Deception Five: Accusing and confusing (Moses 4:10-11).

(Essay on deception by SMSmith, posted in installments, from last to first; #6 of 7. © 2002)

This deceptive pattern spans them all. When Satan cajoled Eve in the garden, through the mouth of the serpent, the undercurrent of his persuasion was deeply accusatory—not only that God had lied, but that it was done in covetous regard for knowledge (Moses 4:10- 11). To this day, every voice of the adversary has employed false accusation against God and his people. Every antichrist has recycled the accusations of a Sherem (Jacob 7) or a Korihor (Alma 30), who but recycled from accusers before them. It is a ploy that has deceived countless numbers through the ages, causing them to "turn aside the just for a thing of naught and revile against that which is good, and say that it is of no worth!" (2 Ne. 28:16).

But this is not just the ploy of antichrists. It is the ploy also of those who become so attached to positions, agendas, plans, patronage, or secrecy that they endeavor to destroy all opposition and to elude every exposure. This is the ploy used to marginalize or silence whistleblowers and to disparage those who speak out in defense of moral issues. It is often the device of revenge and bitterness. It is sometimes employed even in good causes when advocates lose their way through adopting the adversary's way (D&C 10:28). This relentless assault upon every good thing will persist until, as John the Revelator writes, "the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night" (Rev. 12:10).

The adversary also delights in confusion—the confusion that keeps men and women halting between two opinions (1 Kgs 18:21). Halting because of fear ("What will become of me?") or because of blindness caused by the philosophies, traditions, or honors of men. Satan feeds the fear that keeps one silent in the face of corruption and wrongdoing; and the fear that keeps one from fully trusting in God's promises. He nurses the blindness of those who wrest the scriptures (D&C 10:63; 2 Pet. 3:16) and of those who look to the stars of the world rather than to the Son for their doctrine. But we have been warned: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Col. 2:8).

In the words of President Hinckley: "We have nothing to fear when we walk by the light of eternal truth. But we had better be discerning. Sophistry has a way of masking itself as truth. Half truths are used to mislead under the representation that they are whole truths. Innuendo is often used by enemies of this work as representing truth. Theories and hypotheses are often set forth as if they were confirmed truth. Statements taken out of context of time or circumstance or the written word are often given as truth, when as a matter of fact such procedure may be the very essence of falsehood" ("God Hath Not Given Us the Spirit of Fear," Ensign, Oct. 1984, 4).

In pursuit of confusion, the adversary fosters compromising entanglements. The Lord cautioned the early latter-day church against such entanglements, counseling trust in His way and means, "That through my providence, notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, that the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world;" (D&C 78:14).

A form of entanglement and perhaps the most cunning device of the adversary is to mingle virtue and vice, subtly building tolerance for that which is evil until many fall into either confusion or complacency. Either will do in the adversary's agenda. President Spencer W. Kimball warned that Lucifer "will use his logic to confuse and his rationalizations to destroy. He will shade meanings, open doors an inch at a time, and lead from purest white through all the shades of gray to the darkest black" ("President Kimball Speaks Out on Morality," Ensign, Nov. 1980, 94).

How often in literature and entertainment do we find good stories mingled with the "normalcy" of profanity, immodesty, immorality, and graphic violence?⁹ How often do anti-heroes take center stage, glorying and being glorified in sin? How often are touted good works employed to filter lifestyles of transgression?¹⁰ And though the wheat and tares are allowed to grow together until the harvest (Matt. 13:30; D&C 86:7), yet if the wheat wraps or entwines itself in tares, how long can it retain its identity as wheat? How long can one halt between two opinions? And how long before lukewarm becomes cold? (Rev. 3:15-16).

But the Lord has not left us in confusion about good and evil. Amongst his parting words in the Book of Mormon, Moroni wrote: "For behold, … it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night. For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him. And now, … seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully;" (Moro 7:15-19, emphasis added); "that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil" (Moro. 7:14).

To know, then, with a perfect knowledge that something is of God, we ask: Does it invite to do good? Does it persuade to believe in Christ? To know the reverse, we ask: Does it persuade men to do evil? Does it induce men to believe not in Christ, to deny him and to serve not God? To repeat Moroni's words, "the way to judge is as plain … as the daylight is from the dark night." (Moro. 7:15). We ask the questions, we answer with integrity, and then we choose—the way of life or the way death (2 Ne. 2:27; 10:23).

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9 Gordon B. Hinckley, "Stand True and Faithful," Ensign, May 1996, 92: "We cannot afford to be tainted by moral sin. We live in a world where temptation is constantly being thrown at us, particularly at you young people. It is on television. It is in magazines. It is in books. It is on videos which are readily available. Stay away from these things. They will only hurt you." Joseph B. Wirthlin, "The Priesthood of God," Ensign, Nov. 1988, 36: "Satan has made the television and film media among his most effective tools to destroy minds and souls."
10 This seems a ploy that Satan recommended to Cain (Moses 5:18-23).

Ways to avoid deception

(Essay on deception by SMSmith, to be posted in installments, from last to first; #7 of 7. © 2002)

Besides the examples, and cautions already mentioned that forewarn and arm us, the Lord has also given express instructions with promises on what we can individually do to avoid deception. The counsel is not new; it has been clearly and repeatedly expressed.

1. Study the scriptures. "And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived," (JS-Matt. 1:37, emphasis added). What better example have we than of the Savior during His temptation? Having treasured the scriptures, He knew them and could quote them, and after three encounters with such unanswerable resistance, Satan fled (Matt. 4:4, 7, 10; James 4:7).

2. Develop a pattern of prayer, humility, obedience, gratitude, listening to the Holy Ghost, and seeking earnestly the best gifts.¹¹ "I will give unto you a pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived; for Satan is abroad in the land, and he goeth forth deceiving the nations— Wherefore he that prayeth, whose spirit is contrite, the same is accepted of me if he obey mine ordinances" (D&C 52:14-15, emphasis added). And "ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men, and others of devils. Wherefore, beware lest ye are deceived; and that ye may not be deceived seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given;" (D&C 46:7-8, emphasis added).

3. Look to the prophets. "Wherefore, meaning the church, thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receiveth them, walking in all holiness before me; For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith. For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory" (D&C 21:4-6; see also D&C 132:7; 124:84; 43:1-7, emphasis added). [Note: When first writing this, my 3rd point was titled, "Look to the living prophet," but I have come to believe that a vital benchmark to avoid latter-day deception is to test all present matters against the "words and commandments" given to and through the many prophets, ancient and modern; a personal witness of the Holy Ghost being paramount in assessing when a prophet is speaking for God. For greater elaboration on this see three other posts Skimmed Milk, Using Our Heads, and Lesson from an Old Prophet.]

4. Strengthen the family. In introducing "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," President Hinckley said: "With so much of sophistry that is passed off as truth, with so much of deception concerning standards and values, with so much of allurement and enticement to take on the slow stain of the world, we have felt to warn and forewarn. In furtherance of this we of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles now issue a proclamation to the Church and to the world as a declaration and reaffirmation of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family which the prophets, seers, and revelators of this church have repeatedly stated throughout its history" ("Stand Strong against the Wiles of the World," Ensign, Nov. 1995, 100). This proclamation now stands as an enduring witness to the world. It testifies of the sacred, eternal nature of the family and sustains the test that President Kimball set forth over twenty years before—a simple question that cuts through all the sophistry of the world: "for the well being of the community; for the very existence of the nation, one of the first questions asked about any proposed change in the culture should be, 'Will it strengthen the family?'" ("The Family Influence," Ensign, July 1973, 15).

5. Attend the Temple. “The need for temples all over the world is great. This is because they are spiritual sanctuaries. Those who attend the temples can find protection against Satan and his desire to destroy them and their families” (James E. Faust, “Opening the Windows of Heaven,” Ensign, Nov. 1998, 59). President George Q. Cannon said: “Every foundation stone that is laid for a temple, and every temple completed … lessens the power of Satan on the earth, and increases the power of God and Godliness” (Logan Temple cornerstone ceremony, 19 Sept. 1877; quoted in Nolan Porter Olsen, Logan Temple: The First 100 Years [1978], 34). “… a pattern against being deceived by Satan or by false spirits is to obey the Lord’s ordinances—that is, not only the ordinances of baptism, confirmation, and temple ordinances, but also, as understood anciently, the other decrees of God, such as rules, regulations, and instructions” (Roy W. Doxey, “Accept Divine Counsel,” New Era, Jan. 1978, 34).

6. Trust in the Lord (Prov. 3:5-8; D&C 6:36). Though "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13); and though "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matt. 24:24, emphasis added); yet "God's wisdom and knowledge and power are greater than all the combined forces of evil. He is able to do His work and His purposes cannot be frustrated. He has not left you and me to make our way alone in these perilous times" (M. Russell Ballard, CES Fireside, Mar. 3, 2002, Church News, March 9, 2002, 5).

We are surrounded by all that is expedient for us (2 Ne. 2:27) to stand prepared at the last day, our vessels filled with oil. Latter-day revelation sets forth the difference between the wise and the foolish. "And at that day, when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins. For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived— … shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day. And the earth shall be given unto them for an inheritance; and they shall multiply and wax strong, and their children shall grow up without sin unto salvation. For the Lord shall be in their midst, and his glory shall be upon them, and he will be their king and their lawgiver" (D&C 45:56-59, emphasis added).

Such is the promise to all those who are not deceived.

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11 See Marvin J. Ashton, "A Pattern in All Things," Ensign, Nov. 1990, 20-22.

Finding God!

In a recent magazine article,^[1] the concluding sentence read: “In a world where trouble and temptations seem to find us so easily, it is reassuring to know that our greatest source of strength [our Heavenly Father] is so easy to find.”

This may be true—sometimes. And maybe, dear reader, your experience (or unwavering belief) is that He is always so. But from my experience, from my study and witness (and the déjà vu) of the lives and writings of many, God has NOT been so easy to find—or perhaps more accurately, to re-find.^[2]

In the trenches of life, countless striving people endure an excruciating path of seeking to find God in the midst of His extended silences; His apparent contradictions; His seeming abandonments; His apparent deafness to fervent prayers and priesthood promises; His tendency to inflict^[3] Job-like challenges upon His children.

Why does He NOT, in this “game of life,” always manifest the easy-to-find presence idealized in the article? Is it to prove us—to see if we will choose good and God in the midst of inexplicable pain, confusion, and “every excuse and temptation” to do otherwise?^[4] Is it to test our endurance in seeking Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength? Is it to bring us to wisdom and divine priorities through suffering?

Of course, God wants us to find Him. But if finding Him were so easy, where would be the trial—the proving—that is integral to the Plan; each according to need? Yes, sometimes, God will pursue us and be amazingly easy to find. But MORE times, I believe, He will require us to pursue Him through mists of darkness till we are exhausted and sometimes, almost hopeless, like Job.^[5]

I believe God works along a continuum of possibilities—again, each according to need. God said we should expect opposition in all things,^[6] so why not opposition to the way we perceive Him and the ways we expect Him to be and to bless?

What I find painful about latter-day variations of the comfort Job had to endure from his friends—is how alienating such “comfort” remains. Already, many of us feel too frequently estranged from our oft-silent God and confused by contraries and unfulfilled promises and expectations. Then, as we seek for understanding and peace, we encounter voices that seem to say, “You do not rightly feel what you feel. You do not truthfully experience what you experience, because that is not how God is.” Job’s friends were confident in their fervent defense of the character and ways of God, but surprisingly, God did not come to their defense. Rather, Job’s passionate swings between testimony, railings, questions, and accusations proved more acceptable.^[7]

If only we could get to the point of pondering the ENTIRE book of Job and acknowledging not just his enduring testimony,^[8] but also his heartbreaking questions, struggles, terrors, and confusions!^[9] And admitting as well, our own unfortunate tendencies to recycle as “gospel truths” the unhelpful convictions of Job’s friends. How much comfort, understanding, and compassion do we forfeit for ourselves and deny to others when we reference only a minutia of Job’s story and acknowledge only a fraction of God’s ways and means?

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[1] “I Will Be Found of You” by Aaron L. West, Ensign, January 2010:80
[2] In some instances, finding God may indeed come in easy, transcendent ways, such as for many new seekers in search of His path; or when He goes in search of lost lambs (those who have left the fold). But for those who have made commitment to His path, the finding and re-finding of God in daily struggles and longings is seldom an exercise in ease. I also know that for me, seeing God is not the same as finding God. I can see God in nature, in the faces of children, in the compassion of good people, even in the survival of so many sinners who seem sustained for the chance that they might repent (which includes most of us); but many times, I cannot seem to find God in the translations and explanations of men. I wonder if God tires of us always trying to translate Him and our lives into tidy explanations when what He really wants is not our translations, but our transformation.
[3] Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:19 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 a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, 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 (emphasis added).
[4] Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 3:24-25 ... We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; (emphasis added); Doctrine and Covenants, Section 98:12, 14 … I will try you and prove you herewith. … for I have decreed in my heart, saith the Lord, that I will prove you in all things, whether you will abide in my covenant, even unto death, that you may be found worthy (emphasis added).
[5] Old Testament, Job 19:10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
[6] Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, ..., righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; …
[7] Old Testament, Job 42:7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
[8] For example, see magazine notes to “Judgments of Job” by Joseph Brickey on the inside front cover, Ensign, January 2010
[9] “I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Old Testament, Job 7:11); “I am full of confusion” (10:15); accused God of breaking him with a tempest and multiplying his wounds without cause (9:17), of being cruel to him (30:21); charged God with removing his hope like a tree [tearing it up by the roots?] (19:10); stood up to God and demanded to be judged in truth and justice (chp. 31); suffered immense despair (6:2-4) and terrifying dreams (7:14) and railed against his own birth (3:11).

Ways to Cope

(that sometimes work for me)

Dear Friend: Sometimes these things below have helped me navigate the minefields (mind-fields) of fear, doubt, and negative experience; or as you call them “micro bombs” that devastate so many attempts at finding/maintaining peace.

1. Remembering Moses and the Exodus. They made their big move and suddenly they had a Red Sea in front and 10,000-or-so armed and angry Egyptians closing in behind. And that was only their first experience of massive doubt about their big move. There seemed no solution to their dilemma—BUT there was. (Something they never could have envisioned.) It seems to me that “micro-bombs” in the lives of most who make major changes in their lives are a given—one of the opposition factors (2 Ne. 2:11, 15-16). You can find them everywhere in life and scripture. Remembering helps me realize I am not alone in facing doubts, fears, or inexplicable negatives because the god of this world (the adversary: 2 Cor. 4:4) seems to take great pleasure in mining every path to purpose and enlightenment.

2. BALANCING a doubt, fear, or negative thought with another thought, like:

a. Gratitude (and expressing it emphatically in my mind) for even the simplest things: a glimpse of beauty, finding my keys, an idea that saved me time or frustration, every swallow that mother takes without choking, a space of time to research or write, etc.
b. Referencing scripture as the Savior did when He was assailed with IF’s in the wilderness (Matt. 4:3-5). These have especially helped me: D&C 58:1-5; 98:1-3.
c. Holding to the iron rod of prior inspiration and witness: “Did I not speak peace to your mind [perhaps more than once] concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?” (D&C 6:23)

Life seems a perpetual (re)learning curve.

The Economics of Jesus

If Jesus were invited to speak at the next World Economic Forum, what would He say? And how long would it take us Christians to switch from C-SPAN to American Idol?

If we go by precedent,^[1] Jesus has a tendency to repeat Himself, so in all likelihood we would hear:

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).

OR

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12:34).

OR

… When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (Luke 14:12-14).

OR

… If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor,^[2] and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me (Matthew 19:21; Luke 18:22).

OR

… Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:23-24; Luke 18:25).

OR

… all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31).

OR

Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth (Luke 12:15).

OR

… take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth (Luke 21:34-35).

OR

… Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God (Luke 16:15).

OR

Woe unto you, … for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess (Matthew 23:25).

OR

… the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful (Mark 4:19; Luke 8:14).

OR

… Beware of [those], which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts: Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: … (Mark 12:38-40; Luke 11:43, 20:46-47).

OR

… if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away (Matthew 5:40-42; Luke 6:29-30).

OR

[to His ministers] … Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? … Therefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof (Matthew 6:25-34; Luke 12:22-31).

OR
Would He recount the story of the beggar Lazarus (in the bosom of Abraham) and the rich man (in hell) to help us rethink our present economic philosophies, expectations, and prejudices? (Luke 16:19-31)
OR
Would He ask us to leave our worldly incomes to become itinerant fishers of men (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17)?
OR
Might He tell us that in His economic system, cooperation, sacrifice, and moderation are vastly superior to competition, self-interest, and excess, and that: “… if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things;” (Doctrine and Covenants 78:6)?
OR
Might He ask us to take off our blinders and honestly tell Him what we see in our very own house(s)?
OR
Might He explain that He didn’t really mean “money” when He spoke the parable of the talents (Matthew 25; also Luke 19:12-26)?

As it is, the contradictions between His sayings and the reality of our lives in this world seem beyond reconciliation. So we seem to have turned to the ways of the opposition. Everywhere homes are increasing in size and grandeur. Countertops o’erflowing with proprietary chargers and their devices. Garages and/or storage units filled to overflowing. Bathrooms and closets the size of former great-rooms. Electronic recyclers surfeited with perfectly functional, but no-longer-stylish items. Credit & debt amassed to leverage hopes and dreams, and to salve impatience. Fashion, fame, and prestige bought and sold at the price of soul. Our drive to showcase our prosperity and prove His blessing and approval of us seems boundless. Even in the celebrations of His birth, spectacle and excess overwhelm us.

We preach self-sufficiency and He, God-sufficiency. We preach the work-ethic (i.e., labor for money) while He and His disciples ate freely from the corn fields they traversed (Matthew 12:1; Luke 6:1), and paid their tribute with a coin prophetically found in the mouth of a fish (Matthew 17:27).

How do we reconcile these contraries of what our God advocates and how we conduct our economic lives? Have we become so immersed in the ways of Babylon that we don’t even recognize her enticing sins and our peril? Have we any idea how excruciating it is going to be to opt-out of her market-place (Revelations 13:16-17; 1 Nephi 13:7-8)? Or how agonizing it might be for us—avid consumers—to watch our “beloved” Babylon collapse and burn (Revelations 18)? Do we have even a déjà vu sense of how God’s many and various chosen ones fall short of their callings time after time—the Jaredites, the children of Israel, the house of Judah, the Nephites, and undoubtedly us, if we go on consuming as if there will always be a tomorrow of excess? As if all the woe-filled prophecies apply to someone else, somewhere else?

What if the déjà vu of Jaredites, Israelites, Nephites, etc. did not end with the Restoration? What if we are not such a peculiar people?^[3] What if we are not that much different from the scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers of His day—so tied to our traditions, beliefs, and expectations that seeing, we will not see; and hearing, we will not hear?!

What did President Spencer W. Kimball say to us in June 1976?^[4] http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=9341fd758096b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD
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[1] Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11-26 for starters
[2] Notice, He did not say, “Give it to me.”
[3] Deuteronomy 14:2; 26:18; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9
[4] “The False Gods We Worship,” Ensign, June 1976

Empty Houses

by SMSmith

Curried green
And seen if seen
In the haste
Of a summer’s morn.

Not seen
In winter days
In the overcastted late
Of dream-spent spenders
Caught
In the night
Of artificial light.

From body-tired
To mindless ease
From consuming, routined
Hours to please
Powers and privilege.

Weekend escapes
Vacation leaves
Past miles unseen
From abodes unseen
Double-locked and alarmed.

Embellished walls
Wide, mortgaged halls
All
Vaulted silence.

Emptied

In the endless search
For enough
Of more.

© 1987 by SMSmith. Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at bottom of this page.

To those afflicted with riches*

(*and to the rest of us who, too often, wish we were.)

Despite the “neon” warning that:

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,^[1]

most of us, in our fondest dreams, wish we were “smitten with riches and that we should never recover”—in likeness of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

The strange thing is—if we go by scripture—there is probably no greater risk to man’s eternal prospects than to have riches. The failure rate is nigh 100%! And we should wish such a test upon our self?!

Strange too, when we consider the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man.^[2] At their sequential deaths, the beggar finds himself carried into the bosom of Abraham and the rich man finds himself raising pleas from hell. Where are the justice, merit, and conservative thinking in that scenario? From a trans-world perspective, it would almost seem safer to be a beggar than a rich man! Is that a contradiction or what, to our current capitalistic, individualistic, blessed-driven paradigm?!

What is it about riches that so afflicts mankind with failure? Is it the sense of merit? Of entitlement? Of ownership? Of self-sufficiency? Of freedom and power? Of basking in glory and honor taken unto oneself?

What does God say about these attitudes? Who deserves the credit/blame for riches and poverty?^[3] By whose gifts and graces does man draw breath, move, think, plan, and endure from day to day?

▪ The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. (Old Testament 1 Samuel 2:7)
▪ Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. (Old Testament 1 Chronicles 29:12)
▪ For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? … 22 … your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; (Book of Mormon Mosiah 4:16, 22; see also Book of Mormon Jacob 2:13; New Testament 1 Timothy 6:17; Doctrine and Covenants Section 38:39)

The word of God—particularly The Book of Mormon—details how, time after time, when the people were blessed (or perhaps it was afflicted) with prosperity, they turned to pride and to despising the poor—repeating cycles of falling away from faith, hope, and charity. Riches, it seems, comes coupled with a susceptibility to deception.

▪ And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they. (Bk of Mormon Jacob 2:13; see also Bk of Mormon Alma 45:24)
▪ Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (New Testament Revelation 3:17-18)
▪ He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. (New Testament Matthew 13:22; see also Mark 4:19; Luke 8:14)
▪ But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (New Testament 1 Timothy 6:9-10)
▪ Now the cause of this iniquity of the people was this—Satan had great power, unto the stirring up of the people to do all manner of iniquity, and to the puffing them up with pride, tempting them to seek for power, and authority, and riches, and the vain things of the world. (Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 6:15)
▪ Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: (New Testament 1 Timothy 6:5)

God warns that there is only one safe way to pursue riches:

Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you. 18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. 19 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. (Bk of Mormon Jacob 2:17-19)

God also warns, in starkest language, of the consequences of failing the purpose of riches:

▪ Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved! (Doctrine and Covenants Section 56:16)
▪ But wo unto the rich, who are rich as to the things of the world. For because they are rich they despise the poor, and they persecute the meek, and their hearts are upon their treasures; wherefore, their treasure is their god. And behold, their treasure shall perish with them also. (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 9:30)
▪ … and the wise, and the learned, and they that are rich, who are puffed up because of their learning, and their wisdom, and their riches—yea, they are they whom he despiseth; and save they shall cast these things away, and consider themselves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility, he will not open unto them. (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 9:42)
▪ Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just— 18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. (Book of Mormon Mosiah 4:17-18)
▪ GO to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. 4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. (New Testament James 5:1-4)

And last but not least, God also warns the poor (with application also to the rich and to those of us who fall inbetween):

Wo unto you poor [and rich and inbetween] men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men's goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands! 18 But blessed are the poor [and rich and inbetween] who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite, for they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance; for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs. (Doctrine and Covenants Section 56:16-18)

Nonetheless (and alas!), even with all the warnings and déjà vu of life and scripture, most of us desire to be rich, believing we would surely prove the exception to the eye-of-a-needle forecast. If only God would just trust us enough to prove it!!
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[1] New Testament Matthew 19:24; Mark 10:25; Luke 18:24-25
[2] Luke 16:19-31
[3] A note of explanation to the meritocrats: Yes, of course, most people play some part in the condition of their riches or poverty, but that is NEVER the whole story. God always has both the upper-hand and the higher view.