Deny Not the Power of God

Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove to ask a question that had been asked by millions of believers before him: which of all the churches and creeds is right? The Lord's response sounds angry to me:

"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: 'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof'" (JS-H 1:19, emphasis added).

Ten years later, when Joseph is translating the Book of Mormon, the remedy for that situation becomes apparent in the words of Moroni, who brings us full circle:

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot" (Moroni 10:32-33, emphasis added).

Jesus complained to Joseph in the Sacred Grove that the ministers of the day uniformly rejected the ability of Jesus Christ to change our very natures, and the Book of Mormon is, among so many things, a manual that teaches the minimum qualifications we need in order to experience the "mighty change of heart" available to all (if only we know where to look). An anomaly is present in Moroni's words. If we are "perfect," how can anything be left to work on? Why does he indicate that there is room for improvement, namely, sanctification?

Perfect here must mean something other than flawless—it more likely means "keeping the whole law." No matter how we bring our behavior into alignment with God's will, it qualifies us as "perfect" in this context. But perfect behavior, whether through willpower ("denying ourselves of all ungodliness," quitting cold turkey, white-knuckling our way through temptations), or by the strengthening power of Christ to resist temptations ("be perfect in Christ"), is not the ultimate end for us—there is more. When we attain and maintain righteous behavior through the grace of Christ, and love God, and "deny not" that it is through grace that we are able to maintain our righteous behavior, THEN we have unrighteous desires weeded out of our hearts by God Himself, rather than managing our unrighteous desires.

The absence of this concept from the Christian world has led to two main schools of thought: denial of our fallen nature (hypocrisy, like the Pharisees whom the Savior called "whited sepulchers"), or denial of God's ability to change us, coupled with the corresponding idea that salvation must be possible without having evil desires weeded out of our hearts. The first idea involves hiding our sins and putting on an air of piety; the second involves a weird self-righteousness about having given up trying to change, a kind of pride in having realized that one is hopelessly flawed, a natural-born Sinner. Inducing feelings of guilt for sin is the main function of the Holy Ghost for each mindset. The first spends all day condemning sinners, and all night partying in secret; the second spends all day partying in public, lulled to sleep at night by the assurance that they are bound for heaven no matter what they do. The term "spiritual rebirth" (actually the "mighty change of heart") is watered down to refer to a moment of shouting and exuberance, accompanied by a heavenly get-out-of-jail-free card.

Of course, these mentalities bleed into each other, and I guess there is a spectrum, a continuum between them, and adherents can settle themselves anywhere in between the two flawed extremes.

[22 October 2012, Update: While knowledge about the power of Christ to change our hearts is muddled in the teachings of many religions, desperation drives many people to seek for this power in their own lives. When flaws and vices are no longer socially acceptable, or become destructive, many people look outside of organized religion for help. Here are the twelve steps of the AA program:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

These steps are drenched in humility, and require faith in "a Power," though unspecified. Compare this language to 3Ne. 9:20, or to Ether 12:27, and you will see abundant overlap and similarities. They may not know what to call it, but the authors and practitioners of these principles are unwittingly tapping the sanctifying power of the Atonement and receiving the grace of Christ, although they may not even know His name. It is like operating with a blindfold, not knowing exactly who is giving the help, or where that help is coming from. But God is no respecter of persons, and anyone who meets the qualifications in the above scriptures will also receive the promised blessings, even if they are only a preliminary form that precedes the permanence of the official stamp of ordinances. Those who come to God in faith, with broken hearts and contrite spirits, will receive grace, regardless of misunderstandings about who is on the other side of the veil working the miracle. This is attitude precedes salvation, but does not eliminate the need for water baptism and other ordinances.]

Jesus repeated the mantra of repentance, the need for changed behavior AND nature, throughout His mortal ministry. The four gospels are a litany of what to do and what not to do, one commandment after another. He intensifies the Decalogue, moving obedience into the mind and heart as well as hand, mouth, and foot. Jesus was giving us the what of the higher law in the New Testament; the Book of Mormon provides the clearest instructions about how. It teaches us exactly what we need to do to qualify for the change of nature necessary to clear the raised bar of the New Testament law. Hence Joseph's statement that we could get nearer to God by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon than any other book.

I will try to concentrate the major themes here: repentance (changed behavior, seeing the world with a new view), humility (offering a broken heart and contrite spirit, submitting one's will to God's), faith in Christ, loving God with one's whole heart, coming to Christ with all these things, and receiving the ordinances of salvation (baptism, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, etc.) are necessary precursors to that mighty change. Once we meet all these qualifications, we are able to experience a change of heart. One way to think of it is that we give our hearts to Christ, and He gives us His heart. But it must be our whole heart, not part. When we love anything more than Him, we are disqualified from experiencing a complete change of heart. (Joseph Smith also taught about a preliminary change that occurs in those who recognize the truth of the gospel, "seeing the kingdom," which leads them to repent and be baptized, "entering the kingdom.")

This is the essence of what had been lost from the earth. In the Grove, Joseph learned what was missing; the Book of Mormon restores that fundamental knowledge to the earth, and also has living, ordained ministers associated with it, who can perform the necessary ordinances. The first principles and ordinances of the gospel (faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost and subsequent rebirth, and enduring to the end) are the only way available for us to access the power of the Atonement to change our natures. How can we tell when the Atonement is active in us? When we feel the Holy Ghost. How can we tell when our natures have changed? When sins that used to "easily beset" us are no longer temptations; when we find ourselves responding with apathy to Satan's invitations to sin, and instead long for the things of God, things of truth, things that fill us with light and knowledge. Spiritual rebirth, this mighty change, is also accompanied by the activation of our dormant spiritual gifts, whatever they may be. We go from being "sifted like wheat" (mediocre, average, indistinguishable from the rest of struggling humanity, relying on the arm of the flesh, our own strength and wisdom) to being armed with the power of God, being led about by the Spirit, becoming the answer to prayers offered by those whose paths we cross. In other words, the Lord will use us in this state. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). When guided by the Spirit, we show up where we are needed, often not even knowing why we are guided there.

The Lord identified the root of Joseph's problem (as well as the world at large), and gave us the solutions through him. Instead of repackaging the dogma of no new revelations and apostate beliefs in a closed cannon, Joseph Smith carried a message of direct communication between God and ALL men, women, and children who would meet the qualifications:

"The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching" (History of the Church, 4:425). "God hath not revealed anything to Joseph, but what he will make known unto the Twelve, and even the least Saint may know all things as fast as he is able to bear them..."(Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 150-151). "...the things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity—thou must commune with God" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 137). "A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; [that is,] those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus" (History of the Church 3:381).

President Monson renewed that call to follow the Spirit and be used as instruments of God this last General Conference. ("...never...postpone a prompting [from the Spirit].")

I do not know of anyone else, or any other denomination, encouraging people to go to God for revelation. How could they control the results? How could they know people would have the same revelation? By contrast, Joseph insists that this is not only desirable, but necessary. Far from denying the power of God, he revels in it, and invites all to come and partake with him. Instead of consulting one's own wits, or a manual, we are encouraged to go directly (immediately! before we are even baptized) to the Source of light and truth. From the beginning of the process to the final day when we stand in God's presence, we are commanded to establish and strengthen ties of direct revelation from Him until we come safely home.