(REMARKS delivered by Bishop Orson F. Whitney, at the Box Elder Stake Conference, Sunday Afternoon, July 26, 1891.)
We murmur and complain because of the sorrows and miseries of this life, and our countenances are cast down. We lose our encouragement and feel to despond. We sometimes think that if we had the ruling of the universe and our will was being done, things would be different. Col. Ingersoll said, speaking of the trials, sorrows and miseries of the world: "If I were God and could not make a better world than this, I would not consider that I was worthy of being worshiped and adored." Doubtless this finds an echo in many men's hearts. Some people think all our sorrow and pain is of our own making, and God lends no hand in causing men to suffer. We know by Adam's transgression and Mother Eve's yielding to temptation, that sorrow was brought upon the world. We believe that the fall of Adam was foreordained and that he fell that man might be. Mother Eve rejoiced when she had yielded, for had there been no violation, there would have been no posterity.
Adam had the Gospel .... Noah had this Gospel and preached it to the world, but it was rejected. Abraham and Moses had this Gospel and strove hard to bring the people back into the presence of God by it.
We came as Jesus came; not to do our own will, but the will of our heavenly Father.
It is not to be supposed that the Lord is coming to each one of us every time we expect, and explain things. We need not all expect that we are going to see the Father and receive visits from angels. But God has His prophets and priesthood to whom He reveals His will.
We came to this earth to pass through all kinds of experiences and to become great and more like God. It is by denying self, being patient and seeking to do the work of God that we become great. The course of truth is ever upward: if we cling to it it will carry us up with it. If we cling to that whose course is downward, it will carry us down with it.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Looming Great Divorce
(or When are we going to open our eyes and ears that we might SEE and HEAR?!!)
“Almost thou persuadest me [NOT] to be a Christian!”1
That was my first reaction upon reading an email forward sent by a good Christian lady. So here is my latest “whoa, woe, whoa!!!” This church sister introduced her “forward” thus:
Then Cyndy gets to the apparent “meat” of her regrettable divorce from AARP; a part that appears to “raise the blood pressure [her] medical insurance strives to contain.” She writes:
So, for just a moment, I ask my Christian friends—many of whom are conservative Republicans: Will you honestly look at the STATE of YOUR politics? NOT your enemy’s politics, but YOURS.
What is the state of things when radio/TV pundits become more quotable, reliable, and fundamental than the Sermon on the Mount?! When ends claim to justify means? When deception and spin are strategized? When finance capital dictates governance? When extremism in the defense of “liberty” is deemed patriotic? Where sound bites substitute for informed research? When your GOP says one thing with its mouth and does another with its power?
How long can you pretend YOUR political “spouse” is being faithful to founding principles and values? Look at your record! Your documented history! Your investigations! Your subterfuges! Hear the eye-witnesses! The whistleblowers! The sworn testimonies!5
Why do you castigate only the infidelities of your enemy’s “spouse”? Is THAT helping your own degraded house? Open your eyes! Open your ears!
How long can you ignore the egregious incompatibilities between GOP words and practices? Between values and actions? Why do you dismiss with alacrity and scorn all criticisms as if they were but false and hostile smears upon a pristine conscience?
Do we imagine a professedly “chosen” people (or party, religion, nation, ideology, constitution, etc.) is immune to folly, error, deception, corruption? Perhaps a brief tour of the gifted and chosen ones of history would be instructive. Count how many were swept away in whirlpools of stiffneckedness, excess, and folly. How few died in the harness of integrity, humility, purpose, and honor.
We are not going to clean up the mess of our universal corruption and partisanship by focusing solely on the crimes and corruptions of “enemies.” We must first look to our own ways and affiliations. What did Biblical Micah caution? “… a man's enemies are the men of his own house.”6 And please, instead of knee-jerking to accuse and fault your perceived enemies in the national house, look first to the threats and offenses from within your own GOP house.
In this current state of politics, surely it is time to reject the blindness of partisanship and unthinking loyalties. It is time to demand more of ourselves than we do of our “enemies.” It is time to reject rampant, internal hypocrisies; to refuse the propaganda of PACs and the persuasions of mammon.7 It is time to seek out and support honest, wise, good, and courageous candidates free of compromising ties and dictates. It is time for self- and party-awareness. It is time to take a new moral way. It is way beyond time.
-----------------
(For those who wish to know my views on the Democrats, capitalism, socialism, free-market myths, the dire state of America's democratic values and republican form of government, etc. you may peruse other Déjà Vu posts at http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com)
1 New Testament Acts 26:28
2 AARP: American Association of Retired Persons
3 Of course, Cyndy has every right to reject the philosophies and practices of the AARP, if they conflict with hers, but the tragic thing is, too many partisans utterly fail to comprehend the present chasm between professed values and opposing actions. Their focus remains unwaveringly on their enemy to the exclusion of self-awareness—a classic diverting strategy acclaimed by C.S. Lewis’ astute senior demon, Screwtape (from The Screwtape Letters, 1942).
4 Applicable to other religious faiths and ethical adherents because most acknowledge a common set of human and moral values.
5 There are hundreds of meticulously, documented studies, books, and articles that are dismissed or ignored because: 1) they do not sustain the myths of rightness, justification, and ideology; 2) they are strategized as aiding and abetting the “enemy”; and 3) it takes so much precious time to sift truth from half-truths and error when lives are already so time-and info-stressed. Perhaps one approach is to prefer confirmed and documented information over passionate denials or justifications.
6 Old Testament Micah 7:6
7 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 (New Testament Matthew 6:24).
“Almost thou persuadest me [NOT] to be a Christian!”1
That was my first reaction upon reading an email forward sent by a good Christian lady. So here is my latest “whoa, woe, whoa!!!” This church sister introduced her “forward” thus:
THIS LADY NOT ONLY HAS A GRASP OF 'THE SITUATION' BUT AN INCREDIBLE COMMAND OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!Cyndy’s letter followed and set forth her reasons for declining to renew AARP membership because AARP’s “Divided We Fail” and other “Socialistic politics” are viewed by Cyndy as “threatening our way of life [and] offending our sensibilities.” Cyndy declares that “when the opinions and long term goals are diametrically opposed, the divorce is imminent.” And so she divorces AARP and decries “This Presidential Administration [that] scares the living daylights out of us.” [Did the prior presidential administration scare her? She does not say!]
[“THIS LADY” is allegedly Cyndy Miller, writer of a letter to AARP.2]
Then Cyndy gets to the apparent “meat” of her regrettable divorce from AARP; a part that appears to “raise the blood pressure [her] medical insurance strives to contain.” She writes:
“Your [AARP] website generously offers us the opportunity to receive all communication in Spanish.. ARE YOU KIDDING??? Someone has broken into our 'house', invaded our home without our invitation or consent. The President has insisted we keep the perpetrator in comfort and learn the perp language so we can communicate our reluctant welcome to them.Now, of course, I’m not going to jettison my faith because a Christian “forwarder” thinks there is “grasp and command” in this divorce decree.3 But it set me to thinking about the coming Great Divorce—the one many of my church and/or fellow-Americans don’t seem to realize is increasingly imperative. It is the divorce looming between their professed Christian4 allegiance and the current STATE of their politics. How the incompatibility has endured so long is already beyond comprehension!
I DON'T choose to welcome them.
I DON'T choose to support them.
I DON'T choose to educate them.
I DON'T choose to medicate them, pay for their food or clothing. …”
[etc., etc. Emphasis all hers.]
So, for just a moment, I ask my Christian friends—many of whom are conservative Republicans: Will you honestly look at the STATE of YOUR politics? NOT your enemy’s politics, but YOURS.
What is the state of things when radio/TV pundits become more quotable, reliable, and fundamental than the Sermon on the Mount?! When ends claim to justify means? When deception and spin are strategized? When finance capital dictates governance? When extremism in the defense of “liberty” is deemed patriotic? Where sound bites substitute for informed research? When your GOP says one thing with its mouth and does another with its power?
How long can you pretend YOUR political “spouse” is being faithful to founding principles and values? Look at your record! Your documented history! Your investigations! Your subterfuges! Hear the eye-witnesses! The whistleblowers! The sworn testimonies!5
Why do you castigate only the infidelities of your enemy’s “spouse”? Is THAT helping your own degraded house? Open your eyes! Open your ears!
How long can you ignore the egregious incompatibilities between GOP words and practices? Between values and actions? Why do you dismiss with alacrity and scorn all criticisms as if they were but false and hostile smears upon a pristine conscience?
Do we imagine a professedly “chosen” people (or party, religion, nation, ideology, constitution, etc.) is immune to folly, error, deception, corruption? Perhaps a brief tour of the gifted and chosen ones of history would be instructive. Count how many were swept away in whirlpools of stiffneckedness, excess, and folly. How few died in the harness of integrity, humility, purpose, and honor.
We are not going to clean up the mess of our universal corruption and partisanship by focusing solely on the crimes and corruptions of “enemies.” We must first look to our own ways and affiliations. What did Biblical Micah caution? “… a man's enemies are the men of his own house.”6 And please, instead of knee-jerking to accuse and fault your perceived enemies in the national house, look first to the threats and offenses from within your own GOP house.
In this current state of politics, surely it is time to reject the blindness of partisanship and unthinking loyalties. It is time to demand more of ourselves than we do of our “enemies.” It is time to reject rampant, internal hypocrisies; to refuse the propaganda of PACs and the persuasions of mammon.7 It is time to seek out and support honest, wise, good, and courageous candidates free of compromising ties and dictates. It is time for self- and party-awareness. It is time to take a new moral way. It is way beyond time.
-----------------
(For those who wish to know my views on the Democrats, capitalism, socialism, free-market myths, the dire state of America's democratic values and republican form of government, etc. you may peruse other Déjà Vu posts at http://dejavu-times.blogspot.com)
1 New Testament Acts 26:28
2 AARP: American Association of Retired Persons
3 Of course, Cyndy has every right to reject the philosophies and practices of the AARP, if they conflict with hers, but the tragic thing is, too many partisans utterly fail to comprehend the present chasm between professed values and opposing actions. Their focus remains unwaveringly on their enemy to the exclusion of self-awareness—a classic diverting strategy acclaimed by C.S. Lewis’ astute senior demon, Screwtape (from The Screwtape Letters, 1942).
4 Applicable to other religious faiths and ethical adherents because most acknowledge a common set of human and moral values.
5 There are hundreds of meticulously, documented studies, books, and articles that are dismissed or ignored because: 1) they do not sustain the myths of rightness, justification, and ideology; 2) they are strategized as aiding and abetting the “enemy”; and 3) it takes so much precious time to sift truth from half-truths and error when lives are already so time-and info-stressed. Perhaps one approach is to prefer confirmed and documented information over passionate denials or justifications.
6 Old Testament Micah 7:6
7 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 (New Testament Matthew 6:24).
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Be Not Deceived
(Essay by SMSmith, posted in 7 installments. © 2002)
One of the most persistent warnings in scripture is that we “be not deceived.”1
Deception has been, from the beginning, the chief device of the adversary in his war to destroy the agency of man (Moses 4:3). He began with a plan of redemption without risk. When his self-exalting proposal was rejected, he rebelled against God. As a result he was cast down, “And he became Satan, yea even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto [God’s] voice” (Moses 4:4; emphasis added). In his rebellion, he lost his passion to “redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost” (Moses 4:1), and became obsessed with destroying the world (Moses 4:6) and the souls of men (D&C 10:27; 1 Pet. 5:8). The very agency he had once discounted became his greatest boon as his agenda refocused from compelling obedience2 to captivating free souls through sin and disobedience (2 Ne. 2:27).
Thus began the long saga of mankind’s battle with deception. In this last dispensation we can expect that the agenda of deceit will be intensified and will be our most frequent, perilous challenge. We can expect that all deceptions will be aimed at enticing men and women to choose captivity and death, and that Satan’s greatest efforts will be aimed at destroying the family.3 We can expect that his enticements will be profoundly subtle, appealing to the rational mind, and often dressed up, “even as an angel of light.” We can also expect that the Father’s plan, embraced by the Son, will have anticipated every deception and have given instruction sufficient for every eventuality.
As we examine a few scriptural accounts of the adversary’s deceptive ploys, we can “liken them unto” our own latter-day experience and be forewarned and armed. And though, in examination, these deceptions are separated out, yet in practice, they overlap and entwine, even as the chains that bind.
------------
1 “There is a difference between being deceived and making a mistake. When you are deceived, you think you are right when you are wrong; so you are less likely to make a correction and get back on course. You go on living and doing things that are wrong, but you think they are right.” (Glenn L. Pearson and Reid E. Bankhead, Building Faith With the Book of Mormon, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1986), pp. 116-117).
2 Traditionally we have understood that Lucifer’s premortal plan was one of force as opposed to the self-discipline permitted by moral agency. But his plan may have also encompassed other means to compromise or deny agency, e.g., when no law is given (Alma 42:16-23; see also Daniel H. Ludlow, “Moral Free Agency,” New Era, Nov. 1976, 44-50).
3 See Spencer W. Kimball, “Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters,” Ensign, Nov. 1978, at 105: “It is against the home and family life that Satan has aimed his greatest efforts to destroy.” See also, Victor L. Brown, “Our Youth: Modern Sons of Helaman,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, 108: “I believe Satan’s ultimate goal is to destroy the family, because if he would destroy the family, he will not just have won the battle; he will have won the war.”
One of the most persistent warnings in scripture is that we “be not deceived.”1
Deception has been, from the beginning, the chief device of the adversary in his war to destroy the agency of man (Moses 4:3). He began with a plan of redemption without risk. When his self-exalting proposal was rejected, he rebelled against God. As a result he was cast down, “And he became Satan, yea even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto [God’s] voice” (Moses 4:4; emphasis added). In his rebellion, he lost his passion to “redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost” (Moses 4:1), and became obsessed with destroying the world (Moses 4:6) and the souls of men (D&C 10:27; 1 Pet. 5:8). The very agency he had once discounted became his greatest boon as his agenda refocused from compelling obedience2 to captivating free souls through sin and disobedience (2 Ne. 2:27).
Thus began the long saga of mankind’s battle with deception. In this last dispensation we can expect that the agenda of deceit will be intensified and will be our most frequent, perilous challenge. We can expect that all deceptions will be aimed at enticing men and women to choose captivity and death, and that Satan’s greatest efforts will be aimed at destroying the family.3 We can expect that his enticements will be profoundly subtle, appealing to the rational mind, and often dressed up, “even as an angel of light.” We can also expect that the Father’s plan, embraced by the Son, will have anticipated every deception and have given instruction sufficient for every eventuality.
As we examine a few scriptural accounts of the adversary’s deceptive ploys, we can “liken them unto” our own latter-day experience and be forewarned and armed. And though, in examination, these deceptions are separated out, yet in practice, they overlap and entwine, even as the chains that bind.
------------
1 “There is a difference between being deceived and making a mistake. When you are deceived, you think you are right when you are wrong; so you are less likely to make a correction and get back on course. You go on living and doing things that are wrong, but you think they are right.” (Glenn L. Pearson and Reid E. Bankhead, Building Faith With the Book of Mormon, (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1986), pp. 116-117).
2 Traditionally we have understood that Lucifer’s premortal plan was one of force as opposed to the self-discipline permitted by moral agency. But his plan may have also encompassed other means to compromise or deny agency, e.g., when no law is given (Alma 42:16-23; see also Daniel H. Ludlow, “Moral Free Agency,” New Era, Nov. 1976, 44-50).
3 See Spencer W. Kimball, “Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters,” Ensign, Nov. 1978, at 105: “It is against the home and family life that Satan has aimed his greatest efforts to destroy.” See also, Victor L. Brown, “Our Youth: Modern Sons of Helaman,” Ensign, Jan. 1974, 108: “I believe Satan’s ultimate goal is to destroy the family, because if he would destroy the family, he will not just have won the battle; he will have won the war.”
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Deception One: “… surely I will do it [my way]; wherefore give me thine honor” (Moses 4:1)
(Essay on deception by SMSmith, posted in installments, from last to first; #2 of 7. © 2002)
This first recorded deception was twofold. First, that Lucifer could redeem all mankind so that not one soul would be lost; and second, that his genius merited exceptional reward above all others, including the Father (D&C 29:36; Isa. 14:13-14). We do not know the intricacies of Lucifer’s plan , but he sought to win allegiance to himself by promising some variance of the Father’s multifaceted Plan consisting of the plan of salvation (Alma 42:5); the plan of restoration / justice (Alma 41:2-3); the plan of redemption / mercy (Alma 42:11- 15);4 and the plan of happiness (Alma 42:8), all sustaining the eternal principle of agency.
Somehow a third part of the hosts of heaven were deceived into believing that the assured redemption promised by Lucifer was preferable to the Father’s plan (D&C 29:36). One can imagine the fear Lucifer sought to instill as he enumerated the perils attending every mortal experience, but even more alarming, the odds against a mortal Jesus remaining sinless while subject to the flesh.5 If, by some impossibility such were realized, what chance, he might have argued, was there that the Savior would then honor his commitment to suffer beyond measure and die when the power was in him to live forever? If Jesus failed on either count, then even those who had chosen righteousness would be irretrievably lost (Jacob 7:12; Alma 34:9). There had to be an easier, surer way to inherit eternal life!
And so the deception began—one that soon evolved into a theology of redemption through the grace of God without need for repentance, baptism, obedience, or endurance. Nehor taught this doctrine of reward without requisite effort (Alma 1:4, 15; 15:15), and it persists to this day—dark shadows from the premortal council.
This easier-way rationale translates into a something-for-nothing or a disproportionate-reward syndrome. This is the deception that excuses idleness; claims privilege without responsibility; and seeks happiness without obedience. It underpins gambling and sweepstakes addictions and motivates some aspects of the drug and alcohol culture as partakers attempt a chemical shortcut to a spiritual place.
The Lord’s response to this short-cut theology is the law of the harvest. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7; also D&C 6:33; Mosiah 7:30).
The “surely-I-will-do-it” attitude lives on in every oppressive personality. Deceived as to their own self-sufficiency, they or their oppressive regimes pursue visions of utopian control, trampling upon God-given rights and proscribing others in their opinions and beliefs. At another extreme, this same self-sufficiency underpins the tragic misconception of good people who strive to achieve personal perfection by their own endeavor without looking to “the great Mediator of all men.”
The “my-way” mindset leads many to reject the will of God and the missions of their life because “When they are learned [or stubborn or in love] they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves,” (2 Ne. 9:28). But those who reject God’s path will someday have to acknowledge “that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness” (Alma 38:9). The promise is sure that “whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction” (1 Ne. 15:24).
The second aspect of this first deception—the glory-seeking—still fills the world. It feeds the demand for excessive compensation, honors, powers, or privileges because of talent, ingenuity, education, wealth, position, race, social ranking, fame, and so forth. It supports the class system that was so distressing to Alma (Alma 4:12, 15) for it proves the cause of so much oppression, suffering, sorrow, excess, and poverty.
To those who seek elevated privilege, the Lord’s example is enlightening: “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10: 42-45); “and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Ne. 26:33; see also D&C 38:24-25).
------------
4 Jacob refers to a plan of deliverance (2 Ne. 11:5), but this seems to be a broader term encompassing both the plan of salvation (from physical death) and the plan of redemption (from spiritual death).
5 Jesus was also divine (see James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1970, p. 21), but the mortal aspect of his nature was that which might have been perceived to put the Father’s plan at risk.
This first recorded deception was twofold. First, that Lucifer could redeem all mankind so that not one soul would be lost; and second, that his genius merited exceptional reward above all others, including the Father (D&C 29:36; Isa. 14:13-14). We do not know the intricacies of Lucifer’s plan , but he sought to win allegiance to himself by promising some variance of the Father’s multifaceted Plan consisting of the plan of salvation (Alma 42:5); the plan of restoration / justice (Alma 41:2-3); the plan of redemption / mercy (Alma 42:11- 15);4 and the plan of happiness (Alma 42:8), all sustaining the eternal principle of agency.
Somehow a third part of the hosts of heaven were deceived into believing that the assured redemption promised by Lucifer was preferable to the Father’s plan (D&C 29:36). One can imagine the fear Lucifer sought to instill as he enumerated the perils attending every mortal experience, but even more alarming, the odds against a mortal Jesus remaining sinless while subject to the flesh.5 If, by some impossibility such were realized, what chance, he might have argued, was there that the Savior would then honor his commitment to suffer beyond measure and die when the power was in him to live forever? If Jesus failed on either count, then even those who had chosen righteousness would be irretrievably lost (Jacob 7:12; Alma 34:9). There had to be an easier, surer way to inherit eternal life!
And so the deception began—one that soon evolved into a theology of redemption through the grace of God without need for repentance, baptism, obedience, or endurance. Nehor taught this doctrine of reward without requisite effort (Alma 1:4, 15; 15:15), and it persists to this day—dark shadows from the premortal council.
This easier-way rationale translates into a something-for-nothing or a disproportionate-reward syndrome. This is the deception that excuses idleness; claims privilege without responsibility; and seeks happiness without obedience. It underpins gambling and sweepstakes addictions and motivates some aspects of the drug and alcohol culture as partakers attempt a chemical shortcut to a spiritual place.
The Lord’s response to this short-cut theology is the law of the harvest. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7; also D&C 6:33; Mosiah 7:30).
The “surely-I-will-do-it” attitude lives on in every oppressive personality. Deceived as to their own self-sufficiency, they or their oppressive regimes pursue visions of utopian control, trampling upon God-given rights and proscribing others in their opinions and beliefs. At another extreme, this same self-sufficiency underpins the tragic misconception of good people who strive to achieve personal perfection by their own endeavor without looking to “the great Mediator of all men.”
The “my-way” mindset leads many to reject the will of God and the missions of their life because “When they are learned [or stubborn or in love] they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves,” (2 Ne. 9:28). But those who reject God’s path will someday have to acknowledge “that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness” (Alma 38:9). The promise is sure that “whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction” (1 Ne. 15:24).
The second aspect of this first deception—the glory-seeking—still fills the world. It feeds the demand for excessive compensation, honors, powers, or privileges because of talent, ingenuity, education, wealth, position, race, social ranking, fame, and so forth. It supports the class system that was so distressing to Alma (Alma 4:12, 15) for it proves the cause of so much oppression, suffering, sorrow, excess, and poverty.
To those who seek elevated privilege, the Lord’s example is enlightening: “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10: 42-45); “and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Ne. 26:33; see also D&C 38:24-25).
------------
4 Jacob refers to a plan of deliverance (2 Ne. 11:5), but this seems to be a broader term encompassing both the plan of salvation (from physical death) and the plan of redemption (from spiritual death).
5 Jesus was also divine (see James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1970, p. 21), but the mortal aspect of his nature was that which might have been perceived to put the Father’s plan at risk.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Deception Two: “Ye shall not surely die;” (Moses 4:10)
(Essay on deception by SMSmith, posted in installments, from last to first; #3 of 7. © 2002)
This is the second recorded deception that says, God’s word does not have to be taken seriously. The heart of this rationale usually rests in one of three beliefs: 1) that ones uniqueness or circumstance falls outside the law; 2) that the law itself is passé, because it was given for a different age, circumstance, or people; or 3) that easy grace (or ones quick repentance) will take care of every matter in due course. Each belief carries with it a proviso that if some consequence does follow, it will be but a few stripes and then all will be well.
In Nephi’s words: “there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Ne. 28:8).
This deception excuses shortfalls in tithes and offerings; rationalizes Sunday shopping and recreation; excuses Word of Wisdom infractions, immodesty, worldliness, profane language, and dabblings in the occult. It justifies neglecting or robbing the poor (Mosiah 4:17), and of not paying what an employee’s labor is worth. It expects quick, easy repentance for moral violations and discounts flirtations at the supposed fringes of moral sin.6 In one sense, it is a contrary of Deception One by espousing nothing for something. It both denies significant consequence for sin and declassifies as many sins as it can.
But God’s word is clear. His law is to be taken seriously for “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger, and fear not me, saith the Lord of Hosts” (3 Ne. 24:5; Mal. 3:5; see also 1 Cor. 6:9-10).
Quick repentance and easy grace are not options. They are tenets of the adversary’s theology for the Savior has said, “no unclean thing can enter into [God’s] kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end” (3 Ne. 27:19, emphasis added; see also 1 Ne. 10:21; Alma 39:6). In short, faith, true repentance, baptism, obedience, and endurance to the end are still requisites.
Yet, there are alternate voices that say, “Believe it not” (Moses 5:13; 2 Ne. 28:6). And in believing not, the adversary wins at both extremes as the rebellious and disobedient disparage the reach of justice; while the suffering, downcast sinner despairs the reach of mercy.
Sometimes the alternate voices say, “I am also a son [appointed one] of God” (Moses 5:13). Paul warned of those who would set themselves in place of the Lord’s anointed: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15; see also Matt. 7:15). Additional warnings7 in these latter-days leave us without excuse for “the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people;” (D&C 1:14).
Sometimes as believers we are not even aware of our selective unbelief—an unbelief that requires long, repetitious teaching. As case in point: “Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion. The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel?” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 34).
--------------
6 See the remarks of Richard C. Edgley, “That Thy Confidence Wax Strong,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, at 40.
7 See Boyd K. Packer, “To Be Learned Is Good If …,” Ensign, Nov. 1992, at 73; also “Follow the Brethren,” Speeches of the Year, BYU, 23 Mar. 1965, p. 1-10 (also found in Tambuli, Sept. 1979, 53-64 and on LDS Magazines 1971-1999 CDRom); and Dallin H. Oaks, “Alternate Voices,” Ensign, May 1989, 27-30.
This is the second recorded deception that says, God’s word does not have to be taken seriously. The heart of this rationale usually rests in one of three beliefs: 1) that ones uniqueness or circumstance falls outside the law; 2) that the law itself is passé, because it was given for a different age, circumstance, or people; or 3) that easy grace (or ones quick repentance) will take care of every matter in due course. Each belief carries with it a proviso that if some consequence does follow, it will be but a few stripes and then all will be well.
In Nephi’s words: “there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Ne. 28:8).
This deception excuses shortfalls in tithes and offerings; rationalizes Sunday shopping and recreation; excuses Word of Wisdom infractions, immodesty, worldliness, profane language, and dabblings in the occult. It justifies neglecting or robbing the poor (Mosiah 4:17), and of not paying what an employee’s labor is worth. It expects quick, easy repentance for moral violations and discounts flirtations at the supposed fringes of moral sin.6 In one sense, it is a contrary of Deception One by espousing nothing for something. It both denies significant consequence for sin and declassifies as many sins as it can.
But God’s word is clear. His law is to be taken seriously for “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger, and fear not me, saith the Lord of Hosts” (3 Ne. 24:5; Mal. 3:5; see also 1 Cor. 6:9-10).
Quick repentance and easy grace are not options. They are tenets of the adversary’s theology for the Savior has said, “no unclean thing can enter into [God’s] kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end” (3 Ne. 27:19, emphasis added; see also 1 Ne. 10:21; Alma 39:6). In short, faith, true repentance, baptism, obedience, and endurance to the end are still requisites.
Yet, there are alternate voices that say, “Believe it not” (Moses 5:13; 2 Ne. 28:6). And in believing not, the adversary wins at both extremes as the rebellious and disobedient disparage the reach of justice; while the suffering, downcast sinner despairs the reach of mercy.
Sometimes the alternate voices say, “I am also a son [appointed one] of God” (Moses 5:13). Paul warned of those who would set themselves in place of the Lord’s anointed: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:13-15; see also Matt. 7:15). Additional warnings7 in these latter-days leave us without excuse for “the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people;” (D&C 1:14).
Sometimes as believers we are not even aware of our selective unbelief—an unbelief that requires long, repetitious teaching. As case in point: “Too often we bask in our comfortable complacency and rationalize that the ravages of war, economic disaster, famine, and earthquake cannot happen here. Those who believe this are either not acquainted with the revelations of the Lord, or they do not believe them. Those who smugly think these calamities will not happen, that they somehow will be set aside because of the righteousness of the Saints, are deceived and will rue the day they harbored such a delusion. The Lord has warned and forewarned us against a day of great tribulation and given us counsel, through His servants, on how we can be prepared for these difficult times. Have we heeded His counsel?” (Ezra Taft Benson, “Prepare for the Days of Tribulation,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 34).
--------------
6 See the remarks of Richard C. Edgley, “That Thy Confidence Wax Strong,” Ensign, Nov. 1994, at 40.
7 See Boyd K. Packer, “To Be Learned Is Good If …,” Ensign, Nov. 1992, at 73; also “Follow the Brethren,” Speeches of the Year, BYU, 23 Mar. 1965, p. 1-10 (also found in Tambuli, Sept. 1979, 53-64 and on LDS Magazines 1971-1999 CDRom); and Dallin H. Oaks, “Alternate Voices,” Ensign, May 1989, 27-30.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Deception Three: “I am free” (Moses 5:33).
(Essay on deception by SMSmith, posted in installments, from last to first; #4 of 7. © 2002)
This is the deception that seduced Cain. He completely misconstrued freedom. He gloried in destroying that which annoyed him and stood in his way, and proclaimed his freedom to pursue gain, heedless of all but his own desire, without regard even for his brother’s life.
This is the deception that governs those who override decency, integrity, and the common good for the sake of profit. It motivates cheating, fraud, and theft. It underpins greed, violence, prostitution, oppression, slander, gossip, perjury, abortion, pornography, and the greatest atrocities that mankind has seen and will yet see. Gain is the pursuit, whether in fame, fortune, approval, or power, and whether pursued by one or many.
This is the deception that leads otherwise honorable people into profiting from evil, whether directly or indirectly, because “people must be free to choose.” This is to succumb to the lies Satan has woven all around and through the principles of freedom and agency. It is a telling paradox that Lucifer, who once disdained the risks of agency, should now be such a vociferous advocate for freedom and choice in this world. The not-so-subtle difference is that Satan’s version of agency is to do away with “offensive” moral laws and thus their consequences (i.e., purport to do so as the “father of lies”), whereas the Lord’s plan of agency is ringed and bounded with law and consequence (Alma 42:16-23).
Thus, when it comes to moral law, Satan would have the world believe that the law itself offends agency—a deception that has worked time and again.8 And though overburdened criminal and civil courts are proof enough that even secular law in a free society does not destroy agency, Satan’s ploy is to reach beyond the willfully disobedient to those who are otherwise restrained by law. If he can dismantle the moral law, it loses in both respect and remembrance as many become a law unto themselves. But the Lord has said, “verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same. That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment” (D&C 88:34-35).
And so Satan contorts words, ideas, and philosophies in a desperate bid to obscure the truth about agency. The truth as taught by Lehi: “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil;” (2 Ne. 2:27; 10:23).
This is an everlasting principle—we choose liberty and eternal life through obedience to God’s law or we choose captivity and death through disobedience. Only obedience preserves freedom because every act of disobedience welds a link of captivity to the habits, addictions, obsessions, weaknesses, egoism, and fears that are hallmarks of the adversary’s path to destruction.
----------------
8 Boyd K. Packer, “Our Moral Environment,” Ensign, May 1992, 66: “While we pass laws to reduce pollution of the earth, any proposal to protect the moral and spiritual environment is shouted down and marched against as infringing upon liberty, agency, freedom, the right to choose. Interesting how one virtue, when given exaggerated or fanatical emphasis, can be used to batter down another, with freedom, a virtue, invoked to protect vice. Those determined to transgress see any regulation of their life-style as interfering with their agency and seek to have their actions condoned by making them legal. People who are otherwise sensible say, “I do not intend to indulge, but I vote for freedom of choice for those who do.” Regardless of how lofty and moral the “pro-choice” argument sounds, it is badly flawed. With that same logic one could argue that all traffic signs and barriers which keep the careless from danger should be pulled down on the theory that each individual must be free to choose how close to the edge he will go.”
This is the deception that seduced Cain. He completely misconstrued freedom. He gloried in destroying that which annoyed him and stood in his way, and proclaimed his freedom to pursue gain, heedless of all but his own desire, without regard even for his brother’s life.
This is the deception that governs those who override decency, integrity, and the common good for the sake of profit. It motivates cheating, fraud, and theft. It underpins greed, violence, prostitution, oppression, slander, gossip, perjury, abortion, pornography, and the greatest atrocities that mankind has seen and will yet see. Gain is the pursuit, whether in fame, fortune, approval, or power, and whether pursued by one or many.
This is the deception that leads otherwise honorable people into profiting from evil, whether directly or indirectly, because “people must be free to choose.” This is to succumb to the lies Satan has woven all around and through the principles of freedom and agency. It is a telling paradox that Lucifer, who once disdained the risks of agency, should now be such a vociferous advocate for freedom and choice in this world. The not-so-subtle difference is that Satan’s version of agency is to do away with “offensive” moral laws and thus their consequences (i.e., purport to do so as the “father of lies”), whereas the Lord’s plan of agency is ringed and bounded with law and consequence (Alma 42:16-23).
Thus, when it comes to moral law, Satan would have the world believe that the law itself offends agency—a deception that has worked time and again.8 And though overburdened criminal and civil courts are proof enough that even secular law in a free society does not destroy agency, Satan’s ploy is to reach beyond the willfully disobedient to those who are otherwise restrained by law. If he can dismantle the moral law, it loses in both respect and remembrance as many become a law unto themselves. But the Lord has said, “verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same. That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment” (D&C 88:34-35).
And so Satan contorts words, ideas, and philosophies in a desperate bid to obscure the truth about agency. The truth as taught by Lehi: “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil;” (2 Ne. 2:27; 10:23).
This is an everlasting principle—we choose liberty and eternal life through obedience to God’s law or we choose captivity and death through disobedience. Only obedience preserves freedom because every act of disobedience welds a link of captivity to the habits, addictions, obsessions, weaknesses, egoism, and fears that are hallmarks of the adversary’s path to destruction.
----------------
8 Boyd K. Packer, “Our Moral Environment,” Ensign, May 1992, 66: “While we pass laws to reduce pollution of the earth, any proposal to protect the moral and spiritual environment is shouted down and marched against as infringing upon liberty, agency, freedom, the right to choose. Interesting how one virtue, when given exaggerated or fanatical emphasis, can be used to batter down another, with freedom, a virtue, invoked to protect vice. Those determined to transgress see any regulation of their life-style as interfering with their agency and seek to have their actions condoned by making them legal. People who are otherwise sensible say, “I do not intend to indulge, but I vote for freedom of choice for those who do.” Regardless of how lofty and moral the “pro-choice” argument sounds, it is badly flawed. With that same logic one could argue that all traffic signs and barriers which keep the careless from danger should be pulled down on the theory that each individual must be free to choose how close to the edge he will go.”
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Deception Four: “I am no devil.”* “There is no God.”**
(Essay on deception by SMSmith, posted in installments, from last to first; #5 of 7. © 2002)
(*2 Ne. 28:22; **(Alma 30:53; see also 2 Ne. 28:5-6)
Nephi warned of this deception: “And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance” (2 Ne. 28:22).
Korihor succumbed to a parallel deception when he confessed: “But behold, the devil hath deceived me; for he appeared unto me in the form of an angel, and said unto me: Go and reclaim this people, for they have all gone astray after an unknown God. And he said unto me: There is no God; yea, and he taught me that which I should say. And I have taught his words; and I taught them because they were pleasing unto the carnal mind; and I taught them, even until I had much success, insomuch that I verily believed that they were true;” (Alma 30:53).
What better way to obscure sin than to mock the idea of a lawgiver, a tempter, and even a lawbreaker. Without a God in heaven or laws defining right and wrong, then “whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:17), and thus he was free to pursue happiness in whatever manner he might devise. This great deception is revealed in the words of Samuel the Lamanite: “ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head” (Hel. 13:38; see also Alma 41:10).
No person who discounts the reality of the archenemy of every good thing (Moro. 7:12, 17; Alma 34:49) will endure for the First Presidency of an earlier day described Satan thus: “He is working under such perfect disguise that many do not recognize either him or his methods. There is no crime he would not commit, no debauchery he would not set up, no plague he would not send, no heart he would not break, no life he would not take, no soul he would not destroy. He comes as a thief in the night; he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing” (Messages of the First Presidency, comp. James R. Clark, 6 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–75, 6:179, as quoted by James E. Faust, “The Great Imitator,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 34).
(*2 Ne. 28:22; **(Alma 30:53; see also 2 Ne. 28:5-6)
Nephi warned of this deception: “And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance” (2 Ne. 28:22).
Korihor succumbed to a parallel deception when he confessed: “But behold, the devil hath deceived me; for he appeared unto me in the form of an angel, and said unto me: Go and reclaim this people, for they have all gone astray after an unknown God. And he said unto me: There is no God; yea, and he taught me that which I should say. And I have taught his words; and I taught them because they were pleasing unto the carnal mind; and I taught them, even until I had much success, insomuch that I verily believed that they were true;” (Alma 30:53).
What better way to obscure sin than to mock the idea of a lawgiver, a tempter, and even a lawbreaker. Without a God in heaven or laws defining right and wrong, then “whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:17), and thus he was free to pursue happiness in whatever manner he might devise. This great deception is revealed in the words of Samuel the Lamanite: “ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head” (Hel. 13:38; see also Alma 41:10).
No person who discounts the reality of the archenemy of every good thing (Moro. 7:12, 17; Alma 34:49) will endure for the First Presidency of an earlier day described Satan thus: “He is working under such perfect disguise that many do not recognize either him or his methods. There is no crime he would not commit, no debauchery he would not set up, no plague he would not send, no heart he would not break, no life he would not take, no soul he would not destroy. He comes as a thief in the night; he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing” (Messages of the First Presidency, comp. James R. Clark, 6 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965–75, 6:179, as quoted by James E. Faust, “The Great Imitator,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 34).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)