It seems that we tend to conflate the figurine in the nativity creche with the actual Mary, and treat her the same way we treat the figurine. We bring her out once a year, think of her as permanently cast in the particular role of young mother beneath a star, with adoring shepherds and magi arriving on cue, have cuddly feelings about the moment of Jesus' birth, and then we shut her up in the box we pulled her from, invisible for another year. I have been inside barn yards and dairy farms with piles of manure, and I could not imagine a woman giving birth in any of the cattle pens I have seen. Words like "squalor" and "unsanitary" hardly touch the reality of the concept. Yet it warms our sentimental hearts each year, as we happily ignore the distress Mary surely felt. She is, by and large, frozen in the Christian mind as the young mother in a sanitized narrative.
But the scriptures describe a changing, dynamic individual, filling multiple roles, even if only as a background participant in the gospel writers' accounts of Jesus' life. Unlike many who turned from Jesus (including recalcitrant siblings), Mary was there at many important events, filling various roles ignored by the one-dimensional Christmas depiction.
Mary composed a psalm, traditionally referred to as the "Magnificat," because she exclaims in its opening line, "My soul doth magnify the Lord..." (Luke 1:46). It is a literary masterpiece, evidence of a close brush with the divine, ably described by an articulate, educated, well-read, and poetic mind.
We see Mary in charge of a wedding feast in Cana. Jesus created the world as the premortal Jehovah under the direction of His Heavenly Parent; now we see Jesus rectifying an oversight in the supply of a wedding feast, this time under the direction of His mortal, earthly mother. She trusts Him completely with the commission, telling the servants, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5). Just as the earth was a wedding present to Adam and Eve, and everyone else, the stone waterpots turned to wine were a miraculous gift to the Bride, Groom, and all others attending the wedding. When asked which was the first miracle Jesus performed, Joseph Smith responded, "He created the earth." Six days of creation; six waterpots turned to wine; both construed in various circles as Jesus' first miracle; Mary was present for both, presumably.
Mary is one of only four people mentioned individually in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon: Jesus (of course); John the Beloved; and John the Baptist (though not by name) and Mary. She is also one of only six women mentioned by name in the Book of Mormon (Eve, Sarah, Sariah, Isabelle, Abish, and Mary). She is referred to as "...being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel..." (Alma 7:10). We usually see the scene of Mary cradling newborn Jesus in sentimental terms; Nephi sees the scene in vision, and is suddenly filled with understanding as to the interpretation of the Tree of Life in his father Lehi's vision-dream: "...it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things" (1Ne. 11:22). I have seen the nativity creche my whole life, and have yet to derive anything so doctrinally rich or profound from it; how did Nephi glance at that scene and suddenly know the correct interpretation?
We see Mary and Joseph in a horrifying circumstance, frantically scrambling to locate Jesus, a charge given directly to Mary by heavenly messengers. The twelve-year-old Jesus had stayed behind after the Passover feast in Jerusalem, and his earthly parents "sought [him] sorrowing." How many gray hairs would I generate in such a situation, even if it were not the Messiah I had lost?
After Jesus' birth, Mary and Joseph take Him to the Temple to be circumcised. Simeon and Anna, two elderly Temple workers, prophesy about the Child. Simeon predicts that Mary will be pierced with a figurative sword as she copes with the sorrow of watching Jesus die (Luke 2:35). One possible meaning of the name Mary (Miriam) is "bitterness," or "bitter tears." This is far from the cuddly depiction of her we see each winter.
The prophet Isaiah speaks of her in poetic predictions: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14). Joseph was given the name for their child in a dream-vision. Mary was risking her life (see John 8:4-5) by accepting the charge to be the mother of Jesus, because she was formally espoused to Joseph, yet she "[knew] not a man" (Luke 1:34). Mary's bravery, submission, and faith appear in her acceptance of the charge from Gabriel: "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word" (Luke 1:38). She was the center of a much larger family than what appears in the Nativity Creche; she had other children with Joseph after Jesus birth. Jesus had four brothers, and at least two sisters (Matt. 13:55-56). Jesus gives John responsibility to care for His mother from the cross;
we can therefore assume that she was a widow at this point (John 19:26-27).
After the shepherds arrived to inspect the actual Lamb, Luke says that "...Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart" (2:19). I heard someone interpret this to mean that Mary had no one to confide in. I give her more credit that that: "The reason we do not have secrets of the Lord revealed unto us is because we do not keep them but reveal them; We do not keep our own secrets, but reveal our difficulties to the world, even to our enemies, then how would we keep the secrets of the Lord? I can keep a secret till Doomsday" (Joseph Smith, TPJS pg. 195). Mary's experience parallels Joseph Smith's in many respects; they both had visions when they were young; they both accepted enormous responsibilities from God in youth; they both prophesied about their reputations spreading to the future world; they both paid dearly for their loyalty to God; they both stayed faithful to the ends of their mortal lives. Mary is mentioned as being among the faithful after the resurrection, praying with the other disciples (Acts 1:14).
She filled many roles besides the familiar one we imagine each Christmas. Life asks much of each of us as scripts change and new stages come and go. Mary fulfilled her callings at each new stage with exemplary dedication, never balking at a new assignment, however painful, and we can better learn from her when we peel back the label and stereotype we have placed on her.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Repentance
Jesus arrived in the Americas, and among the first things He told the Nephites was that all men, everywhere, needed to repent. I have wondered if there are different kinds or levels of repentance, since "all men, everywhere" are at different points in their spiritual progression. ALL is an inclusive and absolute word, and so there must be something to improve in all of us.
I want to talk about three categories of sinners, or perhaps, categories of repenters.
Vilest of Sinners
If there is an advantage to falling into this category, it is that you know you need to repent. How sad to believe the "all" does not apply to one's self, to forgo the opportunity to improve. Those who violate the Ten Commandments generally are in this category. A young woman once said, "People will be surprised by what keeps them out of heaven." The scriptures (see Matt. 7:22-23) seem to agree. Some of the Ten Commandments are so obvious and easy for the average person to keep, we often forget the subtler ways to break the others. The hardest commandment to keep, in my opinion, is the first: No other gods before God. Anything that interferes with our relationship with our Father in heaven, or supplants Him in our affections, becomes a violation of the first commandment. It is easy to break the second—cars and boats and houses and other expensive toys become idols. The names of Deity are bandied about carelessly today, and I am glad to say I wince a little more than I used to when I hear such language.
The young woman speaking about being kept out of heaven had reference to the fourth commandment, to keep the Sabbath Day holy. It is very easy to slip into worldly behaviors on this day, to consider it just another day for laundry or shopping or playing. I would rather be alone on Sunday if I cannot find company who will keep this commandment after Church. Friends can help the process of "always [having] his Spirit to be with [me]," which is the main reason we attend Church meetings in the first place.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Bill Cosby might interpret that promise to mean respecting parents' wishes will keep them from losing their tempers and slaying you. I wonder, as I have seen elderly relatives do genealogy and family history research, if their lives are being preserved because family history is the epitome of keeping this commandment. Those beyond the veil must be praying fervently for their lives to be preserved until they can finish assignments, perform ordinances, and pass on the torch.
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery—these two rules are linked. The portals of entry and exit in this mortal life are guarded by the strictest of commandments. Alma lists these sins as second only to the unpardonable sin (Alma 39:5). They are linked in the body; testosterone increases aggression and intensifies the capacity for lust. James 4:1: "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" Indeed, lust sees people as disposable objects; violence merely follows through with the mindset. Throughout the scriptures, these two sins and all their variations are co-morbid. The hints of a sex industry in the Book of Mormon ("...she did steal away the hearts of many...") are followed by a hundred pages of non-stop war. David's life reads like a soap opera; he was denied the privilege of building the Temple as a resting place for the Ark because of his violent life.
Thou shalt not steal is a rule that would save America billions of dollars a year if we would abide by it. Closely linked are the commandments to tell the truth and not covet. Coveting denotes deep ingratitude, a sin in itself. Coveting impels theft and lying; theft requires dishonesty. Dishonesty seems to be the first character trait acquired by anyone seeking to circumvent the law of the harvest. "Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell" (2Ne. 9:34). To enter heaven, one must be thoroughly honest. "I am the...truth..." said Jesus Christ.
I want to talk about three categories of sinners, or perhaps, categories of repenters.
Vilest of Sinners
If there is an advantage to falling into this category, it is that you know you need to repent. How sad to believe the "all" does not apply to one's self, to forgo the opportunity to improve. Those who violate the Ten Commandments generally are in this category. A young woman once said, "People will be surprised by what keeps them out of heaven." The scriptures (see Matt. 7:22-23) seem to agree. Some of the Ten Commandments are so obvious and easy for the average person to keep, we often forget the subtler ways to break the others. The hardest commandment to keep, in my opinion, is the first: No other gods before God. Anything that interferes with our relationship with our Father in heaven, or supplants Him in our affections, becomes a violation of the first commandment. It is easy to break the second—cars and boats and houses and other expensive toys become idols. The names of Deity are bandied about carelessly today, and I am glad to say I wince a little more than I used to when I hear such language.
The young woman speaking about being kept out of heaven had reference to the fourth commandment, to keep the Sabbath Day holy. It is very easy to slip into worldly behaviors on this day, to consider it just another day for laundry or shopping or playing. I would rather be alone on Sunday if I cannot find company who will keep this commandment after Church. Friends can help the process of "always [having] his Spirit to be with [me]," which is the main reason we attend Church meetings in the first place.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Bill Cosby might interpret that promise to mean respecting parents' wishes will keep them from losing their tempers and slaying you. I wonder, as I have seen elderly relatives do genealogy and family history research, if their lives are being preserved because family history is the epitome of keeping this commandment. Those beyond the veil must be praying fervently for their lives to be preserved until they can finish assignments, perform ordinances, and pass on the torch.
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery—these two rules are linked. The portals of entry and exit in this mortal life are guarded by the strictest of commandments. Alma lists these sins as second only to the unpardonable sin (Alma 39:5). They are linked in the body; testosterone increases aggression and intensifies the capacity for lust. James 4:1: "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" Indeed, lust sees people as disposable objects; violence merely follows through with the mindset. Throughout the scriptures, these two sins and all their variations are co-morbid. The hints of a sex industry in the Book of Mormon ("...she did steal away the hearts of many...") are followed by a hundred pages of non-stop war. David's life reads like a soap opera; he was denied the privilege of building the Temple as a resting place for the Ark because of his violent life.
Thou shalt not steal is a rule that would save America billions of dollars a year if we would abide by it. Closely linked are the commandments to tell the truth and not covet. Coveting denotes deep ingratitude, a sin in itself. Coveting impels theft and lying; theft requires dishonesty. Dishonesty seems to be the first character trait acquired by anyone seeking to circumvent the law of the harvest. "Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell" (2Ne. 9:34). To enter heaven, one must be thoroughly honest. "I am the...truth..." said Jesus Christ.
After seeing the Ten Commandments spelled out, and seeing myself in them, I am even more amazed at how forgiving the Lord is. Instead of casting us off, he COMMANDS us to repent, so that we can be healed, forgiven, and brought home again, even after all the mischief described above. But most people are not embroiled in gross or grievous iniquity.
Ninety and Nine
Each week we attend sacrament meeting. Those in attendance may not be witnessing miracles, but they are also not breaking major commandments. They are in a middle of the road place, a kind of long plateau where Elder Maxwell's "reasonable righteousness" is the watchword for life. Imperfections are there, but they are well-managed for the most part. These rank-and-file members hold Temple recommends, and use them often. They feel the gravity of the world and its temptations, along with the upward pull of the Lord. These people desire a seat in the kingdom, and the sacrament is where we sit down together at the table, as a family, and learn table manners. We repent of our shallowness and petty sins. It is not enough to forsake murder; we must also forgive and love those who hurt us. It is not enough to be faithful to our spouse physically; we must also be chaste in thought and feeling. It is not enough not to steal; we must also cultivate gratitude for what we have, and be generous despite the financial pinch. Outward observance begins to be coupled with inward observance, and these "ninety and nine" sheep also look out for those who have strayed far afield.
Of course, "we all like sheep have gone astray." It is dangerous to be in this middle place if we assume that we are better than gross sinners, or that we would not be equally lost without the Savior. Grace is dependent upon loving God, and upon not denying His power (Moroni 10:32-33). Denying that Jesus is keeping you afloat at your current level of righteousness via grace is a quick route to sin. That is not to say that there is no work involved; bread requires work. From plowing to planting to watering to harvest to threshing to grinding to baking to chewing, bread represents work. And our own personal efforts are required to get us onto this plateau. The first sacrament emblem is bread, and work is what we demonstrate our willingness to perform when we partake of it: "...they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them..." (D&C 20:77).
Bread is tasty, but the first thing I crave when I have a mouthful of dry bread to chew is liquid refreshment to easy the process. And that is what we get. Jesus gave his disciples wine to wash down the bread He gave them at the last supper. We drink water. In any case, the prayer on the water reflects this: "...they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him..." When the work of keeping His commandments and taking His name upon us is too hard, we can still "always remember him," and receive a portion of His Spirit. We still have access to grace. Just as liquid makes eating bread into a manageable and even joyful task, so grace makes the difficult work of keeping the commandments possible.
Sanctified
The D&C distinguishes between "the church," and "those who are sanctified" (20:33-34). I suggest that the distinction between these two groups is comparable to the people of Alma before they were delivered from the Lamanites, and after they were delivered from the Lamanites. "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord" (Mosiah 24:15). Notice that they are still carrying their burdens, but the Lord is giving them grace, the enabling, strengthening power to carry their burdens with ease. Then the complete removal of the burdens:
"And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage...And Alma and his people departed into the wilderness; and when they had traveled all day they pitched their tents in a valley...Yea, and in the valley...they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God" (Mosiah 24:16, 20-21).
We can compare their bondage to the impulse to commit sin, or to addiction. It is one thing to feel the desire to sin, yet receive grace to completely resist temptation. It is even better to be delivered from the desire to commit sin at all. This may sound amazing, but the Lord tells Alma the Younger to "marvel not," that ALL people must experience this mighty change of heart. "Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2).
I recently heard a well-intentioned speaker conflate this mighty change with the enthusiasm and renewed determination a good fireside speaker can instill. Far from being a mutable or temporary change of mood, "Please note that the conversion described in these verses is mighty, not minor—a spiritual rebirth and fundamental change of what we feel and desire, what we think and do, and what we are. Indeed, the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ entails a fundamental and permanent change in our very nature made possible through our reliance upon “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). As we choose to follow the Master, we choose to be changed—to be spiritually reborn" (Elder David A. Bednar, Ye Must Be Born Again, April 2007 General Conference). This change is akin to waking up one morning loathing chocolate and craving broccoli. That is not a change one can "practice" or "work on;" it is so radical that one might feel the need to receive a brain-scan after it had occurred.
Despite being radical, it is also seamless enough that those who are not paying attention may miss the fact that it has occurred. 3Ne. 9:20 tells us that the Lamanites who experienced this mighty change of heart "new it not." They were unaware of it. Indeed, you would have to be exposed to old temptations and realize you were not tempted by them anymore to know the change had taken place.
If we no longer have the desire to sin, what do we have to repent of?
"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Gen. 22:2). In order to receive this level of grace, this sanctification, this mighty change of heart, we must "offer for a sacrifice unto [Christ] a broken heart and a contrite spirit...And...[come] unto [Christ] with a broken heart and a contrite spirit..." We must also have faith in Christ, and "love God with all your might, mind and strength," (Moroni 10:32), before the change will happen. From that point forward, testing takes on a new hue. Are we really as dedicated as we claim? Is God really first in our affections? Are we really willing to put our most beloved possessions on the altar when God asks us to?
Pride is always a possibility, even for those who have no bodies. Since agency is always a component of our eternal makeup, the option to rebel is also present. This makes our good choices genuinely good, but it leaves us "in peril every hour." What would have happened if Abraham had told the Lord "no" when He asked for Isaac? Abraham was very high; he would have had a great distance to fall off the mountain. It is dangerous to get close to the Lord, because as Heber C. Kimball told the newly-endowed saints, "You can't sin so cheap no more." Sanctification is a high-stakes blessing; rebellion afterward is rebelling against greater light and knowledge. Deliverance from baser temptations does not mean deliverance from trials and testing. (If anything, it means we are more responsible to help those around us, unburdened as we are, and also that we will be hit with more Abrahamic trials.)
Brigham Young taught, "We must have our day of trial—an opportunity to become acquainted with the bitter and the sweet. We are so organized as to be able to choose or to refuse. We can take the downward road that leads to destruction, or the road that leads to life. We can constantly act upon the principles that tend to death, or refuse them and act upon the principles that pertain to life and salvation. This is a day of trial; our faith and patience can now be tried: now is the time for your fortitude and integrity to be tried. Let the trials come; for if we should be so unspeakably happy as to obtain a crown of eternal life, we shall be like gold tried seven times in the fire. Let the fiery furnace burn, and the afflictions come, and the temptations be presented;—if we wish to be crowned with crowns of glory and exalted to dwell with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we must choose the good and refuse the evil" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p.203).
Ninety and Nine
Each week we attend sacrament meeting. Those in attendance may not be witnessing miracles, but they are also not breaking major commandments. They are in a middle of the road place, a kind of long plateau where Elder Maxwell's "reasonable righteousness" is the watchword for life. Imperfections are there, but they are well-managed for the most part. These rank-and-file members hold Temple recommends, and use them often. They feel the gravity of the world and its temptations, along with the upward pull of the Lord. These people desire a seat in the kingdom, and the sacrament is where we sit down together at the table, as a family, and learn table manners. We repent of our shallowness and petty sins. It is not enough to forsake murder; we must also forgive and love those who hurt us. It is not enough to be faithful to our spouse physically; we must also be chaste in thought and feeling. It is not enough not to steal; we must also cultivate gratitude for what we have, and be generous despite the financial pinch. Outward observance begins to be coupled with inward observance, and these "ninety and nine" sheep also look out for those who have strayed far afield.
Of course, "we all like sheep have gone astray." It is dangerous to be in this middle place if we assume that we are better than gross sinners, or that we would not be equally lost without the Savior. Grace is dependent upon loving God, and upon not denying His power (Moroni 10:32-33). Denying that Jesus is keeping you afloat at your current level of righteousness via grace is a quick route to sin. That is not to say that there is no work involved; bread requires work. From plowing to planting to watering to harvest to threshing to grinding to baking to chewing, bread represents work. And our own personal efforts are required to get us onto this plateau. The first sacrament emblem is bread, and work is what we demonstrate our willingness to perform when we partake of it: "...they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them..." (D&C 20:77).
Bread is tasty, but the first thing I crave when I have a mouthful of dry bread to chew is liquid refreshment to easy the process. And that is what we get. Jesus gave his disciples wine to wash down the bread He gave them at the last supper. We drink water. In any case, the prayer on the water reflects this: "...they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him..." When the work of keeping His commandments and taking His name upon us is too hard, we can still "always remember him," and receive a portion of His Spirit. We still have access to grace. Just as liquid makes eating bread into a manageable and even joyful task, so grace makes the difficult work of keeping the commandments possible.
Sanctified
The D&C distinguishes between "the church," and "those who are sanctified" (20:33-34). I suggest that the distinction between these two groups is comparable to the people of Alma before they were delivered from the Lamanites, and after they were delivered from the Lamanites. "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord" (Mosiah 24:15). Notice that they are still carrying their burdens, but the Lord is giving them grace, the enabling, strengthening power to carry their burdens with ease. Then the complete removal of the burdens:
"And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage...And Alma and his people departed into the wilderness; and when they had traveled all day they pitched their tents in a valley...Yea, and in the valley...they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, and eased their burdens, and had delivered them out of bondage; for they were in bondage, and none could deliver them except it were the Lord their God" (Mosiah 24:16, 20-21).
We can compare their bondage to the impulse to commit sin, or to addiction. It is one thing to feel the desire to sin, yet receive grace to completely resist temptation. It is even better to be delivered from the desire to commit sin at all. This may sound amazing, but the Lord tells Alma the Younger to "marvel not," that ALL people must experience this mighty change of heart. "Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually" (Mosiah 5:2).
I recently heard a well-intentioned speaker conflate this mighty change with the enthusiasm and renewed determination a good fireside speaker can instill. Far from being a mutable or temporary change of mood, "Please note that the conversion described in these verses is mighty, not minor—a spiritual rebirth and fundamental change of what we feel and desire, what we think and do, and what we are. Indeed, the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ entails a fundamental and permanent change in our very nature made possible through our reliance upon “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). As we choose to follow the Master, we choose to be changed—to be spiritually reborn" (Elder David A. Bednar, Ye Must Be Born Again, April 2007 General Conference). This change is akin to waking up one morning loathing chocolate and craving broccoli. That is not a change one can "practice" or "work on;" it is so radical that one might feel the need to receive a brain-scan after it had occurred.
Despite being radical, it is also seamless enough that those who are not paying attention may miss the fact that it has occurred. 3Ne. 9:20 tells us that the Lamanites who experienced this mighty change of heart "new it not." They were unaware of it. Indeed, you would have to be exposed to old temptations and realize you were not tempted by them anymore to know the change had taken place.
If we no longer have the desire to sin, what do we have to repent of?
"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Gen. 22:2). In order to receive this level of grace, this sanctification, this mighty change of heart, we must "offer for a sacrifice unto [Christ] a broken heart and a contrite spirit...And...[come] unto [Christ] with a broken heart and a contrite spirit..." We must also have faith in Christ, and "love God with all your might, mind and strength," (Moroni 10:32), before the change will happen. From that point forward, testing takes on a new hue. Are we really as dedicated as we claim? Is God really first in our affections? Are we really willing to put our most beloved possessions on the altar when God asks us to?
Pride is always a possibility, even for those who have no bodies. Since agency is always a component of our eternal makeup, the option to rebel is also present. This makes our good choices genuinely good, but it leaves us "in peril every hour." What would have happened if Abraham had told the Lord "no" when He asked for Isaac? Abraham was very high; he would have had a great distance to fall off the mountain. It is dangerous to get close to the Lord, because as Heber C. Kimball told the newly-endowed saints, "You can't sin so cheap no more." Sanctification is a high-stakes blessing; rebellion afterward is rebelling against greater light and knowledge. Deliverance from baser temptations does not mean deliverance from trials and testing. (If anything, it means we are more responsible to help those around us, unburdened as we are, and also that we will be hit with more Abrahamic trials.)
Brigham Young taught, "We must have our day of trial—an opportunity to become acquainted with the bitter and the sweet. We are so organized as to be able to choose or to refuse. We can take the downward road that leads to destruction, or the road that leads to life. We can constantly act upon the principles that tend to death, or refuse them and act upon the principles that pertain to life and salvation. This is a day of trial; our faith and patience can now be tried: now is the time for your fortitude and integrity to be tried. Let the trials come; for if we should be so unspeakably happy as to obtain a crown of eternal life, we shall be like gold tried seven times in the fire. Let the fiery furnace burn, and the afflictions come, and the temptations be presented;—if we wish to be crowned with crowns of glory and exalted to dwell with our elder brother Jesus Christ, we must choose the good and refuse the evil" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p.203).
Friday, August 3, 2012
"How Long Does It Take?"
As a missionary, I encountered a security guard at a hospital where the missionaries did regular weekly service. As we would walk by his post, he would ask us aloud, "How long does it take?" We thought this was strange; I said nothing. Other missionaries asked him what he meant while I and my companion were absent. His complete question was, "How long does it take to become a god?" At the time, I was uncertain about how to answer that question. Something like this quote came to mind: "When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel—you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 348).
But my answer today would be significantly different. Not surprisingly, the Pharisees attacked Jesus for claiming divinity: "I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Jesus then quotes to them from Psalm 82:6: "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:30-36).
Jesus' enemies (eager and ready to shed his blood at the time he was speaking) have the same reaction to the doctrine of man becoming divine that this security guard I met on my mission, though he was more physically genteel and civil towards us. Blasphemy. My response to him today would be the same as Jesus' response: WE ARE ALREADY GODS, technically speaking. Here is Psalm 82:6 in its entirety: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." Kittens ARE cats; they are just not fully developed cats. We ARE gods; we are the children of God, and so are poised to inherit with Christ. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:16-17).
A quick survey of humanity, rather than a survey of the scriptures, is the quickest way to cast doubt on the possibility of fully becoming like God, and I find it sad and strange to hear Christians unwittingly playing the role of the Devil (literally, "the Accuser") as they seek to break down what they view as a blasphemous assertion. In a video about C. S. Lewis' life, a panel of four LDS scholars, and one Baptist scholar, talked about Lewis' description of becoming like God. There was a subtle smugness in the Baptist scholar's demeanor when he asked the four LDS scholars to comment on how we can become like God through obedience. He seemed certain that he had stumped them. His view seemed to be that the main function of the Holy Spirit is to "convict" us in our hearts; to remind us of our unworthy and fallen state, our need for a Savior. This is a legitimate role of the Holy Ghost, but it is not the only role. It seems to me that many people imagine riding a wave of guilt into heaven. Recognizing our shortcomings and sins is the beginning of repentance, not the end.
Without even realizing it, this man had become a spokesman for Satan, who "accuse[d]...our brethren...before our God day and night" (Rev. 10:12). He, along with many contemporary Christians, revel in their lost and fallen state, happily and mistakenly abdicating the responsibility the scriptures places on the shoulders of those who are essaying to be disciples of Christ. They also mock and criticize any who take the mandate seriously. Jesus preached unceasingly that we should "sin no more" and do good; this scholar seemed glad that such an enterprise was unrealistic, perhaps because it absolved him of the difficult work of even trying to obey, or at least because it allowed him to present these Mormons as deluded.
There are levels of grace, gifts that allow us to accomplish the things the Lord has commanded. First, the Spirit will nudge us, and we feel guilt and sorrow for sin. Then we exercise faith in Christ, and repent—we stop doing the bad stuff, and begin doing good. Our own efforts will only take us so far in this mode; even if we had the willpower to quit cold turkey and "white-knuckle" our way through mortality, successfully resisting all temptations, we would still be unfit for heaven because the inhabitants of heaven are not tempted at all—it is not in their nature. The first shot of grace gives us strength beyond our own to resist the temptations that easily beset us. The longer we go in this state, keeping our behavior above the demarcation line between sin and obedience, the more apt we are at receiving more grace, because the effects of the Atonement are delivered to our hearts, minds, and spirits by the Holy Ghost. The final stage of grace is to have the desire for sin purged out of us. When this happens, our hearts are fit (fitted) to enter heaven.
"...Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God" (Mosiah 27:25-26).
I was told that artificial diamond makers can turn peanut butter into diamonds. Surveying the foibles and outright evil of humanity makes deification seem improbable, but we do not make ourselves into Gods. Our work is to show up and do what we are told with all our heart and a willing mind. This is a prerequisite to the change described above, but it does not negate the fact that Jesus effects the change; it is beyond human capacity or control. (We cannot even make one hair black or white.)
Eternal life is to know God and His Christ, and if the creeds have done one thing better than anything else, it is to obscure the true nature of God until He is beyond comprehension. Not so with Brother Joseph; he said that the FIRST principle of revealed religion is an accurate understanding of God's attributes. Not only is it possible to know about God, at least in a basic sense; that knowledge is mandatory to even begin a spiritual journey on the right foot, so to speak. The Baptist scholar I mentioned above seemed to revel in the incomprehensibility of God and Christ. In light of Jesus' statement in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," such glorying in confusion is thoroughly un-Christian. Mercifully, this dispensation began when God and Christ manifested themselves to Joseph Smith in person, corporeal and separate, ending forever the confusion established by men.
When Joseph asked them which church to join, he was told, "...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'" (JSH, 1:19). Not only did the "professors" have no clue about who Jesus and His Father were, but they denied their power. Professors still deny God's power to make us like Him. It is convenient to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in one sense—we have no fixed creed; everything is subject to whatever the Lord wants to tell us next. Building a fortress of sandbags to defend shoddy creeds has not only kept missiles of truth from properly demolishing them; it has also kept the builders trapped inside their bulwarks, unable to find an exit.
I wonder if the Lord allowed circumstances in C. S. Lewis' life to deteriorate to the point that he became an atheist for the purpose of divesting him of his Anglican creed, or any other creed. When Lewis experienced conversion back to Christianity, he was unencumbered by the temptation to defend a position. He brought a keen mind, as well as a blank slate, to his study of the Bible, and here is a sample of one conclusion he reached:
"...On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us through the next twenty-four hours as 'decent people.' If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death...
"I find I must borrow . . . [a] parable from George MacDonald. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way the hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
"The command 'Be ye perfect' is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He well make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said" (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 173-74; quoted in Robert Millet, By Grace Are We Saved, pp. 87-8).
-----------------------------------------------------------
Update, 29 August 2012
A recent anti-Mormon ad campaign on this very subject prompts this update. The gist of the campaign is that Jesus' command to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is designed to induce despair in us, and that it is a sin to try and keep the command. I take this as evidence that they have not experienced the great blessing of being strengthened beyond their own abilities to keep a commandment, nor have they experienced a change of heart, in which the desire for sin is "rooted out" of the heart.
As C. S. Lewis indicates, life itself contradicts the philosophy that all God wants from us is a declaration of faith in Him. Wrenching, testing, trials, problems, sickness, estrangement from friends, all continue to a lesser or greater degree after conversion. All but one of Jesus' twelve apostles was brutally killed. A Baptist minister, a neighbor of mine, suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak articulately, and my mother told me that his friends and congregation have largely shunned him. His problems are a contradiction of the idea that God stops making demands of us after we declare faith in Christ and accept Him as our Savior. Either God is sadistic, or pain is serving a purpose, and we are being prepared for more than arm-chair discipleship here, and drowsy drifting and harp-strumming in the afterlife.
The recommendation that we stop trying because Jesus has set the bar too high is reminiscent of the attitudes of various wayward and stubborn servants whom Jesus brings to life in His parables. Jesus cursed the fig tree for not producing any fruit; is this similar to what we can expect? If we bury our talent, will we receive a happy reception by Jesus when we stand before Him?
The Greek word for "perfect" found in Matt. 5:48 is teleios. Strong's Concordance gives us the following explanation:
"...(an adjective, derived from télos, "consummated goal") – mature (consummated) from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey).
[This root (tel-) means "reaching the end (aim)." It is well-illustrated with the old pirate's telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).]"
Notice the deeper meaning implied—goal, mature, consummated, process, spiritual journey. One of the assertions made by the ad campaign is that we are commanded to be perfect immediately. Our relationship with God as our Father, rather than our pet-owner or worm-cultivator, can shed light on the meaning of the command from Jesus in Matt. 5:48. Children are born with the innate, yet undeveloped, capacities and attributes of their parents. When an infant first attempts to walk, parents are overjoyed. Of course the child will fall. But the parents are delighted by the attempt to walk. Each successive attempt brings the child closer to being able to walk effortlessly.
Applying the logic employed by the ad campaign's author[s], parents would recommend that their children give up on walking, and lie in bed like jello while mother and father do everything for them because they are not yet able to walk. Jesus gave us a command because He intended us to become like our Father. The purpose of His Atonement was not to make our efforts unnecessary; it was (among many things) to keep our failing in the midst of our efforts from damning us. Damage done, laws broken, in the process of growth, are compensated for by Jesus. He will "sit as a refiner of silver." A refiner of silver heats the ore in the crucible until dross is burnt and He can see His own reflection in the molten metal. Life is similar—it is hard specifically because it is for our benefit, a first-class education away from our heavenly Parents.
The assertions made in the ad campaign can be harmonized with parts of the Bible, but not with the demands and rigors of life. A religion's teachings must be able to straddle both the intricate inner world of the scriptures, yet find practical application in the rough-and-tumble arena of life.
But my answer today would be significantly different. Not surprisingly, the Pharisees attacked Jesus for claiming divinity: "I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Jesus then quotes to them from Psalm 82:6: "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:30-36).
Jesus' enemies (eager and ready to shed his blood at the time he was speaking) have the same reaction to the doctrine of man becoming divine that this security guard I met on my mission, though he was more physically genteel and civil towards us. Blasphemy. My response to him today would be the same as Jesus' response: WE ARE ALREADY GODS, technically speaking. Here is Psalm 82:6 in its entirety: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." Kittens ARE cats; they are just not fully developed cats. We ARE gods; we are the children of God, and so are poised to inherit with Christ. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:16-17).
A quick survey of humanity, rather than a survey of the scriptures, is the quickest way to cast doubt on the possibility of fully becoming like God, and I find it sad and strange to hear Christians unwittingly playing the role of the Devil (literally, "the Accuser") as they seek to break down what they view as a blasphemous assertion. In a video about C. S. Lewis' life, a panel of four LDS scholars, and one Baptist scholar, talked about Lewis' description of becoming like God. There was a subtle smugness in the Baptist scholar's demeanor when he asked the four LDS scholars to comment on how we can become like God through obedience. He seemed certain that he had stumped them. His view seemed to be that the main function of the Holy Spirit is to "convict" us in our hearts; to remind us of our unworthy and fallen state, our need for a Savior. This is a legitimate role of the Holy Ghost, but it is not the only role. It seems to me that many people imagine riding a wave of guilt into heaven. Recognizing our shortcomings and sins is the beginning of repentance, not the end.
Without even realizing it, this man had become a spokesman for Satan, who "accuse[d]...our brethren...before our God day and night" (Rev. 10:12). He, along with many contemporary Christians, revel in their lost and fallen state, happily and mistakenly abdicating the responsibility the scriptures places on the shoulders of those who are essaying to be disciples of Christ. They also mock and criticize any who take the mandate seriously. Jesus preached unceasingly that we should "sin no more" and do good; this scholar seemed glad that such an enterprise was unrealistic, perhaps because it absolved him of the difficult work of even trying to obey, or at least because it allowed him to present these Mormons as deluded.
There are levels of grace, gifts that allow us to accomplish the things the Lord has commanded. First, the Spirit will nudge us, and we feel guilt and sorrow for sin. Then we exercise faith in Christ, and repent—we stop doing the bad stuff, and begin doing good. Our own efforts will only take us so far in this mode; even if we had the willpower to quit cold turkey and "white-knuckle" our way through mortality, successfully resisting all temptations, we would still be unfit for heaven because the inhabitants of heaven are not tempted at all—it is not in their nature. The first shot of grace gives us strength beyond our own to resist the temptations that easily beset us. The longer we go in this state, keeping our behavior above the demarcation line between sin and obedience, the more apt we are at receiving more grace, because the effects of the Atonement are delivered to our hearts, minds, and spirits by the Holy Ghost. The final stage of grace is to have the desire for sin purged out of us. When this happens, our hearts are fit (fitted) to enter heaven.
"...Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God" (Mosiah 27:25-26).
I was told that artificial diamond makers can turn peanut butter into diamonds. Surveying the foibles and outright evil of humanity makes deification seem improbable, but we do not make ourselves into Gods. Our work is to show up and do what we are told with all our heart and a willing mind. This is a prerequisite to the change described above, but it does not negate the fact that Jesus effects the change; it is beyond human capacity or control. (We cannot even make one hair black or white.)
Eternal life is to know God and His Christ, and if the creeds have done one thing better than anything else, it is to obscure the true nature of God until He is beyond comprehension. Not so with Brother Joseph; he said that the FIRST principle of revealed religion is an accurate understanding of God's attributes. Not only is it possible to know about God, at least in a basic sense; that knowledge is mandatory to even begin a spiritual journey on the right foot, so to speak. The Baptist scholar I mentioned above seemed to revel in the incomprehensibility of God and Christ. In light of Jesus' statement in John 17:3, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," such glorying in confusion is thoroughly un-Christian. Mercifully, this dispensation began when God and Christ manifested themselves to Joseph Smith in person, corporeal and separate, ending forever the confusion established by men.
When Joseph asked them which church to join, he was told, "...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'" (JSH, 1:19). Not only did the "professors" have no clue about who Jesus and His Father were, but they denied their power. Professors still deny God's power to make us like Him. It is convenient to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in one sense—we have no fixed creed; everything is subject to whatever the Lord wants to tell us next. Building a fortress of sandbags to defend shoddy creeds has not only kept missiles of truth from properly demolishing them; it has also kept the builders trapped inside their bulwarks, unable to find an exit.
I wonder if the Lord allowed circumstances in C. S. Lewis' life to deteriorate to the point that he became an atheist for the purpose of divesting him of his Anglican creed, or any other creed. When Lewis experienced conversion back to Christianity, he was unencumbered by the temptation to defend a position. He brought a keen mind, as well as a blank slate, to his study of the Bible, and here is a sample of one conclusion he reached:
"...On the one hand we must never imagine that our own unaided efforts can be relied on to carry us through the next twenty-four hours as 'decent people.' If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life; but He means to get us as far as possible before death...
"I find I must borrow . . . [a] parable from George MacDonald. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way the hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
"The command 'Be ye perfect' is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were 'gods' and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He well make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said" (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pp. 173-74; quoted in Robert Millet, By Grace Are We Saved, pp. 87-8).
-----------------------------------------------------------
Update, 29 August 2012
A recent anti-Mormon ad campaign on this very subject prompts this update. The gist of the campaign is that Jesus' command to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is designed to induce despair in us, and that it is a sin to try and keep the command. I take this as evidence that they have not experienced the great blessing of being strengthened beyond their own abilities to keep a commandment, nor have they experienced a change of heart, in which the desire for sin is "rooted out" of the heart.
As C. S. Lewis indicates, life itself contradicts the philosophy that all God wants from us is a declaration of faith in Him. Wrenching, testing, trials, problems, sickness, estrangement from friends, all continue to a lesser or greater degree after conversion. All but one of Jesus' twelve apostles was brutally killed. A Baptist minister, a neighbor of mine, suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak articulately, and my mother told me that his friends and congregation have largely shunned him. His problems are a contradiction of the idea that God stops making demands of us after we declare faith in Christ and accept Him as our Savior. Either God is sadistic, or pain is serving a purpose, and we are being prepared for more than arm-chair discipleship here, and drowsy drifting and harp-strumming in the afterlife.
The recommendation that we stop trying because Jesus has set the bar too high is reminiscent of the attitudes of various wayward and stubborn servants whom Jesus brings to life in His parables. Jesus cursed the fig tree for not producing any fruit; is this similar to what we can expect? If we bury our talent, will we receive a happy reception by Jesus when we stand before Him?
The Greek word for "perfect" found in Matt. 5:48 is teleios. Strong's Concordance gives us the following explanation:
"...(an adjective, derived from télos, "consummated goal") – mature (consummated) from going through the necessary stages to reach the end-goal, i.e. developed into a consummating completion by fulfilling the necessary process (spiritual journey).
[This root (tel-) means "reaching the end (aim)." It is well-illustrated with the old pirate's telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness).]"
Notice the deeper meaning implied—goal, mature, consummated, process, spiritual journey. One of the assertions made by the ad campaign is that we are commanded to be perfect immediately. Our relationship with God as our Father, rather than our pet-owner or worm-cultivator, can shed light on the meaning of the command from Jesus in Matt. 5:48. Children are born with the innate, yet undeveloped, capacities and attributes of their parents. When an infant first attempts to walk, parents are overjoyed. Of course the child will fall. But the parents are delighted by the attempt to walk. Each successive attempt brings the child closer to being able to walk effortlessly.
Applying the logic employed by the ad campaign's author[s], parents would recommend that their children give up on walking, and lie in bed like jello while mother and father do everything for them because they are not yet able to walk. Jesus gave us a command because He intended us to become like our Father. The purpose of His Atonement was not to make our efforts unnecessary; it was (among many things) to keep our failing in the midst of our efforts from damning us. Damage done, laws broken, in the process of growth, are compensated for by Jesus. He will "sit as a refiner of silver." A refiner of silver heats the ore in the crucible until dross is burnt and He can see His own reflection in the molten metal. Life is similar—it is hard specifically because it is for our benefit, a first-class education away from our heavenly Parents.
The assertions made in the ad campaign can be harmonized with parts of the Bible, but not with the demands and rigors of life. A religion's teachings must be able to straddle both the intricate inner world of the scriptures, yet find practical application in the rough-and-tumble arena of life.
Monday, July 23, 2012
(Adverb) Engaged
As a missionary, I encountered interesting individuals. One was a professional athlete who had turned recruiter for the BSA. He had been a football player, as well as an Olympic athlete. He earned a gold medal in track, which he showed to me and my companion. It was fairly easy to believe he was a athlete, even without photos and medals. Even the muscles on his temples were enormous.
He told us he believed our account of Joseph's first vision, or at least that it could have happened, because he awoke one night, surrounded by "glory." He asked us if we were worried about the impending Y2K crisis. We said no, and then he made this profound statement: "I'm not worried, because the Being I worship is not worried."
Elder Maxwell noted that while the Lord expects us to be "anxiously engaged" (D&C 57:28), we are to avoid being "hectically engaged," or "frantically engaged." (Insights From My Life, BYU talk given 12 Jan. 1999). C. S. Lewis said, "[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you" (Mere Christianity).
Lehi's dream is so rich and complex, it often yields new insight, always refreshing my determination to do right when I read it. Lehi meets a Man, whom I assume is Christ. The Man bids Lehi to follow Him, and Lehi finds himself "in a dark and dreary waste." "And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies" (1Ne. 8:7-8). The trust here is implicit. Lehi follows the Lord into unfamiliar territory, and when he finds himself alone, he begins to pray. He describes the Lord's abundant mercy in a way that evokes a warehouse in my mind, as though Lehi knows that there is an infinite supply, a "multitude" of mercies at God's disposal, and he begs to have a drop to sooth the extremity of his circumstances. He knows the mercies are available; the only questions are "if" and "when" the Lord is willing to extend them.
I remember being totally drained of energy one day while mowing the lawn. I laid down on the grass, thinking that I should get some sugar and cold liquid into my blood. But I felt prompted, strangely, to relax and just lie there. A minute later, my uncle appeared with a tall glass of cold lemon juice. This refreshed me, and I was back to mowing the lawn again. While this circumstance was trivial, the prompting was priceless to me, a "tender mercy," evidence that 1. My needs are known to God, 2. I am important to God, and 3. God makes provisions for my needs. A fourth point, and probably the least appealing, yet also comforting, is the evidence that God approves of my circumstances. Being enervated on the lawn is a legitimate part of God's menu of events for me; He has no problem with me being in what seems an undesirable circumstance.
Father in heaven knows the circumference of my biceps and the meagerness of my bank account, and while I could imagine improvements, the Lord knows and accepts these dimensions of my life. I am in the telestial world to have telestial-quality experiences. The scent of lemons and the odor of diapers are all legitimate shades on the potential palette of what we encounter here.
I have learned from personal experience that the Lord is aware, not only of my present, but knows all the miles that lie ahead on my odometer, so to speak. He knows the future. This can be intimidating, even frustrating and faith-shaking for people I have encountered. "How can such determinism be reconciled with agency?" and the hand wringing and stomach-ulcer forming fretting begins. The combination of my faith in God's benevolence, along with my understanding that He is omniscient and knows my future, is somewhat comforting to me. I imagine counsels between Christ and various angelic messengers who have stewardship over me, conspiring on my behalf to see that all the right things come my way, fall into place, and turn out properly. Provisions for my physical needs, as well as developmental experiences, are constantly being made. Necessary problems and blessings are being planned for me. It is easy to forget in all our anxious engagement and agency exercising and goal setting that God also has agency.
Where, then, is the happy medium? We are not to be "acted upon," yet we also do not have ultimate control of anything but our internal attitudes and feelings. It seems we are to thrash about in the most productive way we can manage, and wait for the Lord to make something constructive out of the debris and waves we generate. We also are privileged to follow the promptings of the Spirit, actually getting directions from time to time that correct our course (see 1Ne. 16:29). I think of this as following the wind where it blows us (John 3:8). So we cooperate with the Lord, sculpting our lives, and being sculpted by the Lord at the same time.
It is easy to imagine how hurt the Lord must feel when we do not trust Him, and also how flattered He must feel when we do trust Him. Being frantic, hurried, worried, fearful, depressed—these things are evidence that we doubt the Lord's providence or ability to control what is going on. When someone trusts me, believes what I say, or even values my opinion, I feel flattered, even humbled. I cannot imagine the Lord feeling any different when I show through my actions and attitudes that I trust Him.
He told us he believed our account of Joseph's first vision, or at least that it could have happened, because he awoke one night, surrounded by "glory." He asked us if we were worried about the impending Y2K crisis. We said no, and then he made this profound statement: "I'm not worried, because the Being I worship is not worried."
Elder Maxwell noted that while the Lord expects us to be "anxiously engaged" (D&C 57:28), we are to avoid being "hectically engaged," or "frantically engaged." (Insights From My Life, BYU talk given 12 Jan. 1999). C. S. Lewis said, "[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you" (Mere Christianity).
Lehi's dream is so rich and complex, it often yields new insight, always refreshing my determination to do right when I read it. Lehi meets a Man, whom I assume is Christ. The Man bids Lehi to follow Him, and Lehi finds himself "in a dark and dreary waste." "And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies" (1Ne. 8:7-8). The trust here is implicit. Lehi follows the Lord into unfamiliar territory, and when he finds himself alone, he begins to pray. He describes the Lord's abundant mercy in a way that evokes a warehouse in my mind, as though Lehi knows that there is an infinite supply, a "multitude" of mercies at God's disposal, and he begs to have a drop to sooth the extremity of his circumstances. He knows the mercies are available; the only questions are "if" and "when" the Lord is willing to extend them.
I remember being totally drained of energy one day while mowing the lawn. I laid down on the grass, thinking that I should get some sugar and cold liquid into my blood. But I felt prompted, strangely, to relax and just lie there. A minute later, my uncle appeared with a tall glass of cold lemon juice. This refreshed me, and I was back to mowing the lawn again. While this circumstance was trivial, the prompting was priceless to me, a "tender mercy," evidence that 1. My needs are known to God, 2. I am important to God, and 3. God makes provisions for my needs. A fourth point, and probably the least appealing, yet also comforting, is the evidence that God approves of my circumstances. Being enervated on the lawn is a legitimate part of God's menu of events for me; He has no problem with me being in what seems an undesirable circumstance.
Father in heaven knows the circumference of my biceps and the meagerness of my bank account, and while I could imagine improvements, the Lord knows and accepts these dimensions of my life. I am in the telestial world to have telestial-quality experiences. The scent of lemons and the odor of diapers are all legitimate shades on the potential palette of what we encounter here.
I have learned from personal experience that the Lord is aware, not only of my present, but knows all the miles that lie ahead on my odometer, so to speak. He knows the future. This can be intimidating, even frustrating and faith-shaking for people I have encountered. "How can such determinism be reconciled with agency?" and the hand wringing and stomach-ulcer forming fretting begins. The combination of my faith in God's benevolence, along with my understanding that He is omniscient and knows my future, is somewhat comforting to me. I imagine counsels between Christ and various angelic messengers who have stewardship over me, conspiring on my behalf to see that all the right things come my way, fall into place, and turn out properly. Provisions for my physical needs, as well as developmental experiences, are constantly being made. Necessary problems and blessings are being planned for me. It is easy to forget in all our anxious engagement and agency exercising and goal setting that God also has agency.
Where, then, is the happy medium? We are not to be "acted upon," yet we also do not have ultimate control of anything but our internal attitudes and feelings. It seems we are to thrash about in the most productive way we can manage, and wait for the Lord to make something constructive out of the debris and waves we generate. We also are privileged to follow the promptings of the Spirit, actually getting directions from time to time that correct our course (see 1Ne. 16:29). I think of this as following the wind where it blows us (John 3:8). So we cooperate with the Lord, sculpting our lives, and being sculpted by the Lord at the same time.
It is easy to imagine how hurt the Lord must feel when we do not trust Him, and also how flattered He must feel when we do trust Him. Being frantic, hurried, worried, fearful, depressed—these things are evidence that we doubt the Lord's providence or ability to control what is going on. When someone trusts me, believes what I say, or even values my opinion, I feel flattered, even humbled. I cannot imagine the Lord feeling any different when I show through my actions and attitudes that I trust Him.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Success: Two Views
The words "success" and "successful" once had broad application to numerous circumstances. Attempting to retrieve a kite from a tree, or a baseball from a roof could be achieved, and the outcome would be called "successful." Now the words almost exclusively apply to gathering the things of this world—power, wealth, prestige, and the pleasures of the flesh—in a large quota, and in a somewhat lasting way—right up to the moment of death.
The scriptures speak of a man who had obtained all these things, everything the world had to offer, and yet he was unsatisfied. We do not even know his name; he was King Lamoni's father, also a king. If I read the record correctly, he was healthy enough to try to kill Lamoni in armed combat. He had a large family, with at least one granddaughter of marriageable age. He was the wealthiest land owner of his day, with thousands of citizens who revered him as their king. People had to come to him to ask permission to build synagogues. He held feasts with his family (I recall the 4th of July picnics of my youth, and cannot imagine the food he served was any better, though the setting and dishes were probably far more expensive and opulent). This man had every physical thing this world has to offer, and yet he was dissatisfied, a grouch by all outward evidence. He came close to murdering his own son. What was missing in his life?
As I have pointed out elsewhere, Lamoni was missing what we all long for, whether we know it or not—to bask in the glory and presence of our Heavenly Father. The absence of that glory is, I believe, the source of much emptiness and undefinable longing we experience here in this life, and people shovel into their systems vast amounts of stimuli (like drugs or sex or noisy music) and vain groping for glory and praise, along with seeking for power, all in the attempt to fill that emptiness. The attempt itself kills the sensitivity necessary to even enjoy the stimulus; "habituation" is the clinical term for such numbness. Elder Neal A. Maxwell captures the idea with his characteristically clear and eloquent turn of phrase: "Brothers and sisters, the cast of players on this planet for whom the revelations and translations are so pertinent includes those who, in that familiar phrase, are living “lives of quiet desperation” (see Henry David Thoreau, Walden [1965], 7). They have now been joined by those living lives of noisy, slurping indulgence, wrongly celebrating their capacity to feel so that they finally lose their capacity to feel and become “past feeling” (see Moro. 9:20; Eph. 4:19; 1 Ne. 17:45). Hence they lick their particular platters in a desperate search for more sensations" (How Choice a Seer!, Oct. 2003 General Conference).
So keen was that feeling in Lamoni's father that he was willing to part with everything he had accumulated just to experience fullness instead of emptiness. It seems clear to me that the desire, hope for, and anticipation of the things of this world is more enjoyable than actually receiving them. (Recall childhood—Christmas morning is something of a letdown after the weeks of buildup.)
Are the things of this world a complete loss, then? Far from it: "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it" (Mosiah 4:21). The Book of Mormon also contains numerous reiterations of the promise that those who keep the commandments will be prospered in the land. "Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul" (D&C 59:18-19). The Doctrine and Covenants takes us millions of miles away from the apostate creeds of Christianity: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy" (93:33-34). Jesus returned from the grave, not as an intangible ghost, but having "flesh and bone" (Luke 24:39). He was not only handled by His followers, he also ate fish and honeycomb to prove His physical resurrection.
The scriptures speak of a man who had obtained all these things, everything the world had to offer, and yet he was unsatisfied. We do not even know his name; he was King Lamoni's father, also a king. If I read the record correctly, he was healthy enough to try to kill Lamoni in armed combat. He had a large family, with at least one granddaughter of marriageable age. He was the wealthiest land owner of his day, with thousands of citizens who revered him as their king. People had to come to him to ask permission to build synagogues. He held feasts with his family (I recall the 4th of July picnics of my youth, and cannot imagine the food he served was any better, though the setting and dishes were probably far more expensive and opulent). This man had every physical thing this world has to offer, and yet he was dissatisfied, a grouch by all outward evidence. He came close to murdering his own son. What was missing in his life?
As I have pointed out elsewhere, Lamoni was missing what we all long for, whether we know it or not—to bask in the glory and presence of our Heavenly Father. The absence of that glory is, I believe, the source of much emptiness and undefinable longing we experience here in this life, and people shovel into their systems vast amounts of stimuli (like drugs or sex or noisy music) and vain groping for glory and praise, along with seeking for power, all in the attempt to fill that emptiness. The attempt itself kills the sensitivity necessary to even enjoy the stimulus; "habituation" is the clinical term for such numbness. Elder Neal A. Maxwell captures the idea with his characteristically clear and eloquent turn of phrase: "Brothers and sisters, the cast of players on this planet for whom the revelations and translations are so pertinent includes those who, in that familiar phrase, are living “lives of quiet desperation” (see Henry David Thoreau, Walden [1965], 7). They have now been joined by those living lives of noisy, slurping indulgence, wrongly celebrating their capacity to feel so that they finally lose their capacity to feel and become “past feeling” (see Moro. 9:20; Eph. 4:19; 1 Ne. 17:45). Hence they lick their particular platters in a desperate search for more sensations" (How Choice a Seer!, Oct. 2003 General Conference).
So keen was that feeling in Lamoni's father that he was willing to part with everything he had accumulated just to experience fullness instead of emptiness. It seems clear to me that the desire, hope for, and anticipation of the things of this world is more enjoyable than actually receiving them. (Recall childhood—Christmas morning is something of a letdown after the weeks of buildup.)
Are the things of this world a complete loss, then? Far from it: "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it" (Mosiah 4:21). The Book of Mormon also contains numerous reiterations of the promise that those who keep the commandments will be prospered in the land. "Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul" (D&C 59:18-19). The Doctrine and Covenants takes us millions of miles away from the apostate creeds of Christianity: "For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy" (93:33-34). Jesus returned from the grave, not as an intangible ghost, but having "flesh and bone" (Luke 24:39). He was not only handled by His followers, he also ate fish and honeycomb to prove His physical resurrection.
So the physical aspect of life plays a vital role in realizing our complete happiness. Success, in the ultimate sense, is not to husk the inconvenient flesh, but to tame it to the will of the spirit (see Mosiah 15:1-5).
It would be nice if we could always have both, spiritual joy and physical comfort, but there are times when one is at odds with the other. These are the times when we show whether the spirit or the flesh rules our hearts. I am convinced that to be "like God" (a phrase we often use too casually) means to completely subject the will of the flesh to the will of God, to the Spirit. Jesus is our exemplar in this venture. Throughout His life, but especially in the last hours of His life, He was surrounded by enemies, forsaken by friends, and the Father even temporarily withdrew His sustaining influence. Jesus submitted to all manner of torture, starved and thirsty, drained even of blood. He was stripped of all clothing and material possessions, mocked instead of revered, "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all." (It is easy to dissociate Jesus' suffering from our sins, but our sins were precisely the reason He went through all that pain.) Jesus was bereft of anything that could be construed as worldly success.
Yet Jesus declared the venture a success: JST Matt. 27:54: "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, saying, Father, it is finished, thy will is done, yielded up the ghost." Death is the feared and strictly avoided aspect of life, though it is also the only inevitable part. Yet Jesus topped off everything He had suffered up to that point by voluntarily dying for others, for us. Death is easy to contemplate in the abstract, but the few moments of terror in my life when death seemed imminent to me highlight the difficulty entailed by such an act. I remember a specific occasion when I turned left before an oncoming bus; we both wanted to jump through the brief window offered by a passing yellow light. I assumed (wrongly) that the bus was going to stop. I saw a diagram of an underground bunker, a sort of doomsday haven, built for billionaires in distress. "O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm" (2Ne. 4:34).
I want to compare two people whom I admire, at least their views and values with regard to life and death.
Steve Jobs, successful enterpreneur, describes his personal encounter with mortality: "About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan...it clearly showed a tumor...The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening...when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true."
He was not "fine:" Steve Jobs died of cancer in his fifties, and undoubtedly had access to the finest medical care available. I am duly impressed by his fortitude and forthrightness in the face of this great threat, to say nothing of his ability to change the world in other ways. He was a success in every worldly sense of the world.
But what about the things that last forever? I am convinced that WE are the products, the gold being refined, while all the good projects we work on, like Temples or computers or anything else, are merely process materials, secondary bits and pieces that will fall away like a mold or scaffolding when the process of becoming is completed. The point of this life is our immortality and eternal life, not to build good, yet impermanent, things.
JST, Luke 9:25: "For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and yet he receive him not whom God hath ordained, and he lose his own soul, and he himself be a castaway?" There is something about clinging to one of these things (the world, or the Savior and our souls) that makes holding onto the other difficult.
Hugh Nibley was a poor college professor; he risked his life on the dirty battlefields of Europe during WWII, and survived numerous close calls. He had no bunker to hide in, no fortress of wealth shielding him from death. Yet he lived to be ninety five years old. Rather than seeking the gross material things of this world, he seemed to tread the path of Abraham: "And, finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers" (Abr. 1:2). Hugh Nibley found what he was looking for, it seems. Rather than look for a way to outsmart death, he looked to Christ for a remedy. He tells an imaginary, yet all too real, parable of a successful businessman who confronts his own mortality:
"Imagine, then, a successful businessman who, responding to some slight but persistent physical discomfort and the urging of an importunate wife, pays a visit to a...doctor. ...it is with an unquiet mind that he descends the steps of the clinic with the assurance, gained after long hours of searching examination, that he has about three weeks to live.
"In the days that follow, this man’s thinking undergoes a change, not a slow and subtle change—there is no time for that—but a quick and brutal reorientation. By the time he has reached home on that fateful afternoon, the first shock of the news has worn off, and he is already beginning to see things with strange eyes. As he locks the garage door, his long ambition to own a Cadillac suddenly seems unspeakably puerile to him, utterly unworthy of a rational, let alone an immortal, being. This leads him to the shocking realization, in the hours that follow, that one can be rich and successful in this world with a perfectly barren mind. With shame and alarm he discovers that he has been making a religion of his career. In a flash of insight he recognizes the truth of the old Greek doctrine that seeming and being are two wholly different things, and on his knees discovers that only his Heavenly Father knows him as he is. Abruptly he ceases to care particularly whether anybody thinks he is a good, able, smart, likable fellow or not; after all, he is not trying to sell anyone anything any more.
"Things that once filled him with awe seem strangely trivial, and things, which a few days before did not even exist for him, now fill his consciousness. For the first time he discovers the almost celestial beauty of the world of nature, not viewed through the glass of cameras and car windows, but as the very element in which he lives. Shapes and colors spring before his senses with a vividness and drama of which he never dreamed.
"The perfection of children comes to him like sudden revelation, and he is appalled by the monstrous perversion that would debauch their minds, over stimulate their appetites, and destroy their sensibilities in unscrupulous plans of sales promotion. Everywhere he looks he gets the feeling that all is passing away—not just relatively because he is saying goodbye to a world he has never seen before, but really and truly. He sees all life and stuff about him involved in a huge ceaseless combustion, a literal and apparent process of oxidation which is turning some things slowly, some rapidly, but all things surely to ashes. He wishes he had studied more and pays a farewell visit to some friends at the university where he is quick to discover, with his new powers of discernment, that their professional posturing and intellectual busywork is no road to discovery but only an alley of escape from responsibility and criticism.
"As the days pass...he is visited ever more frequently by memories, memories of astonishing clarity and vividness—mostly from his childhood, and he finds himself at the same time slipping ever more easily into speculations, equally vivid, on the world to come and the future of this world. The limits of time begin to melt and fuse until everything seems present but the present. In a word, his thinking has become eschatological.
"'What has happened to our solid citizen?' his friends ask perplexed. ...he cannot conceal his change of heart. As far as his old associates can see, the poor man has left the world of reality. Parties and gold no longer amuse him. TV and movies disgust him. He takes to reading books, of all things—even the Bible! When they engage him in conversation, he makes very disturbing remarks... He even becomes careless of his appearance, as if he didn’t know that the key to success is to make a good impression on people. As time passes, these alarming symptoms become ever more pronounced. His sales record drops off sharply. Those who know what is good for their future begin to avoid being seen with him... What is wrong with the man?
"...As he...walks the streets, he sees, in the words of Joseph Smith, 'destruction writ large on everything we behold.'
"Now the question arises, has this man been jerked out of reality or into it? Has he cut himself off from the real world or has cruel necessity forced him to look in the face what he was running away from before? Is he in a dream now or has he just awakened from one? Has he become an irresponsible child or has he taken the measure of Vanity Fair? Some will answer one way, some another. But if you want to arouse him to wrathful sermons, just try telling the man that it makes no difference which of these worlds one lives in—that they are equally real to the people who live in them.
"...Our businessman, for example, begins to wonder...What about the hereafter? ...Is there going to be a judgment? He almost panics at the thought, which has never bothered him before because he has been successful...
"To anyone who does not experience it, the view of things is pure myth—an invention of an overwrought mind desperately determined to support its own premises. Only what they fail to consider is that those who have had both views of the world interpret things just the other way around:...only strong and disciplined minds are willing to see things as they are, and even they must be forced to it!...To conclude our parable, what happens to our man of affairs? A second series of tests at the hospital shows that his case was not quite what they thought it was—he may live for many years. Yet he takes the news strangely, for instead of celebrating at a night club or a prize fight as any normal healthy person should, this creature will continue his difficult ways. “This,” he says, “is no pardon. It is but a stay of execution. Soon enough it is going to happen. This situation is not really changed at all.” So he becomes religious, a hopeless case, an eschatological zealot, a Puritan, a monk, a John Bunyan, a primitive Christian, an Essene, a Latter-day Saint. In every age such people...have...paid dearly for their folly" ("Way of the Church," pp. 829-30, 833. Taken from “Of All Things! A Nibley Quote Book” p.60-64).
I am certain that Steve Jobs, as well as numerous other telestial innovators, have played a divinely decreed role in establishing technology on the earth. I wish I had more of that vitality and drive. But who FEELS successful when they cross the finish line of death? Who looks back at their dead body without remorse, and looks upward, hopeful about their future? Who can look Jesus in the face, unashamed and happy? That, to me at least, would constitute ultimate success.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Feeding the 5000: Foreshadowing the The Book of Mormon
Prophecy is usually delivered via verbal or written means; Joseph Smith predicted the Civil War with such accuracy that no one talks about it (see D&C 87:1-4). He explained in literal, straightforward language the events that were about to transpire. This post is dedicated to my pure speculation of a different kind of prophecy—an event that prefigures another so closely that the first could be called a prediction of the second.
In John, we read the familiar story of the miracle in which Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes to feed the gathered multitudes. John 6:5-14: "When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world."
How does this miracle prefigure the coming forth of the Book of Mormon? We can compare the two events:
Just as the multitude were without food, the world was in a famine of doctrine, the apostasy. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord..." (Amos 8:11).
Jesus looked on the doctrinally starved world as he looked on the 5000. Jesus already had a plan to rectify each situation. A lad in the crowd had five loaves and two fish, hardly enough to feed a multitude. Joseph Smith was a young man at the time of his first vision, and was still "unlearned" at the time he received the plates from Moroni. He was given the power to translate part of the plates, and the resulting manuscript was a stack of paper with handwriting on it. How could the two fish and five loaves feed thousands? How could this stack of scribbled paper (the paper itself was referred to as "fools cap" paper because of the water mark on it) end the famine of hearing the word of the Lord?
Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes, and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the 5000 gathered there. Jesus blessed the endeavors of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and others in the publishing of the Book of Mormon. Thanks to the contributions of time and money from supporters (Phillip mentions the cost of feeding the multitude), W. B. Grandin was able to produce 5000 copies in the first printing of the Book of Mormon. (I recently learned that Porter Rockwell picked and sold berries to help fund the printing.)
Jesus gave the bread and fish to His disciples first, and they then distributed it to the rest of the multitude. Copies of first editions of the Book of Mormon found their way into the hands of Brigham Young, Parley Pratt, and others who became members of the original Quorum of the Twelve. These men went as missionaries throughout England and America, converting thousands. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Just as the original Twelve gathered twelve baskets, so the first modern Quorum of Twelve gathered the Saints from the ends of the earth to Zion. There were excess fragments of bread after the 5000 were filled; hundreds of millions of copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed in hundreds of languages.
After witnessing this miracle, many hailed Jesus as "that prophet that should come into the world." The miracles of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, as well as the rapid growth of the Church of Christ he founded, all stand as testimony to the divine authenticity of Joseph's calling as a prophet of God.
Luke 13:21 gives a parable about the kingdom: "It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Joseph interpreted the parable as a reference to the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Their names and witnesses are attached to the preface of every copy. None of them denied their witness, yet each of them apostatized. This is strong evidence for the authenticity of their witness. Leaven is mold, yeast, a corrupting agent, yet it also supports the structure of a loaf of bread, causing it to rise in the oven. The corruption in the hearts of the three witnesses ultimately supported the authenticity of their witness, as well as the whole kingdom of God.
The Book of Mormon says that Joseph Smith would resemble Joseph in Egypt, his prophetic ancestor. Joseph in Egypt allowed a nation and his family to survive physical famine; Joseph Smith was God's instrument in ending spiritual famine and apostasy.
As I said, the connection between John 6 and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon may be in my imagination, but the number of parallels makes me think otherwise.
In John, we read the familiar story of the miracle in which Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes to feed the gathered multitudes. John 6:5-14: "When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world."
How does this miracle prefigure the coming forth of the Book of Mormon? We can compare the two events:
Just as the multitude were without food, the world was in a famine of doctrine, the apostasy. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord..." (Amos 8:11).
Jesus looked on the doctrinally starved world as he looked on the 5000. Jesus already had a plan to rectify each situation. A lad in the crowd had five loaves and two fish, hardly enough to feed a multitude. Joseph Smith was a young man at the time of his first vision, and was still "unlearned" at the time he received the plates from Moroni. He was given the power to translate part of the plates, and the resulting manuscript was a stack of paper with handwriting on it. How could the two fish and five loaves feed thousands? How could this stack of scribbled paper (the paper itself was referred to as "fools cap" paper because of the water mark on it) end the famine of hearing the word of the Lord?
Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes, and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the 5000 gathered there. Jesus blessed the endeavors of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and others in the publishing of the Book of Mormon. Thanks to the contributions of time and money from supporters (Phillip mentions the cost of feeding the multitude), W. B. Grandin was able to produce 5000 copies in the first printing of the Book of Mormon. (I recently learned that Porter Rockwell picked and sold berries to help fund the printing.)
Jesus gave the bread and fish to His disciples first, and they then distributed it to the rest of the multitude. Copies of first editions of the Book of Mormon found their way into the hands of Brigham Young, Parley Pratt, and others who became members of the original Quorum of the Twelve. These men went as missionaries throughout England and America, converting thousands. "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Just as the original Twelve gathered twelve baskets, so the first modern Quorum of Twelve gathered the Saints from the ends of the earth to Zion. There were excess fragments of bread after the 5000 were filled; hundreds of millions of copies of the Book of Mormon have been printed in hundreds of languages.
After witnessing this miracle, many hailed Jesus as "that prophet that should come into the world." The miracles of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, as well as the rapid growth of the Church of Christ he founded, all stand as testimony to the divine authenticity of Joseph's calling as a prophet of God.
Luke 13:21 gives a parable about the kingdom: "It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Joseph interpreted the parable as a reference to the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Their names and witnesses are attached to the preface of every copy. None of them denied their witness, yet each of them apostatized. This is strong evidence for the authenticity of their witness. Leaven is mold, yeast, a corrupting agent, yet it also supports the structure of a loaf of bread, causing it to rise in the oven. The corruption in the hearts of the three witnesses ultimately supported the authenticity of their witness, as well as the whole kingdom of God.
The Book of Mormon says that Joseph Smith would resemble Joseph in Egypt, his prophetic ancestor. Joseph in Egypt allowed a nation and his family to survive physical famine; Joseph Smith was God's instrument in ending spiritual famine and apostasy.
As I said, the connection between John 6 and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon may be in my imagination, but the number of parallels makes me think otherwise.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Answer to a Question About the Book of Mormon
On my mission, my companion and I had a grand idea—set up a table in the major courtyard of the college campus where we served. Many people, adversarial or curious, would stop by and check out our booth.
One girl asked me why we needed the Book of Mormon when we have the Bible already. My answer at the time was woefully inadequate, and we both knew it. Today I saw well-meaning people wandering around a park, trying to spark up religious discussion while offering free water. I did not speak with them (contention is of the devil, and I became mildly aggravated just thinking about talking to them). But the encounter reminded me of my earlier experience on my mission. Below is my current answer to the question, "Why do we need the Book of Mormon?"
Living Messengers
The Bible was written thousands of years ago by prophets, apostles, and saints who are currently dead (or resurrected; unavailable either way). While their words are true, they did not live long enough to pass on their authority to a new generation of prophets. The Book of Mormon comes to the world with ordained ministers attached. Not only did God provide new information, new scripture; He also provides living, ordained prophets, apostles, and missionaries with the authority to baptize and lay hands on for the receipt of the Holy Ghost. This has not been true of the Bible since the time of the Apostles. To accept the Book of Mormon as true is to accept the principle of modern revelation.
Indivisible
Another useful function of the Book of Mormon is its indivisibility. By that I mean that it cannot be accepted in slices. The Bible can be approached as the word of God, a history of true miracles and divine theophanies, or it can be accepted as a partially true narrative with fantastical lies mingled with verifiable historical facts. You can learn about culture and custom, say the critics, but there are no visible footprints on the Sea of Galilee. So the Bible becomes a buffet, where people take what they want, and leave what they don't. Not so with the Book of Mormon. It is either completely true, or completely false, with no convenient middle ground. Also, it cannot be misinterpreted or used to start new religions, since it comes with living apostles. Many splinter groups have left the Church since Joseph Smith died; none of them I know of use the Book of Mormon in any significant way. The Bible is viewed by many as a do-it-yourself build-a-religion kit; the Book of Mormon lacks that option.
Geographical Gathering
Because the Book of Mormon comes with living messengers, authorized to baptize and build the Church of Christ again on the earth, it becomes something else the Bible alone cannot be: an invitation to literally, physically gather. The Bible may stir longing to gather, but where? The Old Testament gives us the law, and demonstrates obedience, and consequences of choices. The New Testament spreads the message that Jesus sacrificed for us, and fulfilled that old law. But the tens of thousands of divergent denominations, fragments of Christianity scattered the world over, are clear evidence that the "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" Paul described are not widespread. The Bible has been on the earth for nearly two millennia now, and the problem of division and disagreement among sects is still rampant. Isaiah spoke of "a remnant" of Israel returning. When will that happen? And how? The Bible is apparently not the answer to the problem of gathering Israel; the Book of Mormon is.
The Book of Mormon is like a dinner bell rung at the end of a long, hard day, inviting weary children home to sit at the table of the Lord. Not only does the Book of Mormon come equipped with genuine messengers from God—it also comes with geographical promised lands, wards, stakes, and Temples where saints can gather literally and physically. It not only brings home the Lord's "sheep," who are familiar with His voice; it also feeds them til the Savior comes.
The Bible sends out the call, but it lacks a specific address for gathering, and the confused response to its message manifests itself as fractious sects, all Christian, yet all separate.
Personal Revelation
Finally, the Book of Mormon comes with the promise of personal communication from God, even an invitation to obtain a witness through the Holy Ghost. A religion that does not involve personal communication with God is a farce (early Church presidents expressed this idea). Why should anyone join this Church rather than others? Ask God. If you cannot get any response, you probably should not be going to any church at all.
The Bible describes people interacting with God; only the lost invest themselves in arguing over what God said anciently. The Pharisees knew the scriptures; Jesus knew God. The ancients set the example for us, but how few have actually followed it! Scripture study is important, but it is useful only as it leads to revelation, personal interaction with our Heavenly Father.
Those who approach the Lord with an I-will-do-anything-you-ask attitude are the ones who get revelation more readily, I believe. No pope, no saints, no middlemen of any kind—secure knowledge for yourself, on your knees. That is the invitation of Joseph Smith and his successors; it is the invitation of the Book of Mormon. Anciently, religion and politics and culture were the same thing; you were born into a civilization, and adopted the customs of your ancestors and community. Religious adherence was compulsory. Not anymore. Now we have a buffet of philosophies, religions, sects, gurus, charlatans, snake oil peddlers, etc., to choose from. We have the luxury and the time to get distracted. That is the world we see today. Rich people trying on religions and philosophies like sweaters, all window shopping.
The Book of Mormon presents the obvious, yet daunting solution: Ask God. My witness is that God answers our prayers, if we pray in faith and humility. Willingness to comply with revelation is the main key, in my opinion, to qualify to receive it. It is also my witness that the Lord has confirmed to me, through personal revelation, that the Bible, Book of Mormon, and other restored scriptures, are true. Joseph Smith was called of God. There is a living prophet on the earth today, and the authority to administer the ancient ordinances is restored again. I feel it a privilege to sit quietly in the morning and pore over the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. I hear my Savior's voice in the words, and I am grateful for all the scriptures He has given us.
****************************
15 November 2015, Update: There is an excellent new site about the Book of Mormon called bookofmormoncentral.org. The general concept is to create a comprehensive website about all Book of Mormon scholorship, everything ever written (or sung, painted, sculpted, etc.) about it. There are scores of excellent articles about linguistics, archaeology, and principles.
One girl asked me why we needed the Book of Mormon when we have the Bible already. My answer at the time was woefully inadequate, and we both knew it. Today I saw well-meaning people wandering around a park, trying to spark up religious discussion while offering free water. I did not speak with them (contention is of the devil, and I became mildly aggravated just thinking about talking to them). But the encounter reminded me of my earlier experience on my mission. Below is my current answer to the question, "Why do we need the Book of Mormon?"
Living Messengers
The Bible was written thousands of years ago by prophets, apostles, and saints who are currently dead (or resurrected; unavailable either way). While their words are true, they did not live long enough to pass on their authority to a new generation of prophets. The Book of Mormon comes to the world with ordained ministers attached. Not only did God provide new information, new scripture; He also provides living, ordained prophets, apostles, and missionaries with the authority to baptize and lay hands on for the receipt of the Holy Ghost. This has not been true of the Bible since the time of the Apostles. To accept the Book of Mormon as true is to accept the principle of modern revelation.
Indivisible
Another useful function of the Book of Mormon is its indivisibility. By that I mean that it cannot be accepted in slices. The Bible can be approached as the word of God, a history of true miracles and divine theophanies, or it can be accepted as a partially true narrative with fantastical lies mingled with verifiable historical facts. You can learn about culture and custom, say the critics, but there are no visible footprints on the Sea of Galilee. So the Bible becomes a buffet, where people take what they want, and leave what they don't. Not so with the Book of Mormon. It is either completely true, or completely false, with no convenient middle ground. Also, it cannot be misinterpreted or used to start new religions, since it comes with living apostles. Many splinter groups have left the Church since Joseph Smith died; none of them I know of use the Book of Mormon in any significant way. The Bible is viewed by many as a do-it-yourself build-a-religion kit; the Book of Mormon lacks that option.
Geographical Gathering
Because the Book of Mormon comes with living messengers, authorized to baptize and build the Church of Christ again on the earth, it becomes something else the Bible alone cannot be: an invitation to literally, physically gather. The Bible may stir longing to gather, but where? The Old Testament gives us the law, and demonstrates obedience, and consequences of choices. The New Testament spreads the message that Jesus sacrificed for us, and fulfilled that old law. But the tens of thousands of divergent denominations, fragments of Christianity scattered the world over, are clear evidence that the "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" Paul described are not widespread. The Bible has been on the earth for nearly two millennia now, and the problem of division and disagreement among sects is still rampant. Isaiah spoke of "a remnant" of Israel returning. When will that happen? And how? The Bible is apparently not the answer to the problem of gathering Israel; the Book of Mormon is.
The Book of Mormon is like a dinner bell rung at the end of a long, hard day, inviting weary children home to sit at the table of the Lord. Not only does the Book of Mormon come equipped with genuine messengers from God—it also comes with geographical promised lands, wards, stakes, and Temples where saints can gather literally and physically. It not only brings home the Lord's "sheep," who are familiar with His voice; it also feeds them til the Savior comes.
The Bible sends out the call, but it lacks a specific address for gathering, and the confused response to its message manifests itself as fractious sects, all Christian, yet all separate.
Personal Revelation
Finally, the Book of Mormon comes with the promise of personal communication from God, even an invitation to obtain a witness through the Holy Ghost. A religion that does not involve personal communication with God is a farce (early Church presidents expressed this idea). Why should anyone join this Church rather than others? Ask God. If you cannot get any response, you probably should not be going to any church at all.
The Bible describes people interacting with God; only the lost invest themselves in arguing over what God said anciently. The Pharisees knew the scriptures; Jesus knew God. The ancients set the example for us, but how few have actually followed it! Scripture study is important, but it is useful only as it leads to revelation, personal interaction with our Heavenly Father.
Those who approach the Lord with an I-will-do-anything-you-ask attitude are the ones who get revelation more readily, I believe. No pope, no saints, no middlemen of any kind—secure knowledge for yourself, on your knees. That is the invitation of Joseph Smith and his successors; it is the invitation of the Book of Mormon. Anciently, religion and politics and culture were the same thing; you were born into a civilization, and adopted the customs of your ancestors and community. Religious adherence was compulsory. Not anymore. Now we have a buffet of philosophies, religions, sects, gurus, charlatans, snake oil peddlers, etc., to choose from. We have the luxury and the time to get distracted. That is the world we see today. Rich people trying on religions and philosophies like sweaters, all window shopping.
The Book of Mormon presents the obvious, yet daunting solution: Ask God. My witness is that God answers our prayers, if we pray in faith and humility. Willingness to comply with revelation is the main key, in my opinion, to qualify to receive it. It is also my witness that the Lord has confirmed to me, through personal revelation, that the Bible, Book of Mormon, and other restored scriptures, are true. Joseph Smith was called of God. There is a living prophet on the earth today, and the authority to administer the ancient ordinances is restored again. I feel it a privilege to sit quietly in the morning and pore over the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. I hear my Savior's voice in the words, and I am grateful for all the scriptures He has given us.
****************************
15 November 2015, Update: There is an excellent new site about the Book of Mormon called bookofmormoncentral.org. The general concept is to create a comprehensive website about all Book of Mormon scholorship, everything ever written (or sung, painted, sculpted, etc.) about it. There are scores of excellent articles about linguistics, archaeology, and principles.
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