"Choose The Right"

From the age of four until they are baptized at age eight, the youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who participate in the activities of the Primary organization attend CTR classes. During these very formative years, they are schooled in a basic understanding of the gospel and in the meaning and importance of being baptized and confirmed as members of the Church. An important aid to their learning how to properly apply gospel principles in their daily lives is the notion of “choosing the right.” This notion is rooted in the assumption that in almost all important choices that we make in life there is a right choice or at least a better choice among the options from which we may choose in any given situation.

Our ability to make such choices is not of our own creation. It is a God given, protected, eternal principle. While at times this right of choice is referred to as “free agency,” such wording is redundant. We should simply refer to this prerogative as “agency.” Our ability to exercise agency on this earth is facilitated by the existence of two forces and two forces only that act upon us contending for the souls of men and women. They are the light of Christ and the spirit of the devil.

As human beings find themselves contending with these competing forces on a day to day basis, some interesting and false notions emerge concerning the opportunities for choice we derive from the exercise of our agency. One of these is very much a devilish product. Agency gives us no opportunity to determine what is right and what is wrong. Rather, our exercise of agency provides us with the opportunity to do what is right or to do what is wrong i.e., to show ourselves to be either obedient or disobedient to God’s will. If it were possible to determine what is right and what is wrong, then it would be also possible to escape the consequences of disobeying God’s commandments having concluded through the exercise of agency that they did not apply to our situation. The exercise of our agency would then make us unaccountable to God’s law. In truth, we have no such opportunity. The exercise of our agency is very simple, in principle. We either choose to obey God’s will when it is made manifest unto us, or we choose to disobey His commandments. Abraham makes this point abundantly clear. “Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; . . . And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; . . .” (Abraham 3:22, 24-25). There it is. Through the exercise of our agency we choose to follow God’s will or not. It is not within our power of righteous choice to determine which of His commandments we will obey and which of them, any or all, we will decline in favor of another approach to life. Disobedience for any reason to our Father’s commandments ipso facto results in the prescribed consequences befalling us according to our circumstances.

Now applying the will of God correctly to the many challenges and involvements of a single, active day can become daunting. Keeping a helpful rule of thumb in mind should facilitate our making correct decisions when called upon to do so. That is exactly what the Primary children are taught. In each and every situation, we should seek to “choose the right.” For mature adults, Moroni’s counsel is helpful for our understanding of the forces that almost always are behind the opposing choices with which we are confronted. “For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him” (Moroni 7:16-17).

Another helpful rule of thumb comes from our thirteenth Article of Faith. Here are words and concepts that if inculcated into our thinking will assist us in making on the spot decisions that are the correct or at least the better ones. “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; . . . If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”

The Lord's House

Incorporated into the external structure of each temple constructed and dedicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are these words, “Holiness to the Lord” and “The House of the Lord.”

While serving a mission with Sister Linford in the Freiberg Germany Temple a few years ago, I had occasion to ponder, while preparing a spiritual thought, concerning what is intended when we read in the scriptures that a temple is a “house of the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:137) or a “house of God” (D&C 88:119). The answer came with power and clarity. He has been there. By this, I do not mean just that His influence may be felt there or that the Spirit of God may be felt testifying to the truthfulness of the work being accomplished in His far flung temples. Both of these observations are obviously true. What I mean simply is that He has personally spent time in each and every one of His temples at least once. When we mortals speak of a dwelling as being our house, is it not correctly assumed by our listeners that we have spent time residing there unless, of course, the context of the discussion concerns itself with the subject of investment property? Being aware of the understood intent of our usage of the words “our house” or “our home,” the Lord uses this same phraseology in revelations to His prophets in order to communicate His intended purpose to us in a manner we may understand.

It was for this very reason that when we closed the Freiberg Temple for the night, each and every evening, that everything was in its place. Never did we leave a task undone that pertained to the order and cleanliness of the building and its contents with the thought of finishing the task the first thing in the morning. If fresh clothing and linens were taken into the temple during days the temple was closed to the members, the temple missionaries put every item away in its intended place, ready for use when the temple opened next. If the Lord chose to come to His House while we were not there, He would find it in the best condition humanly possible. While the temple was in regular use, we encouraged the members to be orderly in their habits and concerned about their reverence in word and action.

In light of this understanding, I found the following of personal interest. Brother Skinner had the opportunity along with other newly called missionaries to be instructed in the Salt Lake Temple by President Harold B. Lee. During the question and answer portion of the meeting, “President Lee called upon a young elder. He stood and said: ‘On the outside of the temple it says this is the house of the Lord. Do you think he has ever been here?’ I did not then realize how bold a question that really was. As a nineteen year old, overwhelmed by all I had experienced those last few days, I thought it was a pretty good one. President Lee closed his scriptures, put them aside, looked at the young missionary, and said (as nearly as I can recollect): ‘Oh, elder, do not ask if he has ever been here. This is his house--and he walks these very halls.’” (Andrew C. Skinner, Temple Worship, 152).

President Lee’s answer to that young missionary should not be surprising to us if we understand the role temples and other very holy places have played down through the history of this world. It is in these places that the Lord has manifest His will concerning His Saints and made available the most holy of ordinances necessary for the exaltation of the faithful living down through the dispensations of time. Only since the Savior’s resurrection, have these ordinances been available to the faithful dead. “Saints of all ages have had temples in one form or another. There is evidence that temple worship was customary from Adam to Noah and that after the Flood the holy priesthood was continued; therefore, we have every reason to believe the ordinances of the temple were available to those entitled to receive them.” (Elder David B. Haight, “Personal Temple Worship” Ensign, May 1993, 24 as quoted in Temple Worship, 115). Given then the obvious connection that exists in our temples between this and the unseen world, Brother Skinner’s words are a beautiful summation: “Truly, dedicated temples of the Lord are portals to heaven” (Temple Worship, 168).

Why the Church is True

How many times while attending one class or another during our Sunday meeting schedule have we heard a comment made that was similar to the following? Perhaps on occasion, we have uttered much the same thought ourselves. We know that the restored gospel is true and upon the earth in its fulness, and we have a testimony of its truthfulness. However, while the restored Church of Jesus Christ is true in its organizational structure and in its heavenly guidance, all that takes place in the church is not always as it should be, because it is peopled with imperfect members. Said differently, while the gospel and the Church are both true, at times that which is done in the name of the Church falls short of the ideal given the foibles of human beings.

While reading a compilation of Brother Hugh Nibley’s works in a volume entitled, Temple and Cosmos, I came across the Foreword he wrote for Brother Eugene England’s book, Why the Church is as True As the Gospel. How could Brother Nibley’s opening sentence not have caught my attention: “At last a Latter-day Saint book that really says something!” (Nibley, 555). And he continues: “The Church, we have been told, has at times been ‘under condemnation.’ But how could the gospel be under condemnation? Unthinkable--they are not the same thing at all, right? Wrong, and England will show you just how wrong and misleading that assumption can be. The gospel and the Church: we call one the plan and the other the work. The plan looks to the eternities and must necessarily be perfect; but the work is right here and is anything but the finished product. Yet the two are inseparable! ‘To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ is the plan; to carry it out, ‘this is my work and my glory’--the glory is in the work. We are permitted to take part in the work. . . .” (Nibley, 555).

I have read Brother England’s book and find his insights important for a more full understanding of the human dynamics encountered by participating members in the Church. Drawing upon many years of church service including callings as a priesthood leader on several occasions, Brother England shares his insight into the strengths of the Church that demonstrate its truthfulness by providing its members the necessary opportunities to “serve God” while serving their fellowmen. A thoughtful reading of this book will provide almost anyone additional understanding of the complexities and at times the frustrations attendant in church service.

"Apostolic Succession"

The notion of “apostolic succession” assumes that the priesthood authority bestowed upon the apostles by Jesus Christ in the meridian of time has been passed on from that day to this through an unbroken succession of church leaders. This doctrine is central to the Roman Catholic claim that they are the true church of Christ in our day. If this is so, those Protestant churches among us are left to justify how dissenters from Catholicism may claim to exercise legitimate priesthood authority.

It is not intended that this writing should be a comprehensive presentation on the subject of apostolic succession. Rather, my intent is to simply present several apparent obstacles to the validity of this doctrine, that seem to me must rationally be explained away by those claiming priesthood authority by this means.

The first and most obvious hurdle with which the apologists of apostolic succession must concern themselves is the reality of specific Biblical writings that do not justify the notion of an unbroken line of authority existing from Peter’s day until ours. On the desk in front of me are twenty-nine Biblical references concerning the “Apostasy of the Early Christian Church” (See the “Topical Guide” in the Bible used by English speaking Latter-day Saints). The scriptures to which these references direct the reader are the revelations and teachings of Jesus Christ as recorded by His prophets in Old Testament times as well as the apostles and other church leaders of the original Church in New Testament times. These writings commence with the prophesy of Isaiah concerning the fall of early Christendom: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant” (Isaiah 24:5) or the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fulness. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the Lord admonished His disciples “privately” to not be misled by the enemy into believing that His second coming would occur during their lifetime: “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). His apostles would not have been among those so deceived inasmuch as they had known Him personally. Concerning those things which must first transpire before the second coming of the Savior, Paul writing to the Thessalonians advised, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

The second ominous hurdle confronting the apologists of apostolic succession is to be found in the teachings of Jesus Christ to His apostles during the forty days He was with them following His resurrection. While canonized scripture is essentially devoid of any specific information concerning what the Lord taught his apostles during that time, apocryphal sources are not. Of that which is known, the relevant material for this writing concerns the understanding the apostles received from the Savior pertaining to the coming apostasy. The apocryphal writings “paint a very gloomy picture. In all of these accounts, the apostles ask the Lord, ‘What’s going to happen to us now? What’s going to happen to the church? Why are we going to all this trouble in this dispensation if it’s all going to be taken away?’ The Lord tells them, This is for two generations now, then it’s going to be taken away; a lesser church will be left in its place; it will be kept on the fire, so to speak; the true church will return later when I return with my Father. This of course was a doctrine the Christians didn’t like. It was very bad news for the later church to have the Lord telling the apostles that all these things were going to be taken away. Yet he had said the same thing in several places in the New Testament. The documents make this very clear, thus these teachings were unpopular” (Hugh Nibley, “Apocryphal Writings,” Temple and Cosmos, 298).

The final obstacle the apologists of apostolic succession must successfully scale if their arguments are to be found worthy of serious consideration is the historical record itself covering the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. A very readable and revealing history of this period was written some years ago by William Manchester, a professor of history at Wesleyan University. It is entitled, A World Lit Only By Fire. How appropriate this title is even if it partially misses the point. From his secular perspective, Mr. Manchester views the two eras preceding the Renaissance as essentially being devoid of any discernible heavenly blessing of enlightenment. Thus during this period, the only light that benefited humanity living in the Western World was of their own making and by natural means. For those who understand the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the Light of Christ was also present during these dark times to persuade as it could mankind toward thoughts and actions of personal honesty, self improvement, and piety. However, quite clearly, the forces of the evil one most often held the upper hand, and the depravity and debauchery foisted upon the society by both the religious and the secular aristocracies is beyond our comprehension by even the standards of the honorable of the earth in our day.

As the Savior Himself testified to the apostles of the early Church, after a period of apostasy His true Church would be restored to the earth at some later time when both He and His Father should appear once more to man. However, before that great day, the way for the restoration of the gospel of truth would necessarily require that the two stifling, God-contrary, monolithic institutions of the Middle Ages namely, the state (monarchy) and the church, be broken by the forces of change operative during the periods of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

"The Chain That Binds"

The past several weeks, I have been reading Andrew C. Skinner’s book on Temple Worship and re-reading the Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard who served as an apostle of the Lord in the early twentieth century. It was because of this recent study that Elder M. Russell Ballard’s remarks given in Logan, Utah and reported in the February 19, 2011 issue of the Church News caught my attention in particular.

Speaking concerning the Prophet Joseph Smith’s lineage, Elder M. Russell Ballard quoted from an 1859 statement made by then President Brigham Young: “It was decreed in the councils of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid, that [Joseph Smith] should be the man, in the last dispensation of this world, to bring forth the word of God to the people and receive the fullness of the keys and power of the Priesthood of the Son of God. The Lord had His eye upon him, and upon his father, and upon his father’s father, and upon their progenitors clear back to Abraham, and from Abraham to the flood, from the flood to Enoch and from Enoch to Adam. He has watched that family and that blood as it has circulated from its fountain to the birth of that man. He was foreordained in eternity to preside over this last dispensation.”

This last dispensation is the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. It is upon this dispensation that all of the righteous Saints of former times have waited. For it is now that all that has ever been revealed to the prophets of God since the days of Adam has been restored for the benefit of all of God’s children, believers and not, from the beginning. In conjunction with this purpose, Joseph Smith taught: “The Bible says, ‘I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.’ Now, the word turn here should be translated bind, or seal. But what is the object of this important mission? or how is it to be fulfilled? The keys are to be delivered, the spirit of Elijah is to come, the Gospel to be established, the Saints of God gathered, Zion built up, and the Saints to come up as saviors on Mount Zion. But how are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances, baptisms, confirmations, washings, anointings, ordinations, and sealing powers upon their heads, in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead, and redeem them that they may come forth in the first resurrection and be exalted to thrones of glory with them; and herein is the chain that binds [emphasis added] the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, which fulfills the mission of Elijah” (Teachings, 330).

We are obligated to seek out our kindred dead and see to it that their temple ordinances are accomplished, for without them, we cannot be saved in the Kingdom of Heaven. In an 1842 epistle, the Prophet Joseph Smith elaborated upon this thought as follows: “And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers--that they without us cannot be made perfect [Hebrews 11:40]--neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:15).

Speaking of our obligation to be involved in genealogy and temple endeavors, Elder Melvin J. Ballard taught that “We are limited to do the work for our own direct line, and that is right and proper, because out of the branch of the House of Israel, the lineage through which we came, will be found those who are receivers of this gospel. They were faithful before they were born. They will be found faithfully responding. Not all of our progenitors will be worthy, [but] . . . the majority of them will be waiting for you. I declare to you that there are those in the spirit world of your ancestors who died during the dark ages, whose blood is in your veins, who had not the knowledge of the truth, that would have responded, would have been as willing and obedient as you are. And yet they never had the privilege” (Sermons, 229).

From Elder Ballard’s remarks, we may glean two things of great importance. First, those of the dead who are numbered among the Lord’s sheep will respond to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and accept the gospel message when it is taught to them. Thus they will come to enjoy eternal life with their brothers and sisters living in this generation who are or were numbered among the Saints of God, and who performed the required saving ordinances for their ancestors in the Lord’s temples. Second, it should be evident that our birth into this world did not happen through happenstance. We were born into this world in time and space according to a determined plan. The affirmation of these points follows.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard continues: “Why is it that sometimes only one of a city or household receives the gospel? It was made known to me that it is because of the righteous dead who had received the gospel in the spirit world exercising themselves, and in answer to their prayers elders of the Church were sent to the homes of their posterity that the gospel might be taught to them, and through their righteousness they might be privileged to have a descendant in the flesh do the work for their dead kindred. I want to say to you that it is with greater intensity that the hearts of the fathers and mothers in the spirit world are turned to their children than that our hearts are turned to them” (Sermons, 249).

This is “the chain that binds” one worthy generation to the next establishing a patriarchal position for every worthy soul in an unbroken line back to our very first parents, Adam and Eve.