Latter-day Saints who are sensible and sensitive are keenly aware of the folly of being alarmist and shrill about the dangers and evils that surround us in the Last Days.
It is annoying and even counter-productive to insistently sound an alarm over minor matters and on the things of lesser importance.
At the same time it is good and necessary to have a dialogue together on things of deep interest and pertinence, especially when they affect all of us. This is one of those times.
We are in the Last Days. By any measure of interpretation the words and warnings of prophets ancient and modern are clearly unfolding before our eyes. The weather and natural phenomena, the distress among nations, political upheaval and the brazen actions of secret combinations high and low all attest to this. It is imperative for us to watch and be vigilant:---
"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."
As we discussed in our youth Sunday School class last week, "sober" means able to think seriously about important matters.
"For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."
Solid, sterling, sober words, Paul. Thank you.
Last night I finished reading a novel, One Second After, about the effects across America of a small nuclear device detonated some 200 miles overhead to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The result was destruction of the electrical grid for the whole country.
Vehicles built since the 1980s that relied on computerized electrical systems would not start nor run. Food supplies, therefore, were brought to a standstill. Cold storage for food and medicines was likewise rendered impotent. Phone service and communications of all kinds ceased, except for primitive and inadequate methods. Transportation ground to a halt. The hero in the novel drove his mother-in-law's old Edsel, but pumping gas was not possible in any usual way.
The book was well written, sensitive and provocative, family- and community-centered, but necessarily brutal and compelling in its description of the tribal instincts to eat and survive, including cannibalism, that surfaced among people and towns. I was deeply impressed and affected by it, by its message and its sensitive, human treatment of the theme.
Less than two weeks ago, separate and independent of the novel, The Heritage Foundation, defender and educator on the Constitution and civic matters in the nation, issued a short article on the matter of EMP and its possible effects:
"It sounds like something out of a movie. A nuclear weapon detonates at high altitude, generating a burst of electromagnetic energy that devastates the United States---destroying electronics, collapsing communications, halting transportation, and shutting down all electrical power. Unfortunately, the threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) strike is all too real, and it's time America's leaders wake up to the reality."
Their brief article goes on to detail the total loss of our present lifestyle. It also makes this point: a nuclear weapon is not the only way it could occur. Unusually powerful solar activity could produce the same catastrophe.
Elder McConkie has commented on certain verses in the Apocalypse---the Book of Revelation--- as depicting "nuclear holocaust, which surely must come." He has also written at length on the prophecies of the Last Days, most clearly in The Millennial Messiah.
In the novel I read, the scenario was plausible, realistic, credible. The hero was religious . . . a widower with a young family, . . . a college professor, ex-military, a patriot, . . . and a good family man. The final chapter describes the community's rescue --- after a full year of isolation, and attack from desperate tribal groups --- by a military company whose column of vehicles flew the Stars and Stripes. The final sentence of the book, however, reads:
"The world had changed forever, the America they knew . . . never to return."
As I say, provocative . . . and plausible. Not mere alarmist fiction.
So . . . what of the prophecies? What is the real story? Do we have any clues, any help on that front?
The prophets have said that all the wars and calamities we have experienced throughout history will appear as a child's game compared with what is coming. Again, this is not designed to depress or alarm or destroy hope. But it is well to know something of the realities ahead. Something that can be a sure anchor for our faith and survival, whether in life or in death.
We do well to take heed. To watch, and be sober.
In The Millennial Messiah, Elder McConkie has this paragraph:
"As to the coming end of all nations and the final triumph of Israel [as a people---us, the House of Israel---and as a nation], we should make a brief comment. Many of the present nations of the earth will be here, flourishing, fighting, struggling for a place in the sun, when the Lord comes. It is our firm conviction as a people that the stars and stripes will be waving triumphantly in the breeze, as a symbol of the greatness and stability of the United States of America, when the Lord comes. This nation was established to be the Lord's base of operations in this final gospel dispensation. From it the gospel is to go to every other nation and people. The greater its influence among the nations of the world [take note, Mr President], the more rapidly the gospel spreads. But the Lord has told us that all nations, the United States included, shall cease to be when He comes. These are His words:
"'With the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations' (D&C 87:6.)"
Can you see the value of the scriptures, and of the prophets?
Can you see the need for the real story of how history will play out?
Can you see, in light of all the above, the importance of the election in fourteen months?
Can you read between the lines?
Again, feel free to share this, if you sense any value in it. Pass it on to others.
I wish I knew how to persuade you to engage in a shared discussion of these and other vital things. We get precious little comment or feedback on any of this. Which is strange to me.
God bless you.
Warmest regards,
Steve
P.S. Again, we have omitted references and sources on purpose. Contact me if you would like to go deeper.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
GIFTS : To Be, or Not To Be . . . Bold
Knowing that the Savior was meek and lowly of heart we naturally think of Him as easy-going, perhaps even a bit of a soft touch! Or at least we assume that His love will override all other considerations. Maybe that is why we speak of Him as a "friend" or our "older brother." It certainly might explain why we are unafraid to offend or displease Him.
A true understanding of the fact that He is our Lord as well as our Savior, the Lion of Judah as well as the Lamb of God, the God of battles as well as the Prince of Peace might change our minds.
Consider this from an Apostle of the Lord, a generation ago:
"We are having many challenges these days---challenges to our way of life, challenges to our moral standards, challenges actually to our doctrines. I am convinced in my own mind, studying all the difficulties that face us in the world today, that we are really living in the Last Days. I believe that now and in the years to come we will need a stronger testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before.
"Every one of us must do as the Presidency of the Church does, and that is to treat God as a person and not as a concept or an idea of any kind. He is a Person, and we need to deal with Him that way. We must realize that He has feelings, and we can offend Him or we can please Him, depending on our attitude" (Elder Mark E. Petersen, 1 Sept. 1983).
That was given twenty-eight years ago. A prophetic statement.
And an insightful one. The Lord has feelings---more tender and holy than we are used to believing of Him perhaps. We must seek to please Him.
"It isn't the words we speak that will bring forth His love. It is the keeping of His commandments and doing the will of our Father in heaven," taught Elder LeGrand Richards of the Twelve in October 1968 general conference. . . . So much for God's "unconditional" love.
I think in large measure we have been taken hostage by the world's false ideas on many of these sacred matters to do with our God and where we stand with Him.
Recall with me the Prophet's clarification of the Savior's meek and lowly disposition:
"Some of the company thought I was not a very meek Prophet; so I told them: 'I am meek and lowly in heart,' and will personify Jesus for a moment, to illustrate the principle, and cried out with a loud voice, 'Woe unto you, ye doctors; woe unto you, ye lawyers; woe unto you, ye scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites!' But you cannot find the place where I ever went that I found fault with their food, their drink, their house, their lodgings; no, never; and this is what is meant by the meekness and lowliness of Jesus" (TPJS, 270).
"On another occasion," as Joseph McConkie tells it, "a couple of pious men of the cloth interrogated the Prophet at length, hoping to find some fault in him. When they stepped out of the house to leave, Joseph drew a line on the ground with his shoe and challenged his visitors to toe the line and see if they could outjump him. They went off in a huff amazed that one who professed to be a man of God would propose such an activity on the Sabbath day. When asked why he had done so, the Prophet responded that they had come to find fault with him, and he hated to see them leave disappointed."
On yet another occasion, "[The Rushton family] arrived at Nauvoo the evening of April 13. Father was naturally very anxious to find the members of his family already established there, and hurried towards the town in search of them. He had gone only a short distance when he met a man riding a beautiful black horse. The man accosted him, saying, 'Hey, Bub, is that a company of Mormons just landed?'
"In much surprise father answered, 'Yes, sir.' 'Are you a Mormon?' the stranger continued. 'Yes, sir,' father again answered. 'What do you know about old Joe Smith?' the mounted stranger asked.
"'I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God,' said father. 'I suppose you are looking for an old man with a long, gray beard. What would you think if I told you I was Joseph Smith?' the man continued.
"'If you,' said father, 'are Joseph Smith, I know you are a Prophet of God.' In a gentle voice the man explained: 'I am Joseph Smith. I came to meet these people, dressed as I am in rough clothes and speaking in this manner, to see if their faith is strong enough to stand the things they must meet. If not, they should turn back right now.' This was father's introduction to the Prophet Joseph."
There are a thousand such accounts of the character of Joseph Smith. If you want to know what the Savior was like, search and find what Joseph was like.
These statements and illustrations are to show us that we come short of a correct assessment of our Lord and Savior's true character and demeanor. And, as in all things, He is our example of how to be bold. And Joseph is just like Him.
From Donald Q. Cannon: "My great-grandfather, Angus M. Cannon, had a vision with a rather sobering message. . . . He kept a very extensive journal, more than eighty volumes, in which this experience is recorded. He expressed it as follows: 'I did hear a voice which said---Angus, it is your privilege to appear before the Lord and I immediately looked and beheld Him, apparently about 30 rods [approx. 500 feet] distant. . . . I saw His profile down to His waist. . . . I undertook to arise and go to Him but dared not approach Him and said, "My God! Who can appear before Him!" I imagine He would say: How have you used my name and what use have you made of my Priesthood? When I thought of my many light speeches and the manner in which I had striven to embellish my remarks in addressing people as His servant, circumlocuting around the truths given of Him as witness His sermon on the mount, I was unable to go to Him.'"
Again, we learn from Parley P. Pratt's autobiography: While in Philadelphia, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were invited to speak to a group of some three thousand people in one of the largest churches there. Elder Rigdon addressed the congregation first. Fearful of the reaction people might have to pure Mormonism, he defended the Restoration with Bible passages, studiously avoiding reference to the coming of angels, visions, and other remarkable spiritual events upon which the Restoration rests. Sidney Rigdon's timidity so annoyed Joseph that---
"When he [Sidney] was through, brother Joseph arose like a lion about to roar; and being full of the Holy Ghost, spoke in great power, bearing testimony of the visions he had seen, the ministering of angels which he had enjoyed; and how he had found the plates of the Book of Mormon, and translated them by the gift and power of God. He commenced by saying: 'If nobody else had the courage to testify of so glorious a record, he felt to do it in justice to the people, and leave the event with God.'
"The entire congregation were astounded, electrified, as it were, and overwhelmed with the sense of the truth and power by which he spoke, [and] many souls were gathered into the fold."
Bold? Aye, and more. What to be bold about, for us? Why, about the truth . . . ! --- the only thing worth being bold about. A lack of boldness, therefore, shows a lack of conviction of the truth, a shortage of knowledge and understanding, which always comes by the Spirit, when we pay the price. Who was it that chided the Priesthood for "timid efforts" in leaving "unwarned or unaided" a human soul "so that he has to wait till a dependable servant of God comes along"?
Ah yes. It was President Monson, echoing his predecessor, the head of our dispensation, Joseph Smith, who lamented that "none but fools will trifle with the souls of men." Let's not be fools. Let's be wise. And bold . . . "in justice to the people, and leave the event with God."
The word teach in Hebrew carries the meaning of warn. A timid warning is no warning at all. The Apostles, after the Savior's ascension, in the Book of Acts had a new boldness because they had the power and gift of the Holy Ghost following Pentecost. We find this boldness nine times in Acts alone (it is found only three times in the whole of the Old Testament), and nineteen additional times in Paul's writings. The Greek word is parrhesia and means "all outspokenness, frankness, bluntness; by implication: assurance, confidence in spirit and demeanor; plainness"
(Strong's). This definition is a fitting summary of all we have said here.
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1).
There is more. But this will do for now.
Please share with others.
Let me know your thoughts on these important matters.
Steve
A true understanding of the fact that He is our Lord as well as our Savior, the Lion of Judah as well as the Lamb of God, the God of battles as well as the Prince of Peace might change our minds.
Consider this from an Apostle of the Lord, a generation ago:
"We are having many challenges these days---challenges to our way of life, challenges to our moral standards, challenges actually to our doctrines. I am convinced in my own mind, studying all the difficulties that face us in the world today, that we are really living in the Last Days. I believe that now and in the years to come we will need a stronger testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before.
"Every one of us must do as the Presidency of the Church does, and that is to treat God as a person and not as a concept or an idea of any kind. He is a Person, and we need to deal with Him that way. We must realize that He has feelings, and we can offend Him or we can please Him, depending on our attitude" (Elder Mark E. Petersen, 1 Sept. 1983).
That was given twenty-eight years ago. A prophetic statement.
And an insightful one. The Lord has feelings---more tender and holy than we are used to believing of Him perhaps. We must seek to please Him.
"It isn't the words we speak that will bring forth His love. It is the keeping of His commandments and doing the will of our Father in heaven," taught Elder LeGrand Richards of the Twelve in October 1968 general conference. . . . So much for God's "unconditional" love.
I think in large measure we have been taken hostage by the world's false ideas on many of these sacred matters to do with our God and where we stand with Him.
Recall with me the Prophet's clarification of the Savior's meek and lowly disposition:
"Some of the company thought I was not a very meek Prophet; so I told them: 'I am meek and lowly in heart,' and will personify Jesus for a moment, to illustrate the principle, and cried out with a loud voice, 'Woe unto you, ye doctors; woe unto you, ye lawyers; woe unto you, ye scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites!' But you cannot find the place where I ever went that I found fault with their food, their drink, their house, their lodgings; no, never; and this is what is meant by the meekness and lowliness of Jesus" (TPJS, 270).
"On another occasion," as Joseph McConkie tells it, "a couple of pious men of the cloth interrogated the Prophet at length, hoping to find some fault in him. When they stepped out of the house to leave, Joseph drew a line on the ground with his shoe and challenged his visitors to toe the line and see if they could outjump him. They went off in a huff amazed that one who professed to be a man of God would propose such an activity on the Sabbath day. When asked why he had done so, the Prophet responded that they had come to find fault with him, and he hated to see them leave disappointed."
On yet another occasion, "[The Rushton family] arrived at Nauvoo the evening of April 13. Father was naturally very anxious to find the members of his family already established there, and hurried towards the town in search of them. He had gone only a short distance when he met a man riding a beautiful black horse. The man accosted him, saying, 'Hey, Bub, is that a company of Mormons just landed?'
"In much surprise father answered, 'Yes, sir.' 'Are you a Mormon?' the stranger continued. 'Yes, sir,' father again answered. 'What do you know about old Joe Smith?' the mounted stranger asked.
"'I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God,' said father. 'I suppose you are looking for an old man with a long, gray beard. What would you think if I told you I was Joseph Smith?' the man continued.
"'If you,' said father, 'are Joseph Smith, I know you are a Prophet of God.' In a gentle voice the man explained: 'I am Joseph Smith. I came to meet these people, dressed as I am in rough clothes and speaking in this manner, to see if their faith is strong enough to stand the things they must meet. If not, they should turn back right now.' This was father's introduction to the Prophet Joseph."
There are a thousand such accounts of the character of Joseph Smith. If you want to know what the Savior was like, search and find what Joseph was like.
These statements and illustrations are to show us that we come short of a correct assessment of our Lord and Savior's true character and demeanor. And, as in all things, He is our example of how to be bold. And Joseph is just like Him.
From Donald Q. Cannon: "My great-grandfather, Angus M. Cannon, had a vision with a rather sobering message. . . . He kept a very extensive journal, more than eighty volumes, in which this experience is recorded. He expressed it as follows: 'I did hear a voice which said---Angus, it is your privilege to appear before the Lord and I immediately looked and beheld Him, apparently about 30 rods [approx. 500 feet] distant. . . . I saw His profile down to His waist. . . . I undertook to arise and go to Him but dared not approach Him and said, "My God! Who can appear before Him!" I imagine He would say: How have you used my name and what use have you made of my Priesthood? When I thought of my many light speeches and the manner in which I had striven to embellish my remarks in addressing people as His servant, circumlocuting around the truths given of Him as witness His sermon on the mount, I was unable to go to Him.'"
Again, we learn from Parley P. Pratt's autobiography: While in Philadelphia, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were invited to speak to a group of some three thousand people in one of the largest churches there. Elder Rigdon addressed the congregation first. Fearful of the reaction people might have to pure Mormonism, he defended the Restoration with Bible passages, studiously avoiding reference to the coming of angels, visions, and other remarkable spiritual events upon which the Restoration rests. Sidney Rigdon's timidity so annoyed Joseph that---
"When he [Sidney] was through, brother Joseph arose like a lion about to roar; and being full of the Holy Ghost, spoke in great power, bearing testimony of the visions he had seen, the ministering of angels which he had enjoyed; and how he had found the plates of the Book of Mormon, and translated them by the gift and power of God. He commenced by saying: 'If nobody else had the courage to testify of so glorious a record, he felt to do it in justice to the people, and leave the event with God.'
"The entire congregation were astounded, electrified, as it were, and overwhelmed with the sense of the truth and power by which he spoke, [and] many souls were gathered into the fold."
Bold? Aye, and more. What to be bold about, for us? Why, about the truth . . . ! --- the only thing worth being bold about. A lack of boldness, therefore, shows a lack of conviction of the truth, a shortage of knowledge and understanding, which always comes by the Spirit, when we pay the price. Who was it that chided the Priesthood for "timid efforts" in leaving "unwarned or unaided" a human soul "so that he has to wait till a dependable servant of God comes along"?
Ah yes. It was President Monson, echoing his predecessor, the head of our dispensation, Joseph Smith, who lamented that "none but fools will trifle with the souls of men." Let's not be fools. Let's be wise. And bold . . . "in justice to the people, and leave the event with God."
The word teach in Hebrew carries the meaning of warn. A timid warning is no warning at all. The Apostles, after the Savior's ascension, in the Book of Acts had a new boldness because they had the power and gift of the Holy Ghost following Pentecost. We find this boldness nine times in Acts alone (it is found only three times in the whole of the Old Testament), and nineteen additional times in Paul's writings. The Greek word is parrhesia and means "all outspokenness, frankness, bluntness; by implication: assurance, confidence in spirit and demeanor; plainness"
(Strong's). This definition is a fitting summary of all we have said here.
"The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion" (Proverbs 28:1).
There is more. But this will do for now.
Please share with others.
Let me know your thoughts on these important matters.
Steve
GIFTS: The Unknown Christ
We often hear in classes, comments, talks, discussions, and testimonies "doctrines that have no roots in scripture [or] those that have been grafted into the tree of life. It is important that we separate the wheat from the chaff. One cannot make good bread with chaff, and certainly not the bread of life."
Our beloved teacher and brother Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote this in 1987. In the generations before and since, his has ever been the voice of defense of good doctrine. He is a great advocate for the truths we possess because of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He is a prime example of a true defender of the faith. We love him and thank him for it.
Do you readily see the Christ in these words from Joseph McConkie? For me, when I see these words --- doctrines, roots, scripture, tree of life, bread of life --- I immediately think of the Christ and the doctrine of Christ.
Truly, unless one sees the true Christ everywhere in the Old and New Testaments, and in all the other scriptures, then there is no understanding of the scriptures at all. And lacking that understanding we really do not know the Christ at all, for the scriptures and prophets were given to testify of Him.
Jesus the Christ is "the key of knowledge, the fulness of the scriptures" --- the reason and the purpose that we have prophets and scripture. For that matter, He is the reason we have eyes and ears and intellect.
And yet we are largely blind to Him. And He is unknown to us. Why so? Because the scriptures are largely unknown to us. And we are left, for our knowledge and understanding of Him, with the common ideas floating around in the world about Him. We are left with hearsay testimony, with half-baked ideas, secondary notions, guesswork and folly.
This truth was known to the prophets. Isaiah especially warned of it. He said that the true Messiah would have the most distorted image of any and all men. That we, the children of men, would consider Him beneath us, and would esteem Him not.
When we are steeped in self esteem it is hard to esteem Him who truly deserves our esteem. Such are the dangers of the philosophies and the precepts of men.
Nephi too, a friend and an echo of Isaiah, foretold that we --- natural mankind --- would trample Him under our feet, set Him at naught by neglecting and ignoring His voice and His counsels.
The simple fact that we struggle to be drawn to His voice in the holy writ He has revealed, that we think we are doing Him and angels a favor by reading His words at all, is evidence of this sad fact.
We neglect the scriptures because they are hard to understand. It takes work, hard work, to study and understand them. So we are left with a faint, misty, distorted image of their Author.
The scriptures can only be understood and fully appreciated when we have the same Spirit that inspired their prophet-authors in the first place: the Holy Ghost. That Spirit does not serve everyone, only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and revelation. Only those who "have esteemed the words of His mouth more than their necessary food."
It is not the work of scholarship, so much as a love affair with the work of the Lord, as President Gordon B. Hinckley boldly affirmed.
In 1611, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible, 400 years ago this year, said of the scriptures: "If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us. . . .
"The scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them?"
These translators added, "Tolle, lege; Tolle, lege!" Latin for "Take up and read; Take up and read" the Scriptures.
A surface skimming or scanning of the scriptures won't do. We will come short unless our best efforts cause us to go deeper, below the surface. Precious gems are not found on the surface. Only gravel is found there. We must go deeper. We must, in humility and tears if need be, pay the price.
Pay the price. Out of honor and justice to Him of whom they speak.
Only then can we expect to come to know Him so that we can emulate Him, imitate Him. How serious a matter is this?
Twice in the Gospel, or Testimony, of Matthew we find the Lord chiding His disciples---the Saints---because they did not know Him or trouble themselves to find Him. More accurately, He speaks of the Last Days, when He comes in glory, when He will chide or rebuke those who considered themselves His people. "Lord, Lord, open unto us," plead the foolish virgins. But His reply comes, "Verily I say unto you, Ye know me not." And the door remains shut, even locked, as the footnote shows.
The other instance is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount: "And then will I say, Ye never knew me; depart from me ye that work iniquity."
Each time, to His disciples, or Saints, who wanted in to the feast, who had done many wonderful works of service in His name, but who, after all, knew Him not! . . . Truly, works without faith are dead, quite as dead as faith without works. And faith comes by hearing the word of God---by seeking to know the word and thus coming to know the Word.
Are not these things plain? Don't you love Nephi who delighted in plainness, who cried out for His help to be strict in the plain road! ---who began to close his record thus:
"And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be."
Nephi, who had just written, "Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock;" nor work hard at it.
Do you know of things more vital than these? --- for our children, our families, our posterity, ourselves. I have been unable to find more vital matters, and I am looking hard all the time.
We began here with doctrine, roots, bread---even the sustaining Bread of Life. Also the Tree of Life, from which comes the fruit that is most delicious and pure and sweet of all fruits, which was desirable to make one happy.
Know ye not that this Tree of Life is the Savior? It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is not merely some fuzzy abstract notion like Love, as the world would have us believe. Search the scriptures---go deep---you will find this to be so.
Let's go deeper, so we can find Him whose visage or face was so marred, obscured, distorted by the foolish ideas of the world that He is unrecognizable, unless we seek deep to find and know Him.
More on this later.
God bless.
Steve
P.S. Sources and references have been purposely left out of the article. If you wish to know them, or to go deeper (!) in any way on this noble theme, please let me know. As always, feel free to share this around.
Our beloved teacher and brother Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote this in 1987. In the generations before and since, his has ever been the voice of defense of good doctrine. He is a great advocate for the truths we possess because of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. He is a prime example of a true defender of the faith. We love him and thank him for it.
Do you readily see the Christ in these words from Joseph McConkie? For me, when I see these words --- doctrines, roots, scripture, tree of life, bread of life --- I immediately think of the Christ and the doctrine of Christ.
Truly, unless one sees the true Christ everywhere in the Old and New Testaments, and in all the other scriptures, then there is no understanding of the scriptures at all. And lacking that understanding we really do not know the Christ at all, for the scriptures and prophets were given to testify of Him.
Jesus the Christ is "the key of knowledge, the fulness of the scriptures" --- the reason and the purpose that we have prophets and scripture. For that matter, He is the reason we have eyes and ears and intellect.
And yet we are largely blind to Him. And He is unknown to us. Why so? Because the scriptures are largely unknown to us. And we are left, for our knowledge and understanding of Him, with the common ideas floating around in the world about Him. We are left with hearsay testimony, with half-baked ideas, secondary notions, guesswork and folly.
This truth was known to the prophets. Isaiah especially warned of it. He said that the true Messiah would have the most distorted image of any and all men. That we, the children of men, would consider Him beneath us, and would esteem Him not.
When we are steeped in self esteem it is hard to esteem Him who truly deserves our esteem. Such are the dangers of the philosophies and the precepts of men.
Nephi too, a friend and an echo of Isaiah, foretold that we --- natural mankind --- would trample Him under our feet, set Him at naught by neglecting and ignoring His voice and His counsels.
The simple fact that we struggle to be drawn to His voice in the holy writ He has revealed, that we think we are doing Him and angels a favor by reading His words at all, is evidence of this sad fact.
We neglect the scriptures because they are hard to understand. It takes work, hard work, to study and understand them. So we are left with a faint, misty, distorted image of their Author.
The scriptures can only be understood and fully appreciated when we have the same Spirit that inspired their prophet-authors in the first place: the Holy Ghost. That Spirit does not serve everyone, only those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and revelation. Only those who "have esteemed the words of His mouth more than their necessary food."
It is not the work of scholarship, so much as a love affair with the work of the Lord, as President Gordon B. Hinckley boldly affirmed.
In 1611, the translators of the King James Version of the Bible, 400 years ago this year, said of the scriptures: "If we be ignorant, they will instruct us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us. . . .
"The scriptures then being acknowledged to be so full and so perfect, how can we excuse ourselves of negligence, if we do not study them?"
These translators added, "Tolle, lege; Tolle, lege!" Latin for "Take up and read; Take up and read" the Scriptures.
A surface skimming or scanning of the scriptures won't do. We will come short unless our best efforts cause us to go deeper, below the surface. Precious gems are not found on the surface. Only gravel is found there. We must go deeper. We must, in humility and tears if need be, pay the price.
Pay the price. Out of honor and justice to Him of whom they speak.
Only then can we expect to come to know Him so that we can emulate Him, imitate Him. How serious a matter is this?
Twice in the Gospel, or Testimony, of Matthew we find the Lord chiding His disciples---the Saints---because they did not know Him or trouble themselves to find Him. More accurately, He speaks of the Last Days, when He comes in glory, when He will chide or rebuke those who considered themselves His people. "Lord, Lord, open unto us," plead the foolish virgins. But His reply comes, "Verily I say unto you, Ye know me not." And the door remains shut, even locked, as the footnote shows.
The other instance is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount: "And then will I say, Ye never knew me; depart from me ye that work iniquity."
Each time, to His disciples, or Saints, who wanted in to the feast, who had done many wonderful works of service in His name, but who, after all, knew Him not! . . . Truly, works without faith are dead, quite as dead as faith without works. And faith comes by hearing the word of God---by seeking to know the word and thus coming to know the Word.
Are not these things plain? Don't you love Nephi who delighted in plainness, who cried out for His help to be strict in the plain road! ---who began to close his record thus:
"And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be."
Nephi, who had just written, "Wherefore, now after I have spoken these words, if ye cannot understand them it will be because ye ask not, neither do ye knock;" nor work hard at it.
Do you know of things more vital than these? --- for our children, our families, our posterity, ourselves. I have been unable to find more vital matters, and I am looking hard all the time.
We began here with doctrine, roots, bread---even the sustaining Bread of Life. Also the Tree of Life, from which comes the fruit that is most delicious and pure and sweet of all fruits, which was desirable to make one happy.
Know ye not that this Tree of Life is the Savior? It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is not merely some fuzzy abstract notion like Love, as the world would have us believe. Search the scriptures---go deep---you will find this to be so.
Let's go deeper, so we can find Him whose visage or face was so marred, obscured, distorted by the foolish ideas of the world that He is unrecognizable, unless we seek deep to find and know Him.
God bless.
Steve
P.S. Sources and references have been purposely left out of the article. If you wish to know them, or to go deeper (!) in any way on this noble theme, please let me know. As always, feel free to share this around.
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