspondent’s attention.
4. Receiver variables: (i) Capture the message (Actively search out the intent, the assertion, the relevance (expectation). (ii) Search for and/or stimulate evidence which will confirm/disconfirm the interpretive hypothesis.

1. Jesus Christ is the truth. Our Savior is a God of truth. He speaks only the truth and all he does is based on truth. He received a fulness of truth, grace upon grace, from his Father, and thus became a God. His mission is to administer truth and power to men.
2. The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Ghost is the unseen messenger representative of our Godhead. He witnesses of the Father and of the Son to the inhabitants of the earth and teaches all men what the Savior would have them know and do.
3. Man is dependent upon Jesus Christ to know any truth. The Savior lightens the mind and quickens the intelligence of every man upon the earth, for in him we live and move and have our being. We perceive, think and act by his power and are successful in any venture we undertake according to the leave he gives.
4. The Gods give all men enough truth to enable men to defy them or to obey them. The plan of the Gods as now unfolding is that all men should have both truth and power given to them by Jesus Christ during their probation. Each is given enough truth and power to think, to perceive, and to act in relation to their physical, social and spiritual environment. Those who receive that truth and power on earth can pursue the acts to perceive, experiment, act, build, destroy, etc., according to their own desires. It might be said that they are at least intelligent animals, able to feed, clothe and amuse themselves. They are thus agents unto themselves. If they choose to defy God, they usually can yet feed, clothe and amuse themselves. If they hearken to God’s spiritual influence, they must initially yet feed, clothe and amuse themselves by the same basic processes used by those who defy the Gods.
5. Men who defy the Gods are and will be damned. Men who defy the Gods may be or become ever so clever at feeding, clothing and amusing themselves, but each is damned or stopped on his animal plane. They can have no sure knowledge of the unseen world nor any claim upon eternity. They live from day to day, having no real hope for the future. They imagine the nature of the unseen universe according to their own desires, and thus encapsulate their mortal lives in gross error. And thus are they damned. As long as they are healthy, and socially and temporally successful, they do not know they are damned. Yet they are helpless and even terrified before two things: physical death and supernatural power.
6. Men who obey the Gods cease to be men. Those who obey the Gods (who yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit) die as to the natural, carnal man and are born again. As newly reborn persons they are called saints. Should they come to the maturity this rebirth affords, each will have become a god. Though saints must feed, clothe and amuse themselves much as men do initially, they become progressively different as they grow spiritually. They begin to differ from the world in dress, speech, attitudes, actions, and the more they grow the more different they become and the less dependent are they on any worldly institution, person, or idea. Death loses any terror it might have had and the use of supernatural power becomes the basis of their lives. They are not damned, but are able to lay hold of every good thing.
7. Saints have access to the knowledge of the Gods in the degree of their spiritual development. As saints hearken to the voice of God, He unfolds to them those things hidden from the world. These hidden things are the mysteries, about which a saint is not to speak (except by direct command through revelation), but which it is his heritage to receive in full (by direct revelation). By this means a saint can come to know anything about the unseen world (past, present or future existence not presently available to him through the physical senses) or about what is good and right. The life of a saint is thus encapsulated in truth.
8. Saints who reject the way of the Gods become more perverse than those who never accepted the Gods. To accept the Gods is to accept their way (their discipline or morality). Some who embark upon the way of the Gods find that it grows too strait and too narrow. There are some other things (sins) they would rather do. So they reject the way of the Gods, usually first by pretending the way is not strait and narrow. In this they try to convince their fellow saints that some form of sin is actually righteousness. Perceptive fellow-saints resist this perversion and the rejector feels uncomfortable and begins to stand apart from the saints (he apostatizes). Then, angry that he could not justify nor get company in his sin, he turns to fight the people and the order of the Gods, since their mere existence condemns him in his own conscience as unclean. Being fully delivered to the power of Satan such a one finds satisfaction only in the destruction of that which he once knew to be true and good. Being fully delivered, such are worse than ordinary men with whom the Holy Spirit yet strives. They propound evil and error with vehemence and scorn and persecute those who know and live the truth.
9. The key to knowledge is morality. True morality is the discipline or the way of the Gods. Those who know this way and follow it are able to learn anything they desire. Some suppose that knowledge is the key to morality, that when one knows enough, he will not sin. But knowledge is only the possibility of morality. Only when a man knows what is the will of the Gods can he obey and thus be moral. Many who know that do not obey.
         He that knows what the Gods desire and who does that willingly is moral. He is a disciple of Christ. Having thus disciplined himself he will not abuse any power or truth given to him, but will only use it to bless others. This is morality, the key to knowledge and to supernatural power.
10. Those who are most moral will produce the greatest achievements. The purpose of the gods is to bless men, and to do this through saints whenever possible. Saints are sent into the earth to rescue souls and to create a sanctuary, a heaven on earth. This sanctuary, Zion, is to be a light to the world, showing forth the truth and goodness of the Gods in every righteous manner. The saint is thus a problem-oriented person. His objective is to accomplish his specific assigned tasks in bearing witness to the world and in establishing Zion. The more righteous the person is, the more significant will be the problems he is able to solve in establishing heaven on earth. His inventions, organizations, productions, artistic creations, social persuasions or whatever his task will be clearly superior to the world in morality and in technical excellence. No worldly power will or can deter the righteous saint in fulfilling his mission.
11. Those saints who achieve great things may not always be known for elucidating truth. The saint has an unlimited source of truth and power, though an access limited by his own personal righteousness. But he knows that his access is given to him to perform, to solve problems, not to become a revelator unto the world unless thus appointed. It is normal in the world to seek fame by propounding some new thing. The saint does not seek fame nor does he want to become a light unto the world for any reward. He gives the glory to Christ. The saint will be powerful in accomplishment, which may bring him some renown. But he will usually always know far more than he is willing to tell others. He speaks the truth he knows of the unseen world only as commanded by God. Thus he may well forego the reputation of being a great thinker or writer which publication might bring. He is simply content to do the will of Christ.
12. The ultimate knowledge is to know the Savior. Of all things a saint seeks to know, it is to come to know the Savior personally, for that is life eternal. Failing in that, all other knowledge is relatively fruitless. Succeeding in that, there is a harvest of souls and worlds available that surpasses the comprehension of man. To know Him, the Truth, is to be free. This is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about.

Conclusion: Any collection of saints who wanted could readily have the acknowledged greatest university in the world. But greatness will be more apparent in what they do rather than in what they say.

The thesis of this article is that a consensus of beliefs and values among Latter-day Saints is desirable and will be achieved. The purpose of this article is to assist in the attainment of that consensus by furthering understanding of it.

Unity as the Ideal

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God. We are given to understand that the entire celestial community is one with them. This community acknowledges the same truths, accepts the same values, and abides a unified chain of command. It pleased our Savior to do nothing in his mortal mission except to do his Father’s will, though he was already a god in his own right. Indeed, because he was a god, being perfect in desires and decisions and knowing all things, he fully recognized the perfection of his Father and the importance of being one with his Father through complete obedience to his Father’s will. But the obedience came first. Our Savior became a god in the premortal existence because he was given the opportunity to test and try the Father’s will to see if it was good. Finding it to be good, he disciplined himself to do nothing but the Father’s will and thus was able to become a god and our Savior.

The invitation to join that celestial society and unity, to become one with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, is the “good news” of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Every human being is invited to sample and to experiment with the truths, the values and the commandments which the Savior gives to men. Some sample, experiment and find the word of Jesus Christ to be satisfying, ennobling, and enabling to them in the quest of making this world a better place. Others sample, experiment and reject. A major cause of rejection is doubtless the fact that there is an adversary, the father of lies, whose mission it is to distort the message about Jesus Christ, to prevent people from receiving it in its purity and simplicity, thus to thwart the work of righteousness and unity. But that thwarting is temporary at best. Before any person is judged in final judgment, either by God or by himself or herself, he or she will have opportunity to receive a direct divine revelatory manifestation of the word of Christ through the Holy Spirit, not mediated by men of the world. Thus each tastes the pure word and is free to choose it or reject it according to their own personal desires.

The premise underlying this opportunity to hear and to test the word of the Lord depends upon two fundamental beliefs about the universe: 1) That there is one truth, one reality about any matter of fact about the universe. It is either true or false that men have spirit bodies separate from their physical bodies. It is either true or false that men’s spirits live on after the death of the physical body. It is either true or false that all men will be resurrected and will stand before the Savior and account for each decision the made during probation. It is also to be understood that each human being has some ability to tell truth from falsehood; using that ability, each human being is forced to judge the Savior where and as he or she can, to decide whether or not the Savior speaks the truth. 2) That there is value, as well as truth, attaching to everything. Value means that every idea, fact, or deed may be or should be preferred over another rival idea, fact or deed. One can prefer the idea of equity among men over the idea of inequality. One can prefer this poor person to be clothed rather than naked. One can prefer to share one’s goods with one’s neighbors rather than take their goods from them. We value what we prefer. “Values” are the abstraction of these preferences. The truths we accept and the values we hold cause us to act as we do, and are the framework within which we act.

The claim for the word of Jesus Christ is that it is the key to the learning of all truth, about any matter, and that it is also the key to the learning of correct values, how to act righteously (to bless others as much as possible). The gospel is thus seen as a selective net. It gathers out of the world those who are honest in heart and/or who hunger and thirst after righteousness. But as in the parable, some gathered by the net are sent away, because the real test is not accepting truth and righteousness as abstractions or ideals, but actually living by them in solving the many and varied problems of one’s daily mortal life.

The purpose of living by truth and righteousness under the personal direction of Jesus Christ is twofold: to bless those who are less fortunate and to band together with other servants of Jesus Christ to create a society based on truth and righteousness. The Church of Jesus Christ exists to provide an orderly cooperative means for the servants of Jesus Christ to bless the less fortunate (e.g. missionary work, welfare services, education) and to create a celestial society in a telestial world. That celestial society, when attained, is called “Zion.”

The scriptural description of a Zion is a people who have one heart and one mind. They dwell in righteousness and thus there is no poor person among them. To say they have one heart means they have the same values, the same desires. To say they have one mind means they have a common understanding of the truths of the universe. To say that they are Zion means that they live unitedly in bonds of shared values and truths, each a cooperative and faithful member of the body of Christ. The body of Christ is one because each member believes, prefers and acts under the direct leadership of the Savior. As he instructs, so each believes and acts. The beliefs and preferences are the same because each has yielded his or her heart and mind to the Savior, to become his little child. Each acts differently, according to the gifts and assignments each receives, but all act in harmony, the Savior being the head, telling the eye, the ear, the hand and the foot what to do and how to do it.

The mission of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is thus two-fold: to share their wealth with the world, the greatest wealth being the knowledge of the mind and will of the Lord (the Gospel); and to establish Zion, a people who see eye to eye on all matters of truth, preference and action. These two efforts reinforce each other. The more unified the members of the church are, the greater the power of their missionary witness. The greater the labor and sacrifice in blessing others with the missionary witness, the greater will be the gifts of God in revealing more truth, understanding further correct preferences, and in carrying out greater works in unified effort.

What a marvel it would be to see Zion, a people who were informed, understanding and discerning about the politics, economics and social problems of this world and who were in full agreement with one another. What a marvel to see a people united about scientific matters, religious practice, where everyone would have a shared understanding of the truth about the creation of the earth and its living forms, about how religion is supposed to affect politics, about what kinds of music, art, dance, etc., are ennobling and strengthening and which are not.

But understanding of the “what” of Zion is not usually clear not useful unless accompanied by an understandable account as to how it can be made real in this world.

The Means to Unity

The world recognizes the importance of unity and tries to achieve it. One notable tactic employed by the world to gain consensus is careful management of the information and education a population receives, including the withholding of information, exposing all persons to a stipulated set of ideas, and the promulgation of falsehood. These variants on the management theme have been employed by governments, societies, and religious organizations from the beginning of recorded history and are in full flower today.

Another tactic of the world, actually an application of the first tactic, is to elevate a methodology to where it becomes the solution to all problems. In past ages this has been attempted for the oracles, in our age the enthronement of science is the application. This tactic, as those above, gives those who can employ the methodology great power over the rest of the population, which power has not always been used selflessly. The major drawback of this tactic is the inability of the methodology to work unerringly and sufficiently. The oracles did not always score; science often gives partial answers which must later be reversed and it cannot handle the most important questions of fact nor any of the questions of value.

The world is thus tossed to and fro by winds of doctrine, depending on who has power and/or prestige in a given society at a given time. This background highlights the strength and desirability of the alternative offered to the world in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel mode of knowing and acting focuses on the inner experience of each human being rather that upon the testimony of the senses or the power of reason. It exalts the conscience of each person. The gospel message says that our challenge is to become spiritually alive. Each of us has personal knowledge of the existence of at least one spirit—our own. We can recognize in our own inner experience something qualitatively different from our experience with other persons and objects in the world. We have feelings and experiences within our own consciousness that we do not perceive in relation to anything but our own body.

The gospel message is that we should be honest in heart—to admit what our heart (our conscience) tells us and to honor that influence above all other things. But it is to be done in coordination with our experience of the world, our mind, and the relations we have with other people. It tells us that it is our spirit, our own unique individual inner person, that is our primary link with the Holy Spirit. As we are honest in admitting to ourselves what our own feeling (conscience) says to us, we can receive and profit from the continuing manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit tells each person receptive to it when the Restored Gospel is taught to them that they should believe in Jesus Christ. They should believe that he is the Son of God and will become our Lord and Savior if we will believe in him and obey him through the Holy Spirit. The obedience he requires is for us to forsake all selfishness and to focus our lives upon blessing others under his direction. To assist us in that obedience, he asks us to covenant with him by entering the waters of baptism, after which he bestows upon us the power and right to have the Holy Spirit (which is His spirit) with us at all times, to guide us in all matters. Then he commends to us to endure to the end, which is to repent of every sin, to cultivate the companionship of his Holy Spirit to the point where it does guide us in all things and reveals to us the truth of all things, until we have used our agency to use the help of the Holy Spirit to shape and forge a new mind, a new heart, a new countenance—until we have become as he is. For he is the end. Then, having access to all truth and all correct values, our power to do the work of righteousness, to bless others, is limited only by their willingness to receive.

Once a person has begun to honor his or her inner spiritual resources, which come through the Holy Ghost, all other powers the person has can become active to assist them in learning about the trustworthiness of this spiritual mode of knowing and acting. As the Holy Spirit testifies of some truths, our senses can test the ideas to see if that is the way the physical world is. With other ideas we can use our reason to check for consistency and continuity. With yet others we can bring to bear our experiences in the past. Or we can perform and experiment, to see if a given principle is true. In all things the Lord says “Try me. You judge whether or not my word ennobles and strengthens your soul.” With all the intelligence we have, we may test and prove all things. At the same time we must know ourselves. Would we reject a truth because it is not acceptable to our peers? Would we reject instruction to share with someone because we would rather be selfish? Would we have to “eat” too many of our own previous statements if we became little children before Jesus Christ? Would we be willing to lose our job, our family, our friends, to embrace truth and righteousness? Whenever we measure the Lord, we automatically measure ourselves.

The emphasis in the gospel mode of knowing and acting is upon character. As one strips oneself of pride, arrogance, carnality, dishonesty and every other selfish thing, one becomes a fit vessel for more and more light and truth. The light and truth are not just for having, but for doing, for blessing others, instead of doing it in the weakness of our own limited views. We have access to the omniscience of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Important truth and the whole truth cannot be learned by those who are not committed to moral action, to use that knowledge correctly. The end of the gospel is not to produce knowers; it is to produce doers full of knowledge who act fully under the direction of Jesus Christ.

Let us note some special features of the gospel mode of knowing and acting.

1. No human being is the final authority on any topic. Servants of Christ are specifically enjoined not to rely upon the arm of flesh nor to believe the words of any man save that man speak by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we know by the power of the Holy Spirit that what some person says is by the Holy Spirit, then we can accept and agree, because the Savior is the source of what we both accept, not any mortal human. Our hope, our trust, our faith is in the Savior. If the president of the Church of Jesus Christ speaks, we rejoice and accept because we know by the Holy Spirit within us that he speaks by the Holy Spirit: he speaks for the Savior. We give special attention to his words because he is president; we accept his words not because he is president but because we ascertain that he speaks for our Savior as he speaks. The same is true for any other speaker. We listen to many persons in and out of the Church, but we believe and act only upon that to which the Holy Spirit bears witness.

2. Use of the gospel mode is available to every human adult of normal mentality.
The proviso here is that a person cannot use the gospel mode of knowing and acting until he or she has heard it. Thus faith comes only by the hearing of the word of the Savior. The word needs to be preached to all the world, that all may be truly free to become partakers of the heavenly gift. But having heard it, any person, regardless of race, culture, creed or experience can turn to their inward resources and judge and evaluate all ideas and actions as long as the Holy Spirit is their personal tutor, taking each person where he or she is, leading each in a perfectly designed path to that growth necessary to become like the Savior.

3. A growth process is engaged in by every person employing this mode, which enables each person to become more knowledgeable, more able. It is the mission of the Holy Spirit to lead each covenant servant into a fulness of truth and light, i.e., knowledge and wisdom. We are led by it to that water, which, if we partake, we never need thirst again; but we must drink. If we are humble, we have the opportunity to test and try the Lord at each step, with each instruction. Some things revealed to us may take years for us to understand, accept and assimilate. Other things will be taken in stride. The provision here is that once we see and accept something as true or good, we must not go back on it. If the Holy Spirit reveals something to us and we ponder, evaluate and test it, then realize that we for ourselves know it is true, we must then never pretend that we do not know about that something, or that it is false. We are required to be honest, never to reject something we know to be true.

Doubtless it is pleasing to the Lord when our line by line, precept upon precept learning moves at a good pace. But should we for some reason of upbringing or professional training pause longer than most at some point, he is kind. He labors with us, helping us to assemble and assess the evidence, but will not overwhelm us with more evidence than we care to have. He loves us and wishes for each of us individually all of the experience, the growth from which we can profit consistent with all the honesty and humility which we can bring to bear.

As we are humble and honest he reveals to us first the basics and then even the mysteries as we demonstrate that we will use such revelation to do good under his direction. This increases our knowledge until our understanding reaches to heaven and increases our power until we too can perform mighty miracles in blessing our fellow beings.

4. As people independently apply the gospel mode it brings them gradually into agreement with each other about all matters of truth and value. As there is only one true God, one faith, one baptism, so there is one truth about each matter of fact, one best way to act in any given situation. The Savior does not insist that we subscribe to all he says at once, but plainly is pleased when we choose his truth and righteousness in preference to the ideas and values of the world. Doubtless he is more pleased with careful, deliberate preferring followed by faithful endurance than by ready acceptance that cannot gain root. But the goal is plainly that we should become one with him even as he is one with the Father.

To that end, the Savior bestows the Father’s glory upon each of his covenant children. The glory of god is intelligence, or light and truth. It is bestowed by granting the gift of the Holy Ghost upon the head of each newly baptized person. All this that they might become one with each other and with him, even as he is one with the Father. The watchmen will see eye to eye when the Lord doth bring again Zion.

How It All Works In Our Lives Today

The Savior uses three prime instrumentalities to bring the inhabitants of this world to a knowledge of his will: 1) The Holy Spirit 2) his living prophet 3) the scriptures. The witness of the Holy Spirit is a necessary accompaniment to the other two. When the prophet speaks, the Holy Spirit testifies to all who will receive it. When people read the scriptures and can receive the Spirit, the Spirit witnesses to that truth also. The living prophet takes precedence over any dead prophet, to which the Holy Spirit also attests. But in the mouths of two or more witnesses, all things are established, the Holy Spirit being the usual second witness when we hear the living prophet or when we read the scriptures.

In 1831, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation now known as Section 42 of the Doctrine and Covenants. This section contains a commandment of the Lord for each faithful member of the Church to enter formally into the living of the law of consecration. The Lord labored with the members, giving them revelation after revelation through the Prophet Joseph encouraging them to implement this law. The people either would not or could not do so; in any case they did not do so. After several years the Lord relieved the Church of this requirement and substituted the lesser law of tithing, which is the church standard to this day. The consensus failed in that case. The principle of consecration is true, however, and this people cannot establish Zion until such time as they voluntarily achieve consensus and implement the law of consecration as the standard of the kingdom. That implementation can and will come only as the Lord again calls his people, through his living prophet, to live that principle. Meanwhile, the principle remains true and necessary for preparation for a celestial society. Every person who hopes to be like the Savior must accept it when they learn of it, before they can progress further. Thus, there are many in the Church today who are fully converted to the principle, and who could and would implement it immediately in their lives if the living prophet gave the signal. On the other hand there are many, faithful by present standards, who would choke and die spiritually if asked to swallow it. Some not now converted would eventually come to it and embrace it faithfully, but would need time and patience on the part of their leaders to come around.

Meanwhile, the hearts and minds of members are being prepared. A few years ago President Romney noted that faithful members really ought to double their fast offerings. Many heard, received the witness of the Spirit, and doubled. The next year the Spirit said to some to double again; the next year again. When President Kimball said subsequently that members who were able should be contributing ten times the amount saved by fasting, many faithful members could attest that was the will of the Lord because they were already doing it in obedience to the Spirit. That is faith. That is consensus indeed.

In 1833 the Prophet Joseph Smith received the revelation now known as Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, The Word of Wisdom. It was not given nor received as a commandment, and some then faithful members of the Church did not readily accept and abide it. The principles of this revelation were true and good before the revelation and after. But the consensus was slow in coming. Later the revelation was made a commandment by a later living prophet. The active membership of the Church now has a consensus about the word of wisdom. The truths and values included in the consensus of the present membership of the Church is enlarged to include the word of wisdom.

The consensus is thus a moving quantity. It always begins small and enlarges gradually over a fixed territory of truth and righteousness, fixed in the sense that truth and righteousness do not change. Rather the spirituality and faithfulness of the members of the Church grows so that they come to agree on more and more items of truth and righteousness.

In June 1978 the living prophet said that faithful members of the Church of all races could then hold the priesthood. It had always been true that that event would take place, as had been prophesied. Some wanted it to be true earlier, when it was not yet appropriate. Some wanted it to become true later, even not in this world. Some only wanted the Lord’s will to be done and rejoiced when his will was made known. When the prophet spoke, the faithful went to their knees, seeking that second witness. It came in the still small voice of peace and joy. Suffice it to say, the consensus came quickly on this matter, for many who thought and desired otherwise quickly sought, received and rallied behind the living prophet.

The living prophet also spoke out against the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, asking church members not to support it. Many were already of that mind and supported immediately. Others prayed and supported because they later received the second witness. Others say they have no witness and do not join the consensus. Yet others actively fight the stand of the living prophet, even going so far as to hold him up to ridicule. It is of the latter two groups that we must speak more particularly.

Those who have no witness are in a quandary. They have given assent to the gospel message and to many if not all of the statements of the living prophet. They may be keeping a journal, beautifying their home, raising a fine garden, doing extra missionary work, acting faithfully in their callings. The prophet does not say they must accept the anti-ERA position. They are given time, much time to ponder, pray, and to work out their feelings in the matter. Meanwhile, there is considerable rational evidence and experience to give them reason to see possible problems with ERA. And there is the sustaining witness of all of the other general authorities and of most members of the Church. They feel some pressure from within the Church to accept the prophet and some pressure from other sources to reject what the prophet says on this issue.

The pressure on each side is appropriate. It is under pressure of repeated hammerings that the fine steel is forged. To be under pressure and yet carefully to make one’s way to truth and righteousness is the way of the Lord. This world is so constructed that no one ever traverses the narrow way by accident.

The question does and should arise, Can I give allegiance to the prophet, sometimes accepting his word only because the Spirit attests to it? When the opinion of knowledgeable people of our society is contrary because the known evidence seems to indicate that a position contrary to the word of the prophet is true, some people find themselves with a difficult conflict. Could one be intellectually honest and prefer faith over evidence? The answer is that faith (the revelation of the Spirit) is evidence of things not seen which are true. The question then becomes one of preference. Does one prefer the evidence of human authority and inconclusive sensory data, or does one prefer the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Human authority and sensory data have proven to be a sandy foundation so many times in the life of mankind and in the life of each individual that one need not know about revelation to hope for something better. One need only be intellectually honest. But dependence upon the Holy Spirit is an option only for those who understand it and have tried it and proved that it works. Anyone who has proved himself or herself that it does work has had the experience of following a sure, unerring guide. The real question is then: would I prefer the testimony of the leaders of our worldly society that say abortion is a morally neutral act and will bring improved conditions to our society? Or, will I prefer the testimony of the prophet and the Holy Spirit that cutting up, scalding to death, or poisoning a live human body is one of the most heinous and repulsive crimes ever perpetrated by a human being and will eventuate in terrible consequences both for the society that allows it and for the individuals that participate in it? Where is intellectual honesty? Anyone who knows enough about intellect to be honest about it knows that an intelligent person will fly to genuine divine revelation with the greatest of avidity. The problem of intellectual honesty is a difficult problem only for those who know no alternative to the hypotheses and inductive leaps of the best of ordinary human thinking.

Some are confused by the supposed desirability of the separation of church and state. In our present circumstance that separation seems good; however, when the Savior comes, we will have no laws but his laws. Meanwhile, we need not confuse church with religion and state with politics. While it may be necessary now to hold entirely distinct the institutions of church and state, it is surely not either desirable nor possible to separate one’s religion from one’s politics. Our religion is the pattern of our choices in the problems of our daily lives. It is what we really believe, for out of it all of our actions flow, including our thinking and acting about government, social relations, taxes, wars, and voting. To attempt to separate religion and politics is to become schizophrenic—two-headed. No man or woman can serve two masters. Our political stance is always a clear reflection of our true religion. Confused or not, each person must eventually declare for or against the prophet, which is to say for or against the Holy Spirit, for or against the Savior.

When the living prophet speaks on ERA and says it is a matter of morality, what does that mean? It seems to mean that while church members are free to take opposite sides on some political issues because they don’t yet matter a great deal, this one is different. This one is of sufficient importance and danger that every member should seek for special spiritual witness in this matter; not to join the consensus out of blind obedience but out of prayerful faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This matter is so serious that it cannot be left only to those who already know by the spirit where they should stand. The witness goes forth to rally the sleeping and the indifferent and the temporarily misdirected as well. Hopefully, the consensus will become great enough that the amendment will be defeated and its train of presently unseen evil averted. Faith is to believe what is true but not seen; the faithful believe because they too know that their living prophet is led by Jesus Christ. They know that because they are also led by Christ.

Church members are told they may oppose the prophet’s stand without jeopardizing their membership. This freedom is necessary to give time, ample time, for each person to wrestle with his or her conscience. To be a convert, to support the prophet because of the whisperings of the Spirit, even if it takes a long time, is of infinitely greater worth than grudging external allegiance gained only by fear and sanction. The prophet bears his witness, borne out of faith and prayer, and invites all members to do the same. The unavoidable conclusion is that those who cannot eventually agree with the prophet reject him as the prophet. Is it possible that the prophet and all of the general authorities could be wrong? Not if this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. To reject the prophet and the other authorities is to say this is just another church of men.

What of those who fight the living prophet and the general authorities openly in opposing their stand on ERA or any other issue? It is plain that they are fully apostate. They may indeed see cultural value in the Church and desirable features of the theology, but they have rejected their covenant with the Savior and the instruction to receive the Holy Ghost. The most important thing about their excommunication is that then the disbeliever is better off, being relieved of the obligations of his or her covenant.

The Future of the Consensus

The issue of ERA is not the final item. The living prophet will not be stayed. He must lead this people as the Savior directs. He must love the Savior and the members of this church enough to bring the bridegroom and the brides together. The brides must have oil in their lamps. The oil is their faithfulness. The wise virgins are they who are wise, have received the truth, have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide and have not been deceived. Doubtless there will be a series of statements by the living prophet, attested to by the general authorities, each of which will give each member repeated chances to declare himself or herself in or out of the covenant and the kingdom.

The natural course of events would seem to portend that as the pronouncements of the prophets probe more deeply into faith, life and politics, the circle of those who accept it will grow smaller and smaller. But this Church is not a natural phenomenon. This is the work of the Savior to prepare a kingdom for his second coming. Out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people they will come. They are the humble and faithful who will be wise, will receive the truth, will take the Holy Spirit for their guide and will not be deceived. They will form a mighty army of the Lord, as army so obviously good and righteous that even the unbelieving nations of this world will be constrained to acknowledge that these truly are the servants of Jesus Christ, for they love one another and are one in heart and in mind, even as He said.

What mechanism, what cultural pattern can or will engender the consensus we hope for? Likely the strength of the process will be found in the homes of Latter-day Saints. Whenever the living prophet speaks or writes to the Church, husbands and wives will carefully review what he has said. If the Holy Spirit has not already attested to his words in the process of initial hearing, they will try to gain complete familiarization with what the prophet has said, simultaneously seeking the witness of the Holy Spirit, yea or nay. As each person independently receives revelation, they then bear witness to one another. If they agree with the prophet, they rejoice, because they then have three witnesses to the truth: the living prophet, the Holy Spirit, and each other. Then they will encourage each of their children to gain his or her own personal witness as they encourage each of their children to gain his or her own personal witness as they review the words of the prophet on Sunday or during Family Home Evening. Unmarried adults will follow a similar pattern, seeking and treasuring the second witness. Ministering brothers and sisters will share their witness with the people they minister to. Bishops will share their testimony with their ward, as will stake presidents with their stake. Thus will we come to be of one heart and one mind and dwell in righteousness.

But what if a husband or wife both gain no witness from the Holy Spirit? They should continue to strive for that witness. Perhaps they will hear the witness of their bishop or ministering brother or sister and will receive the quiet warm assurance of the Spirit that they speak truly. To be able to believe in the words of others is also a gift of the Holy Spirit.

What if they receive a witness they feel is contrary to the word of the prophet? Then there is trouble indeed. They need to look to their lives, to see if they are keeping the commandments; if not, they have gotten out of tune and are receiving and accepting revelation from the adversary, who is only too willing to tell anyone anything they wish to hear as long as it is not the truth. If they finally cannot agree with the prophet, they say in effect, that for them he is no prophet. If they once knew that he was a prophet and represented the Lord, they have now begun to reject the prophet and the Lord.

In the last days there will come an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked. Yet a while do the wheat and the tares grow together. The love of a prophet of God calls all men to declare themselves as wheat. But he cannot compromise the truth. He must speak as he hears. And all who hear the same beloved Savior agree with the prophet. Perhaps the separation has begun. “If ye are not one, ye are not mine.”

Thesis: There is but one celestial law. It is Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many scriptures suggest the singular aspect of celestial law (e.g., D&C 130:21–22, D&C 132). Apparently this singular aspect is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to explain why there can be but one celestial law and to detail certain consequences of that singularity.

Fundamental to this discussion is the following image of the universe. There exists a God who is morally perfect, omnipotent and omniscient. His work is to bless His children, sharing fully His exaltation with as many of them as share completely His perfect devotion to righteousness and truth. Learning to be fully righteous in the context of truth is the process of salvation made available by God to the mortals of this earth. Righteousness is the process of securing the maximum benefit and blessing for all beings other than one’s self.

The key factor in mortal probation is then the decisions for action which each person makes. Man has agency to affect the other beings; his choice is to affect them righteously or unrighteously. There are no human decisions which affect only the agent, so every choice is a moral choice, for or against righteousness. The moral decisions of daily life are the crux of our problem.

If righteousness is maximizing the benefit and blessings of beings other than one’s self, what opportunities for righteousness does a human being have? One might desire righteousness, but this does not make one moral, for the desire of itself achieves nothing for others. Desire is a necessary condition for righteousness, but not a sufficient condition. To it must be added the knowledge and power necessary to enact in the reality of the universe the maximal benefit and blessing of all other beings. The point is that no human being has within himself the opportunity to be righteous. It follows further that only a god can be righteous.

Let us examine as a paradigm example the moral problem of the father of a family. Every desire he entertains, every thought he thinks, every word he utters, every act he performs affects the welfare of his wife and each of his children. Not only are there many direct effects but also many indirect ones, for each choice has involvements for a man’s spirituality. His spirituality governs his knowledge, physical and priesthood power, and the purity of his desires. If he wishes to be a righteous father, he must think and act to achieve the maximum blessing for his family. This means he must understand all the possibilities there are for thought and action. He must further understand how his enactment of each of those possibilities would affect each member of his family, not only now, but in its eternal ramifications. He must choose that act which will redound to the maximal eternal benefit of each person involved. Then he must have the power to perform that act, quite possibly a performance far exceeding any mortal strength or ability. Again it becomes obvious that only a god could do all these things.

Is every man then doomed to unrighteousness? Indeed, every natural man is so doomed; no matter what he does, no matter what his desires, he cannot maximize the benefits of those around him. Because he is fallen, he is captive to Satan, to unrighteousness, to impotence, to misery. His only hope is to have outside help.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of that outside help. It is the promise that those who will come unto Christ will receive the blessing of a god who will purify their desires and make the omniscience and omnipotence of deity available to each person. The Gospel is the promise of righteousness.

To accept the Gospel, a person must admit that he is unrighteous and demonstrate a hunger for righteousness. He must turn away from what he now sees are sins and trust in the mercy and grace of Christ for both forgiveness and direction. As he accepts baptism, he covenants with the gods never again to be self-willed, but that he now submits his heart, might, mind and strength to the guiding power of Jesus Christ. If he truly completes that covenant he is given the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which brings him the possibility of fullness of the mind and will of Christ.

Under the influence of the Holy Ghost, before or after baptism, a person can exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is to, a) hear the word of Christ, through personal revelation, b) believe that word of Christ, and c) enact that word or instruction from Christ. Faith is not general, it is specific. A person is faithful relative to particular choices. If he always obeys the instructions of the Savior, he is faithful. But he must choose anew, with each decision and each act, to carry out the will of Christ.

Instruction from Jesus Christ brings to a mortal the opportunity for righteousness. Christ has pure desires, and desires only righteousness. He is omniscient, knowing what acts are and will be of maximal benefit, both now and eternally. And the Savior is omnipotent, having the power to carry out any act necessary to fulfill all righteousness. As the Savior instructs a person, that person receives direction that enables him to choose to act righteously, to participate in maximizing the blessings of every and all other beings. Not only instruction comes from Christ, for as the hearer of the word believes that word with all his heart, he receives the power to carry out that choice. Thus may a man on the earth do a righteous act.

But did we not say that no man of himself can be righteous, and that only a god could act righteously? Indeed we did. For one of the grand keys of salvation is to understand that when a person renounces his selfish desires, yields his heart and mind to the Savior and begins to act on faith in Christ, he ceases to be a natural man, an independent person. As a reborn faithful covenant servant of Christ he is now a “member,” a part, of the Church, which is the “body” of Christ. As each person becomes faithful to Christ, each becomes, as it were, a new toe or a new finger to the Savior, extending His dominion, His power, in the universe. Thus when any of us becomes righteous, it is not our righteousness, but it is the righteousness of Christ which we receive and of which we partake. As we become one with Him, He becomes our mind and our heart, and we are the obedient muscle or limb, helping to carry out the grand design of the gods for the blessing of the whole universe. As we are steadfast in faith, we may grow in power until we are as Christ, equal with Him in purity, knowledge and power, thereafter to work eternally with and under Him in the endless quest for righteousness is the universe. Man then cannot be righteous of himself, but he can become godly by becoming part of God until he has grown to a fullness and is a god.

Having shown how faith in Christ is the only possible way to righteousness, it remains to show how true faith is always a particular and immediate response to personal revelation, and never the mere application of a general rule, even if the rule originally came from the Savior.

Human action is always particular. We act at specific moments in particular places. No two environments for action are ever exactly the same, as are no two successive states of any given human participant. Every time we act, we act uniquely in a unique circumstance.

Human understanding, on the other hand, is general. Historically, humans have sought the greatest possible generalizations of mind by which to appreciate their universe, and have sought for general maxims of conduct. This generalization is necessitated by the overwhelming complexity of the “given-ness” of any moment of experience and the possibilities for action thereunto appertaining. Since we as humans cannot deal with the totality of the reality which confronts us, we artificially simplify, and thus falsify, the universe. We create our own mental version of the universe; believing ourselves to have grasped the “essence” of the situation or circumstance. The frequency of error and the inability to deal with total possibility for action both witness the temerity of supposing we truly “understand” what goes on and what we are doing. This limitation of understanding is further witness to the necessity of faith in Christ.

Let us now see why human application of general maxims for conduct, no matter how worthy the maxims, do not yield righteous action. Let us take for an example the maxim, “Always tell the truth.” This maxim by inference warns us that telling untruths is not good, but it is not very helpful in giving us positive direction and instruction. Our first problem is: What is the truth? Do we know it? Only rarely are we in possession of the truth about anything. Secondly, truth is always very particular, being a description of an actual state of the universe. But language is always general, and thus a necessarily false representation of some particularity. We salve our consciences by supposing that our generalizations are really true, but they turn out to be true not of the real world but of our personal, general, imaginary world-construct. Then we justify ourselves by saying, “I did the best I knew.” That may be, but righteousness does not come from a man doing the best he can in a falsified, imaginary universe. A final plea might be, “There is no better way!” And here the lie is truly manifest. There is a better way. It is to say only that which Jesus Christ instructs us to say, that is, to apply the one celestial law, and act only on faith in Jesus Christ. He will tell us what to say to accomplish the most good, and what we say will not only indicate truth, but will convey the particularity of truth by means of the Holy Spirit, and will be moral, besides. More often than not, He will likely have us remain silent, saying nothing being the better course.

Or perhaps we desire to “Love our neighbor.” Shall I take my partial and false mental image of my neighbor with my faulty understanding of his problems and their solutions and pretend that of myself I can decide and do a good thing for him? The self-righteousness of the blind, impotent, impure human being, though perhaps commendable in intent, is a monstrous perpetration of evil in the universe. It can be forgiven if it is done in ignorance of a better way. But if self-righteousness is deliberately chosen by rejecting the way of Christ, it can only be the way of madness, an act totally inconsistent with the desire for righteousness.

For in this world, Jesus Christ is our unique access to that purity and omniscience which makes possible the telling of truth and loving our neighbor as acts of true righteousness, meeting the particularities of time, place and circumstance which are the reality of any life situation. Nor will yesterday’s revelations or someone else’s revelations do. To be righteous, I must act immediately here and now as the Savior instructs me here and now through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit thus becomes the nerve channel through which Christ, the head, commands me, the willing member of His body, how to act to do real good.

Thus is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the law of the celestial order.

Thus is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ the only basis of righteous action.

Thus is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ always a particular and immediate response to a particular, immediate revelation.

Corollary 1: All gospel principles are but facets of the celestial law.

If there is but one celestial law, does that mean that there is but one celestial principle? In a qualified way the answer is “yes.” The qualification is that it is useful to separate out many gospel principles for the purpose of full intellectual comprehension of the nature of faith. But operationally each principle must be seen as an enactment of faith in Christ, not existing independently.

To show how principles are facets of the celestial law, let us take several gospel principles as examples, demonstrating how the living of each principle is actuated only as faith in Jesus Christ:

Repentance: The Greek root of the word “repentance” when translated literally means a “change of mind.” To repent is to stop thinking and deciding in the manner that leads us to do evil, and to turn to the Lord letting Him guide our thinking, feeling and deciding by the direct moment-to-moment influence of His Holy Spirit, which is the same thing as faith in Jesus Christ.

Sacrifice: The word “sacrifice” means “to make holy.” In ancient times animal sacrifice was required. But it was not the burning animal that made the one who sacrificed holy; rather it was the immediate and direct obedience to the instructions of God that made the one who sacrificed holy. Such obedience is faith in Christ. The modern sacrifice required is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The broken heart is our sorrow for sin, our acceptance of the Savior’s warning that we must repent. The contrite spirit is a willingness to accept the revelations of the Lord and to live by them. Again, this is faith in Jesus Christ.

Consecration: The word “consecrate” also literally means, “to make holy.” Sacrifice makes the sacrificer holy, whereas consecration is the occasion whereby one makes or sets apart another person or some object or ability as holy. Thus it is the opportunity of a servant of Christ to reserve his time, his strength, his possessions, even all he has as things holy unto the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is the functional consequence of this consecration? It is that the person who has consecrated will then use his time, his strength, his possessions, all he has, only as the Lord directs. This is to say, he will seek the counsel of the Lord through the Spirit as to how to spend his time and strength, how to deploy his possessions. If he uses all he has through acts of faith in Jesus Christ, he is indeed living the principle of consecration; and vice versa.

Unity: The servants of Christ are always united, or they are not His servants (D&C 38:27). The power that unites them is that glory which is given only by God (John 17:22), but is given by God to all who come unto Him (3 Nephi 12:1). The agent or medium of that glory that makes unity possible is the Holy Ghost. True followers of Christ act in harmony and unity, for each has Christ as his head. Support of the priesthood authority, general or local, is always a delight, because the one supporting has the constant assurance of the Spirit that those over him are indeed appointed by and acting under the Savior. As each person acts, faithful to the instructions of Christ through His Spirit, the whole Church acts in concert. Those who lack that Spirit cannot fully cooperate. They “stand away” from the priesthood authority over them, which is the meaning of the word “apostate.” Thus unity is but faith in Christ.

This same procedure could be followed for every gospel principle. To live each or any is to exercise true faith in Jesus Christ. “But without faith it is impossible to please him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Corollary 2: The function of lesser laws is to sharpen our consciousness of sin.

The Savior has given many rules or laws in addition to the celestial law. Two particular types may be readily distinguished. The first type is generally known as the law of Moses and has its focus on the ten commandments. The second type is exemplified in the Sermon on the Mount.

The law of Moses was given to the children of Israel because of their rebellion and wickedness. They had rejected the celestial law in rejecting the Gospel and thus had rejected the Lord. But the Lord in His mercy yet gave them a law of performances and ordinances. The performances and ordinances had a single focus: to point their minds towards Jesus Christ (Jehovah) and His righteousness. Every sacrifice was a type of the atonement of Christ. Every moral prescription witnessed that there is a right and a wrong to human action. This law might be seen as a minimum threshold of divine law, obedience to which paves the way for the reception of higher law.

A higher set of laws is found in Matthew, Chapter 5, and is there specifically contrasted by the Savior with the law of Moses. He said, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love you enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43–44). This higher law is obviously more demanding, more difficult to live.

Both of these types of laws, though they are different from each other, have a common essence which they share with all laws other than the celestial law. Their essence is that they are generalizations. They prescribe typical action. And they are all incomplete, for they do not provide enough specificity to enable the doer of the law to know when he is doing what is required. How should he love his enemy? How should that love be manifest this morning, this afternoon? But one thing we can know from these laws: we can see that ofttimes our lives do not accord with them, for we plainly see when we do not love our enemy.

The prime value of most law is negative. It does not enable us to be righteous, but does convict us of sin. The higher the law, the easier it is to see that we are thus convicted. Our conscience smites us with greater range and force in reading the Sermon on the Mount than when reviewing the ten commandments. This difficult but overwhelmingly important idea is the burden of much of Paul’s discourse in Romans, for only as we see this point can we see the overwhelming importance and beauty of the celestial law. “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That sin hath reigned unto death, even so much grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20–21).

Even the celestial law itself is essentially negative. It is also general and leaves the hearer without specific instruction. But it has the grand difference that it points the mind of the hearer to the grace of Christ. To say “Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” convicts those who do not, “for whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). He who will not accept the grace of Christ, no matter what law he thinks he tries to fulfill, is sinning. But if he will turn to the Lord and humbly submit to the will of Christ as received in immediate personal revelation through the Holy Ghost (which revelation is the gift or the grace of Christ) then he is exercising faith in Christ. He is in the way of righteousness. He can be perfected. And there is no other way. (2 Nephi 31:20–21)

The agency of man is then a simple matter. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit with them do not have agency in the Gospel sense. The agency of those who do have the Spirit with them is a choice between submitting to the will of Christ through the Spirit, on the one hand; or to do anything else, on the other hand. Every act of an agent is then a choice between righteousness and sin, between following the Holy Spirit and yielding ourselves to the lusts of the flesh.

“And now, my sons, I would that ye should look to the great Mediator, and hearken unto his great commandments; and be faithful unto his words, and choose eternal life according to the will of his Holy Spirit. And not choose eternal death, according to the will of the flesh and the evil therein, which giveth the spirit of the devil power to captivate, to bring you down to hell, that he may reign over you in his own kingdom.” (2 Nephi 2:28–29)

Corollary 3: The most intelligent act a person who desires righteousness can perform is to act on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

From what has been said before, we have seen that the only access to righteousness human beings have is to have the mind and will of Jesus Christ. If intelligence is defined as goal-oriented action, and if one’s goal is righteousness, then only in Christ can the goal be attained.

But some do not know of Christ. Their actions, though hopefully oriented towards righteousness, cannot be righteous, for they are not free. The Lord is not unmindful of their plight; He has promised that they will have the opportunity to exercise faith. “Yea, blessed are they who shall believe on your words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a remission of their sins. … And blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 12:2,6). Those who do not know of Christ need to hear the word of God. “So then faith cometh by the hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Then, knowing the word of God, they can act intelligently to fulfill all righteousness.

For those who love righteousness and know the good word of God, there is then only one act which is intelligent. Their lives consist of humble daily obedience to Christ. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

The great gift of God the Father to mankind is His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Only through faith in Him may we tread the way of righteousness. Only when we receive Him as the Truth may He set us free. Only as we live and hope and die in Him can we have eternal life. For there is but one law that suffices to salvation: Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).

As we consider our modern dilemma, it seems important to try to get to the root of the problems in our economic, political, educational, and social life as a culture. We see that the problems are enormous. It seems to me that the crux of the problems can be focused on how we try to get answers to our problems.

Socialism, as an enterprise, is sweeping the world. It has a very particular answer to the problems of mankind. It is my belief that this answer is mistaken, but nevertheless, most educated people today believe in this answer. Therefore, it is important to understand the answer, to know how to meet the challenge and to be able to offer something better in its place.

First. I take it first of all that the intellectual basis of socialism is that the wisdom of men is sufficient to solve all human problems. Now, breaking this down into four parts we might, so to speak, take apart the socialistic outlook. The socialistic outlook today is basically a faith in science. In the first place, we live in an age when physical science has given men important control over many problems and great technological ability. Most people would say, if you would query them, that it is only a matter of time until all significant physical problems are solved by scientists, only a matter of time until we can completely control our environment as to light, heat, warmth, perhaps food, clothing, sickness, disease; all these things will be controlled. But they are willing to admit that this is not yet the case and it will take some time for this to happen.

Second. Because of the tremendous prestige which physical science has, people are want to say that social science has progressed far enough that we know how to solve our problems. A typical answer given by most people today is that since we have so much understanding of the economic situation, that a collapse such as that of 1929 is forever impossible now in our enlightened age. It is my belief that future events and even present events show that we are not yet that knowledgeable nor powerful in the realm of social affairs.

But the consensus of opinion, nevertheless, is that social scientists know how to control and solve our social problems and, therefore, it is only a matter of giving these scientists enough power so that they can create a utopia. Those who resist the giving of power to them are looked upon as traitors to mankind, those who would hold back progress of the human race. So, those who believe in science as the panacea for all human problems see that the principal barrier to human progress and happiness is a reactionary attitude which resists the scientists, that wants to put checks on what we do, that wants to have people have determination of their own affairs. People with faith in science are want to say, “Let’s give power to the scientist, let’s make him the governor of controlling boards, let’s let him recommend the legislation, let’s let him set up the government agencies that can take care of our human needs.”

Now, because religion in the last one hundred years has been a principal source of resistance against the encroachments of scientific power, religion is looked upon as a principal enemy to mankind by socialists, saying that it is the “opiate of the people”. Religion today is looked upon, if it holds to any theological commitments, as a reactionary force that binds men to primitive thinking, to medieval institutions, and the only way that man can progress is either to change his church and religion into a progressive system that incorporates social science, or to reject it altogether. I think this is the reason why we see most of the churches of our nation turning to social action as the basis for religious commitment and they neglect anything to do with personal morality as being intrinsic or significant any longer. They preach situational ethics in which anything goes, anything that is, except reaction to or resistance to, the encroachments of social science upon our personal, private decisions.

Those who are enamored of science as the panacea, thus see that the principal problem is to gain control of all educational processes and information sources. Once having gained control of these aspects of our life, then the humanizing of all cultural institutions can take place rapidly. Religions can be converted to civil action movements, students in school can be converted to believe in scientists, they can be taught to look to the government for the solution to all their problems.

People of this kind of thought are not above forceful restraint of reactionary minorities such as religious groups, and I think this is evident in our country as we see attacks upon anyone who would resist the forward movement and increased power of agencies employing the concepts of social science. This, of course, refers to anybody who would believe in “constitutional” government, in religious scruples, in a belief that the private sector of our national life ought to be the most important and crucial sector.

The net socialist outlook then is that science is the hope of mankind. In science and through science will come all the responsible, reliable answers to the problems of humanity and, therefore, to give science its head and let it lead us where it will is the only intelligent course of action. Because of this belief in science, I take it that modern science, when used this way, becomes a Tower of Babel. It becomes a false way of gaining heaven. I say false way because notwithstanding the great prestige that science has in our age, its accomplishments in solving social problems are highly limited and its failures are notable. A little bit later I will discuss the basic reason for these failures. But at least we can see, I think without reservation, that science is the false god to which the modern world has turned. It rejects the true god and insists upon this god of its own making and its own image. In ancient times men used to create gods of wood and of stone and fall down and worship them. Now men create gods of ideas and fall down and worship them and are just as willing to persecute and destroy those who will not follow this mode of worship as were the ancients.

Now the opposition, the only effective opposition in the world to the socialist outlook, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Other religions, other churches, are fast being destroyed under the onslaught of socialistic thinking, the worship of science. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches men quite a contrary understanding of life. It teaches men that their human way will never solve their problems. Only the ways of God are sufficiently powerful to solve the problems that face humanity. And so those who believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ believe that only in Christ can every good thing be obtained. They look to Christ for the solution of their social and personal problems as well as the solving of their purely physical problems, such as those which are ordinarily solved by the method of science. Now this is not to say that a servant of Christ will reject science. He may indeed want to study it and become a proficient scientist, but the point is that he will never put his main trust in it. He will never see it as the way of answering his problems. Rather will he see faith in Christ as the way to becoming a more proficient, a more powerful, a better knower, a better scientist. For he knows that Jesus Christ is his God. He looks to the Savior who was a man but was also a God and is now a living true God, a being who knows all, can do all, and is morally perfect. He looks to Christ as the source and repository of all good things and his hope for the obtaining of all good things. A person who has a testimony of Jesus Christ knows that through the laws and ordinances of the gospel men can received this power which Christ has and thus receive answers to all of their problems. So, the way to solve the problems of mankind is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance from all of our sins, covenanting with Christ through the ordinances of baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands by those who have authority to bestow it and enduring in righteousness to the end.

Now this simple formula, age old, is the only formula with the power to save man. It is the hope of every person in whose breast is the spark of righteousness and the love of truth. Any person who tries to be righteous, will through his own experiments discover that he cannot be righteous by himself. He may try to do good but the power to deliver, to guarantee, is not in him and he finds that only when he turns to our Lord and Savior can he be sure that his works will be effective in doing the greatest good for men. So he looks to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. He knows the Gospel works because he has tried it: he knows that he will be able to do good. Those who believe the Gospel see that the principal barrier to human progress is the unwillingness of hardened hearts to accept the testimony of Christ, the unwillingness of stiff necks to bow to the Savior and Lord of all men. It is the unwillingness of men to humble themselves and admit that they know almost nothing about the world and that they don’t know how to solve its problems, thus to be able to come unto Christ as little children and to receive the power and to be able to be strengthened by and through and in Him. Because most of mankind have hard hearts and stiff necks, they cannot come unto Christ. They continue in breaking the commandments of God and as they do this, they fix upon themselves the chains of hell more and more surely.

What can a servant of Christ then do to bring about the emancipation of mankind, to bring about freedom, to do something about the encroachments of socialism? I think it is plain that the only sure and safe and efficient course of solving the problems of mankind and of helping other people, is to bear witness of Christ and of the principles of the Gospel and to invite and entice them to come to the fountain of all righteousness and begin to receive blessing from Christ. It is my testimony that as we look over the world, anywhere we see any person who does any good thing, it is because they have in some measure partaken of the truth and employing the truth they are able to do good in their lives. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the collection of all truth that relates to the problems of mankind and if any man wants to have all blessings and do all good, his only hope is to come unto Christ and receive that power from Him. Men throughout the world are left without excuse because they do have in their hearts a knowledge of right and wrong and when the Gospel message comes to them, they know by that same power which tells them of right and wrong, good and evil, that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the way and the hope, the salvation and the succor for all mankind. So, the net Gospel outlook is then, that we must turn to Christ. The conclusion is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the antidote for every problem of human beings and specifically for this sickness that causes men to worship their own minds and to build a Tower of Babel in this day, even as has been done in past times.

Now let us turn to part three and see if we can explain clearly why science cannot save man. First of all, science cannot solve value problems. Science does a magnificent job of describing the things that go on in the world and of establishing correlations. But it can only state correlations. It cannot tell us the real causes of things. It can only tell us what sorts of things go together. This is especially so, and note worthily so, in the area of social science. But more important for the present moment is the idea that science cannot solve value problems. It might be able to tell a person how he can nourish himself better. It might be able to tell him how to get rid of a certain disease which arises from malnutrition, but it can’t tell him whether he ought to be rid of that disease or not. It cannot assure him that perhaps a disease might be of benefit to his soul and maybe the disease is put there so that he might receive strength to his spirit. Science can have nothing to do with that. Science cannot show him that maybe in the economy of the Lord certain problems are given to mankind that they might suffer, and that through their suffering they might learn obedience. To be able to solve value problems, science would have to see all the scope of eternity, to be able to project the courses of all actions infinitely into the future and to determine the specific nature of each human being and see what would be best for him. Now, God can do both of those things. He has all knowledge and can see what is best for each person, but for science to make value judgments is to become unscientific because the evidence that science has does not warrant any value judgments. Furthermore, for scientists to make value judgments is to arrogate to themselves the omniscience and priesthood prerogatives of God and this becomes clearly a form of anti-Christ. The net result of this idea is that no program of actions is scientific because action always involves goals and goals involve values. Now, if someone says: I want to build a house; science can help him to build that house well, but the judgment that he wants to build a house and should build a house is always non-scientific. It depends upon factors that science can never demonstrate or substantiate. Secondly, it is important to realize that science deals with generalizations, with types. The net effect of this is to destroy the individual. As science, science cannot deal with the individual. It can only typify human beings and treat them as if they were all roughly similar. Typical examples of the group approach, or the typifying approach by which science distorts reality can be seen in our schools where teachers grade on the curve. To grade on the curve is to take the class as the important thing, the group, and to say that the individual members of the group are not important. Scientists treat humanity in this way in general. They say it’s the group that is important and not the individual. Thank goodness that in the Gospel of Jesus Christ it is just the reverse. There is no mention of group salvation. Salvation is always individual. Salvation may be for family units which are groups, but the qualifying for place in family unit is always done as an individual. The Gospel preserves, exalts, promotes the individual integrity of each human being, his own individual worth. Whereas the necessary course of science is to average human beings, to take away their personality, their identity, to force them to be like other people. The net result then of science is that it represses individuality and in so doing represses the very thing a person needs to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is to assert themselves as an individual, to dare to be different from one’s peers, to dare to be a servant of Christ in the midst of a world of unbelievers.

Third. Science can deal skillfully with areas where the variables can be controlled. The science which has made most progress in the last four to five hundred years is physics, and this is simply because, or for the main reason because, science needs to be able to control the variables to be able to progress, and in physics we can control the variables more easily than in any other science simply because there are fewer pertinent variables in the thing that we study. So, physics has made the most progress. When we go to the other end of the spectrum in science to psychology and social science there is a situation where there are literally hundreds of variables. Now statisticians will tell us that they can account for and average out these factors. And indeed they can for the group. They can show you marvelous statistical analyses where group variants become rather sure and where they can guarantee that certain factors can be controlled out. But you see they do this only for groups and never for individuals and therefore, the individual yet remains stultified, codified, and shorn of his individuality through these approaches. It is dealing with the individual that counts because when you stop to think of it, only individuals exist. All groups of people are artificial ideas in our own minds. We group them because of our own convenience in thinking about them. But they exist as individuals and therefore the only system that can help them with their problems is a system that treats them as individuals. The net result of this is that social science engineering, because it cannot control the factors, relative to either groups or individuals, must set up a false image of the world and on the basis of this false image it projects programs, ideas, projects and attempts to enforce them upon mankind. In so doing it rides rough-shod over the tender individuality, over the integrity of each individual child of our Father in Heaven.

Fourthly, and most important. Man is a dual being. He is not just a body. He has also a spirit and his spirit is the most important thing about him. This spirit is a source of his success and the source of his greatest difficulties. He can solve his problems, spiritual and physical, only by solving his spiritual problem. Science cannot take account of the spiritual realm at all. To be science, it must deny the existence of the spirit being of man. Therefore, to prefer science to Christ is to reject the very reality which is the source of man’s problems and his hope of progress. To prefer science to Christ is to be an Anti-Christ. It is to be blind, it is to prefer darkness to light and this rejection dooms all those who participate in it to spiritual damnation. Since the spiritual is the key to our physical problems, this leads also to physical damnation. It is noteworthy that notwithstanding social science as we have it today, our American civilization is faced with its greatest crises since its beginning. Not since the dark days of the revolution has our government been in such peril and never have our people been in such peril. But this is because man has become enamored of his own thoughts. He has come to believe that he is a god, and that he can solve his own problems. Those who are asked why then hasn’t science solved the problems will say, well, because scientists don’t yet have enough power. So if you would give them all power and make them absolute dictators over our economy, our education, our social life, how we make our friends, how we run our churches, they would be able to straighten everything out and then all would be peaceful and wonderful. But the more they do in this, the more disastrous we see it is and the worse situations get. So the point is, we are locked in a head-on conflict. Those who worship science see those of us who believe in Christ as the principal force that blocks the progress of humankind. They even see themselves engaged in a crusade to try and save mankind. They see that perhaps, if necessary, they will have to take measures against us. Perhaps to eliminate us physically so that the ground can be cleared for the progress and conclusion of scientific government. Those of us who worship Christ know that the Savior will never let them do that, but in the meantime, we must bear our witness, we must be sure that we are not espousing the right cause for the wrong reason. We must be servants of Christ, doing his work, doing his will at all times and places, promoting his cause. President McKay has commended to us to read Section 121 of the D&C wherein we are told that no power or influence ought to be exercised on the souls of men except in love and kindness, in long-suffering, in pure knowledge without hypocrisy and without guile. The hope of mankind is that those who do have answers will work that way, that the servants of Christ will not use the tools of Satan, but that they in the simplicity of a child of Christ will go forth bearing their witness in the world, showing forth the good works of the Master. Our Savior, then, might come forth and sustain them, and bless them, and prosper their works and protect them and bless them that their enemies will not vanquish them. We, as servants of Christ, have nothing to fear. The enemy can hurt us physically. But should we come to fear physically and begin to fight the enemy with his own weapons, if we begin to exercise unrighteous dominion and try to force people, even psychologically, to believe as we do, then we have given ourselves over to the means of the adversary, and we have given ourselves to the goals of the adversary. It is my hope that we can serve Christ, and him alone. I hope we all remember that science is not of itself bad. Science is good but it is not the greatest good. It can be used for evil. And when it is used for evil to tyrannize the lives of men and take away their individuality, to detract from their worship of Christ, it becomes the Tower of Babel. But if we can turn to Christ and serve him, then we can become the world’s greatest benefactors and show men both physically and spiritually that Jesus is indeed the Christ, and very God of heaven and earth.

I bear you my testimony, that I know that Jesus Christ is our hope, and it is my hope and prayer that we will serve him and be effective in the cause of righteousness that we might promote true peace and happiness on this earth. I say it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The following is an attempt to set forth in an organized fashion and in brief compass the principles by which the Law of Consecration is to be applied to individuals and families according to the Doctrine and Covenants:

1. To love the Lord is to serve him and to keep all of his commandments. (D&C 42:29) This means that we should perfect both the spiritual and the temporal aspects of our lives under his direction.
2. To perfect the spiritual aspects of our lives we must put our whole faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, be baptized for the remission of our sins, receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and endure to the end (which is eternal life.)
3. When a person’s heart and mind have been thus changed through love for Jesus Christ, his new spirituality will give him the intelligence to be wise in temporal matters.
4. A most important part of enduring to the end is to consecrate our physical properties to the poor, which is to do it unto the Lord. This is done by taking the deeds and titles to our property to our Bishop and signing these properties over to the church, finally and legally. (D&C 42:30–31) This is the way we show the Savior that we love him more than we love our physical possessions—the thing the rich young ruler could not do. It is part of coming down into the depths of humility before the Lord, to be as little children before Him.
5. The Bishop will then assign to us properties from those consecrated to the church. We may receive more, the same, or less than we have consecrated, according to the revelation of the Lord of his mind and will to both the Bishop and to ourselves, according to our righteous wants and needs and according to the resources the Bishop has to dispense. (D&C 42:32) Whatever we receive from the Bishop we receive from the Lord as a stewardship. Though we receive legal title to the property, we acknowledge that it belongs to the Lord. It is our responsibility to care for, improve, beautify, and make productive whatever we are given, be it a home, a farm, a business, or an automobile. The purpose for this wealth and production is to bless others under the Savior’s direction.
6. Thereafter we shall make an annual accounting to the Bishop. If we have produced more than our needs, the residue will be given to the Bishop with which he might succor the poor. If we have less than our needs, the Bishop will give to us from other person’s residues. (D&C 42:32)
7. Surplus residues, more than are needed to bless the poor, will be used to purchase land, to build buildings, for building the New Jerusalem, for the gathering of Israel. (D&C 42:34–35)
8. The servants of Christ, stewards unto him, are not to be proud. They are to wear plain garments, and do all things in cleanliness, and to enthrone faithful work unto Christ as the ruling principle of their lives. (D&C 42:40–42)
9. All who belong to the church of the living God are to give and receive in this divine order of consecration. None are exempt; whether they labor in temporal or spiritual concerns, this is the Lord’s own way of perfecting his kingdom. (D&C 70: 9–12)
10. Becoming willingly equal with each other in temporal things as members of the church is the key by which the church will receive further abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (D&C 70:14)
11. Even as now faithful members of the church account for their spiritual stewardship before the Lord’s two witnesses in the obtaining of a temple recommend, under the Law of Consecration we will also account for our temporal stewardships. Those who qualify on both counts are adjudged to be wise stewards and faithful laborers. To be so judged on earth is the blessed preparation to stand before the eternal bar of justice. (D&C 72:3–4)
12. When wise and faithful stewards move from place to place in the church, they will turn over to the Bishop they are leaving the consecrated properties over which they have been stewards in that place. The Bishop will certify that they are indeed wise stewards and faithful laborers. The Bishop in their new location, upon receipt of that certification, will give by consecration local properties to the newly arrived faithful servants. (D&C 72:9–19)
13. Only as we are able to live the full law of the Lord, to live in faithfulness and love both temporally and spiritually, can we be made equal with our Savior and receive exaltation. (D&C 78:3–7)
14. He who enters into this order of consecration and then turns back to selfishness shall be excommunicated (delivered over to the buffetings of Satan until the day of redemption.) (D&C 78:8, 10–12)
15. Through this spiritual and temporal order the righteous of the church will become independent above everything that is not celestial through relying alone upon the merits of Jesus Christ. (D&C 78:13–14)
16. When the members of the church have become independent from the world through their love of the Savior, they, too, will receive the blessings of Adam-ondi-Ahman. (D&C 78:15–22)
17. When all these things are accomplished, even the kingdoms of this world will be able to look at the church and see that it is indeed truly the kingdom of Zion, the kingdom of Christ. (D&C 105:31–32)
18. “Therefore, let us become subject unto his laws.” (D&C 105:32)

I would like to call to your attention a simple yet profound truth which is found in Acts 17:28: In God we live, move and have our being. We cannot draw a breath, speak a word, make a decision, or do any other act without the power of Jesus Christ being in us. He is our creator, and he sustains all life upon the earth by his power, the light of Christ.

So whatever we do, good or bad, noble of shameful, we do it by the power of Christ. Because of that, he will ask us about our acts, words, and desires on the day of judgment. If we have followed our conscience and have done the best we could, or if we have repented and thereafter done the best we can, we will welcome the judgment interview. If we have not, we will have regrets for every evil thing we have done, and we will then fully know that whatever we did to any other person or thing which he has created, we did it unto Him.

Let us be wise and do the best we can every day. It will be better not to be weighed down with regret.

May the love of Christ for you flood you with gratitude for all the many gifts each of us has received.