Sabbathought: God's Love Is Not "Unconditional".

"I do not know who first figured out that God's love is unconditional," says Joseph McConkie. "I do know, however, that he did it without the help of scripture.

"Do we Latter-day Saints commonly teach as doctrine things for which there is not a shred of scriptural evidence? I am fearful that we do. . . .

"In Latter-day Saint sermons of recent years it has been common for speakers to challenge the congregation to emulate God in exercising 'unconditional love.' . . . The phrase itself is entirely unscriptural; if there are scriptures that sustain the idea, I have been unable to find them."

Surely we understand enough about the restored gospel to know that the gospel is found in the scriptures! That is why we call the scriptures "the standard works," because they are the standard for all we teach, speak, and believe.

To illustrate this:

Some years ago a book was published by a Mormon author about the spirit world, which pretended to give many detailed accounts of conditions there, and comings and goings through the veil. Sadly, the book was well received in the Latter-day Saint community, especially among Relief Society sisters.

One such sister saw Elder Thomas S. Monson in a restaurant and knelt by the side of his table to speak of her enthusiasm for the book. "Oh, it is marvelous!" she proclaimed, "it is the gospel, Elder Monson, isn't it!"

Elder Monson's answer was, "Of course it is not the gospel. The gospel is found in the scriptures."

Lacking firm footings in the sacred word, we are prey to any daft idea the world happens to be selling at bargain price at the moment. The notion of "unconditional love" is one of them. It is still heard today in our lessons and prayers and talks, though less than it used to be.

That is a key point: the ideas and precepts of men are fads. Their popularity never lasts very long before they are replaced by some other poor and misleading doctrine. A generation ago it was the false idea of self esteem. This gave way to unconditional love. Both were extremely popular among the Saints. Both did much damage, as we shall show. It is evident both still exist in our thinking to a large degree.

As President Hinckley said, "I have spoken before about the importance of keeping the doctrine of the Church pure, and seeing that it is taught in all of our meetings. I worry about this. Small aberrations in doctrinal teaching can lead to large and evil falsehoods."

That big word he used: . . . aberrations . . . . It's a good word. It's the right word. Can you see the word err in the middle of it? Aberrations means errors, mistakes, "straying from the right way" (Webster), when "the right way is to believe in Christ" --- and an aberration takes you on a different path, when the true path of safety and salvation is strait and narrow, meaning "strict and narrow," and has everything to do with "the very points of His doctrine" and the fact that the Lord "marked the path and led the way, / And ev'ry point defines" (Hymn 195).

The word error means wandering, wandering about all over the place, straying from the path. I sense that many of us don't see how deeply harmful it is to wander off like this. Why are we not afraid to do so? Because we have replaced the scriptural words, "fear God" with the precept of men on "unconditional love." Our brazen attitude is that we have nothing to fear from wandering about and abandoning His path because God loves us . . . !

How dare we! The Lord opened up this last dispensation with a warning voice --- and, yes, that is the right word: warning. He said, speaking of the world, and the reason for the glorious restoration of the true gospel:

"For they have strayed from mine ordinances, and have broken mine everlasting covenant;

"They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way . . . ."

Yes, He said, "This is a day of warning, and not a day of many words. For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in the last days."

Do we not see that when we adopt the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture, we are again fulfilling these warning words?!

When Joseph in the Grove asked the Lord which church he should join, the Lord Jesus Christ told him he "must join none of them, for they were all wrong; . . . that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight;" and they "were all corrupt."

On more than one occasion I have had class members refute these words as we studied the First Vision and defend the "wrong churches" and insist that they are good and all have some truth in them, and so on. . . ! Their loyalty to their entrenched false ideas of self esteem and unconditional love for the members of those false churches was more important to them than the truth, . . . than the words of the Master Himself. . . !

That is not the only occasion when I have painfully witnessed Latter-day Saints defending their traditions of error in the face of the plain truth of God. I know it sounds incredible, but that is the path we choose when we neglect, or avoid, the scriptures. No one believes in a vacuum. We all believe what we have heard or read. And if we have not taken the positive and specific action of making it our business to know deeply and well the revealed word of the Lord, then we shall be naturally and automatically laboring under the misapprehension of false ideas.

The prophet and hero Nephi foretold that this would be the case among the active and faithful Saints:

"They have all gone astray," said Nephi, speaking of the false churches of the Last Days, "save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men."

Do you see it? Do you see our key words again here? --- stray . . . err . . . precepts of men.

You see . . . even the humble followers of Christ (!!!) do err, wander, stray off like the false churches of the day, and why do they? Because they are taught by the precepts of men, and they embrace such false ideas from men, from the world, ideas like self esteem and unconditional love.

And how is this teaching received by this people? Very well . . . except this man doesn't seem to believe what is being taught.

We largely do not fear to offend the Lord. After all, He has an abundance of unconditional love for each and every one of His children. Such nonsense sends us on the wrong path. It is the philosophies of men, mingled with scripture, and, to our everlasting shame, it is very well received by this people. The solution is clear. We go to the scriptures.

There we will find that love is a law (see the chapter heading of John 15), and that "unto every law there are certain bounds and conditions" (D&C 88:38).

There are no unconditional laws. Nothing in the gospel is unconditional. Every law and blessing and covenant and reward is highly conditional, for heaven's sake . . . ! Every one!

"When I have asked people who teach this so-called doctrine how they distinguish God's 'unconditional love' from salvation by grace as taught in the Protestant world, they have been unable to do so," concluded Joseph McConkie before citing several scriptures to refute the false doctrine of unconditional love.

Nothing could be plainer than the scriptures. The word IF signals that a condition is to follow: "If . . . then . . . ." So when we see in D&C 95:12 the Savior saying, "If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness" then we should be worried enough to redouble our efforts to keep the commandments so as not to forfeit the inestimable (but clearly now, not unconditional!) love of God in our lives. And so that we don't offend our God.

John 14:21 and 15:10 give the same clear and plain message. We only miss it if we prefer that the precepts of God not interrupt our traditions of belief in the precepts of men.

Do you sense how terribly important this is!

One final thought: President Hinckley warned of small errors leading to large and evil falsehoods. Yes indeed! It is a short step on the path of error from God's unconditional love to the evil falsehood of justice cannot rob mercy. Think about it. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

Steve

P.S. Again, feel free to share. Let me know if you need clarification on anything here, or if you wish to discuss it.