"...wo unto them who are cut off from my church, for the same are overcome of the world” (D&C 50:8).
As individuals begin to drift from the Church, their grasp of LDS semantics begins to slip. The Plan of Salvation and Redemption becomes a comfortably vague “spiritual journey.” Reliance on energy healing, psychology, and unproven metaphysics and trinkets begin to replace faith, prayer, anointing by the Elders, and priesthood blessings as remedies. Criticism of leaders, programs, music, art, and anything else the Church publishes becomes constant. Reports of character flaws among the Brethren, true or false, become gratifying, a welcome justification of digression. The simple truths of the gospel become less appealing, a chore, while the deep gospel mysteries and obscure information, and the things of this world become more and more enticing. Unanswered questions become more important to attitudes than answered ones. Contempt for leaders becomes ubiquitous. Slights and injuries, perceived or real, become amplified, while benefits of membership are downplayed. Finally, after leaving the Church entirely, as Joseph Smith prophesied, apostates begin to thirst for his blood.
There are many reasons apostasy occurs. Parables and imagery from the scriptures illustrate them. Jesus interprets His own Parable of the Sower in Matt. 13. Inability to endure, or to endure persecution and tribulation, leads to becoming offended. Being choked with the cares of the world and the pursuit of riches leads to decreased productivity in the Church. Only those who hear the word, understand it, and endure accordingly, produce in His parable. Another symbolic description of apostasy and its causes can be found in Lehi’s dream in 1Ne. 8. Blindness because of the devil’s temptations, distractions of the world (clothing, etc.), shame from paying attention to mocking and disapproval of the world, and especially a casual grasp of the revelations of God, are all cited as precursors of failure to enter the gate, or apostasy after entering.
In the Allegory of the Olive Trees, the “loftiness” of the trees of the vineyard is listed as the reason for failure. The scriptures provide little specific interpretation of this symbolic story. “Loftiness” could mean pride, or having more information or wealth than the people were ready to live up to (as in Jacob 4:14). Approaching the Church and the Gospel as a buffet, where one may take what is desirable and leave the rest, has been mentioned in recent General Conferences. Elder Ballard recently explained that to “think right” about the Church means to accept or reject it whole, not to pick it apart or attempt to redesign it. D&C 22:4 says “...seek not to counsel your God.” If leaders are really called and chosen of God, and acting as His representatives, criticizing and contradicting the doctrines they teach, or the policies they enact, is equivalent to counseling God.
D&C 22 also reminds us that the gate into heaven is narrow, strait. While there is some truth in each religion or belief system, the most fundamental thing any of them can teach is God’s identity. And there is only one Church on the earth that teaches correct doctrine about who God is, His attributes, and our relationship to Him: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Answers to fundamental questions about life flow easily from the correct understanding that God is the Father all spirits. Those who abandon the Church and apostatize also forsake the most reasonable explanations of why we exist, the purpose of the earth, where we came from, where we are going, and why life is so fraught with pain and difficulty.
Concern that everyone feels good is a virtue, but not the most important one. When it erodes truth, it can also weaken the cement of any testimony. When truth is warped, curtailed, edited, revised, or abandoned in order to make others feel good, it weakens the foundation of a person’s testimony, or the creeds of religions. Accommodation through misrepresenting the truth is not the Gospel. We are to conform ourselves to the Church, or its teachings, and not vice versa. Perhaps we can be soft and delicate as we approach others about false beliefs they hold to, but solid gospel bones are necessary to support the velvet, gentle touch of correction. An unstable, false foundation will support cruelty as easily as tolerance and accommodation.
Judas, the arch-apostate, betrayed Jesus because of misguided virtues, not necessarily heinous sin (at least in the beginning).
He may have betrayed Jesus because of His politics. He was as zealot, one who felt there was no act too depraved if it were to expel Roman governance from Judea. Jesus taught peace, appeasement, rendering unto Caesar that which was Caesar’s. Perhaps Judas thought he could force Jesus to undo Roman rule by letting the authorities, civil and religious, compromise Jesus’ safety. Maybe Judas thought if they threatened Him, Jesus would lash out with miraculous destructive force. But His surrender and subsequent murder may have not only disappointed Judas—they may have shocked Judas into suicide.
Judas also may have protested Jesus’ disavowal of social and religious mores of the time. When the adulterous woman came to seek forgiveness, she violated several protocols. First, a woman in that day and place was expected to cover her hair in public (a custom that persists in that area today). But the woman who came to Jesus used her hair as a towel for Jesus’ feet. Second, she anointed Jesus with oil. This act seems innocuous to modern readers, but it had dangerous political implications. Pouring oil on someone in public was tantamount to selecting a new king (as with David), an act of defiant treason. (Jesus may have been speaking with humorous irony when he said she had done it “in token of [His] burial.”) Third, if the oil were of a certain recipe, it could only be poured on sacred objects associated with the Temple. Fourth, the oil was valuable. Judas’ stated objection was financial. He offers pious protestation: “Why was not this ointment sold...and given to the poor?” (John 12:5). This oil was worth a year’s wages for a working man, and Judas considered this a waste.
Judas' motives are largely a matter of conjecture. But Matthew and Mark indicate that Judas went and made his pact to betray Jesus after witnessing the adulterous woman anointing Jesus. His sensibilities were offended by his Master's conduct, and this was the last straw. The woman was guilty, racked with shame, but penitent, and seeking re-admittance. Judas was self-assured, self-righteous, and on his way out the door of fellowship in the kingdom. This pattern continues today. Many who have sinned their way out of the Church sit at the door and patiently await forgiveness and restoration to full fellowship; many who apostatize because of fault-finding and nit-picking never come near the house of God except to throw rocks.
Do we object to the financial decisions, political stances, social expectations, politically incorrect statements, and doctrinal assertions made by the living Apostles and prophets? If we do, our disagreements and criticism will be soaked in piety like Judas’ were. He had advice about how to run things. It is possible to feel very righteous while thinking and acting wrongly. Those who are embroiled in iniquity typically have no illusions about their lost and fallen state. Those who are convinced they are righteous can be blinded to their mistaken notions by pride. Judas could criticize Jesus because, in his own mind, his cause was just. Rigid, dogmatic, inflexible, conservative certainty can be a precursor to apostasy.
Jesus noted that we tend to decorate the graves of the dead prophets, and garnish their venerated memories, while we attack or ignore the living ones. No prophet has been murdered this century, but all of them have come under attack for their teachings. Skeptical scrutiny and personal attacks against them are rampant today. Sadly, many of these strikes are launched by members. (I have never heard anyone claim that their criticism of the Brethren or the Church was the result of personal revelation. This seems very significant.)
If we want a good idea of how we would react to Jesus if He were living among us today, we need only assess our current attitude toward the living prophets and Apostles.
