Our False Gods

While reading Brother Hugh Nibley’s talk entitled, “One Eternal Round,” I came across the following passage: “The gulf between Adam’s golden age and our own becomes narrow at those times when the gospel is restored, but presently starts to broaden as the Saints begin to drift away toward the normal human condition. Nephi found this to be a law of nature. In ancient times, apostasy never came by renouncing the gospel but always by corrupting it. No one renounces it today, and so we have the strange paradox of people stoutly proclaiming beliefs and ideals that they have no intention of putting into practice” (Temple and Cosmos, 395). To illustrate this point, Brother Nibley enumerates eight “beliefs and ideals” that he suggests are being ignored in our day. One of these is that “a great and inspired bicentennial message by one we called our prophet was instantly swept under the rug” (Ibid., 396).

Naturally, this comment caught my attention, and I proceeded to the endnotes to determine the source of his concern. As soon as I read the title, I remembered having read the message but initially could remember none of its particulars: “The False Gods We Worship” by President Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, June 1976. Hopefully, this writing will be sufficient motivation that others will review this message thoughtfully.

President Kimball reminds us that we are blessed to reside on this beautiful earth whereon there is much that is good and beautiful, and it naturally follows that the Lord “expects righteousness and obedience to his commandments in return.” This is no more than an illustration of the “general principle that where much is given, much is expected” (Luke 12:48). However, at the same time we should not attempt to ignore the great wickedness that is all around us. The Brethren now as with prophets since the days of Adam “constantly cry out against that which is intolerable in the sight of the Lord: against pollution of mind, body, and our surroundings; against vulgarity, stealing, lying, pride, and blasphemy; against fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and all other abuses of the sacred power to create; against murder and all that is like unto it; against all manner of desecration.” “That such a cry should be necessary among a people so blessed is amazing to me. And that such things should be found even among the Saints to some degree is scarcely believable.”

The root cause for the Saints in particular to fail in their pursuit of the things of God is “idolatry” according to President Kimball. “Sadly, we find that to be shown the way is not necessarily to walk in it, and many have not been able to continue in faith.” “Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his blessings. Rather, we learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of faith has always appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more immediately at hand, carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things.”

Particularly in the United States, the Lord has blessed us with “unequalled” prosperity and expects that we will use these riches in order to accomplish our earthly mission. However, the reality is that “many people spend most of their time working in the service of a self-image that includes sufficient money, stocks, bonds, investments portfolios, property, credit cards, furnishings, automobiles, and the like to guarantee carnal security throughout, it is hoped, a long and happy life. Forgotten is the fact that our assignment is to use these many resources in our families and quorums to build up the kingdom of God.” The result is that many members refuse to accept callings in or make appropriate contributions to the building up of the Lord’s Kingdom because they are too busy gathering and/or enjoying the material things of this world.

But this is not all. “We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel--ships, planes, missiles, fortifications--and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you’” (Matthew 5:44).

President Kimball concludes his message with this suggestion: “We believe that the way for each person and each family to prepare as the Lord has directed is to begin to exercise greater faith, to repent, and to enter into the work of his kingdom on earth, which is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It may seem a little difficult at first, but when a person begins to catch a vision of the true work, when he begins to see something of eternity in its true perspective, the blessings begin to far outweigh the cost of leaving ‘the world’ behind.”

A final thought comes from Brother Bruce Satterfield. Writing concerning the manner in which Peter, Andrew, James, and John immediately and completely gave up the means whereby they had earned their livelihoods and in some cases even their families in order to accept the Lord’s calling to serve Him, Brother Satterfield concludes: “The message of the calling of the disciples is that the cost of discipleship demands that we give up whatever is required by God and whatever holds us back from full dedication to the kingdom” (Bruce Satterfield, Supplementary materials for New Testament Lesson 4, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord”).