Dr. Chauncey Riddle
Salt Lake Institute of Religion—Forum
May 9, 1969
I appreciate the opportunity to treat this topic today because I thoroughly believe in being conservative. I take it that the meaning of the word conservative is simply one who conserves. I believe in the admonition of Paul who said to “test all things, probe all things; and hold fast to that which is good.” I believe this is basically what a conservative does. There are things that are good, that are tried and true and he hangs on these. There is such a thing as changing for changing’s sake and this is what the conservative desires to avoid. He’s not against change. He is for doing well in all things and that’s why he hangs on to what he has that really works, because sometimes change is retrogression.
I would translate this term, this idea of being a conservative in the church, into very simple terms. To me, to be a conservative simply means to support the brethren; to follow the prophets of God. I don’t take it that this is anything very different from what some people who call themselves liberals do. But, nevertheless, I think this is the conservative position in the sense that through the centuries those who have followed the prophets of God have found for themselves blessings, rewards, opportunities which accrued to no one else. Now, it is especially important to follow the prophets when one considers the alternative. Everybody has to have faith and trust in something, and so there are various alternatives. Some people find their trust in preachers of religion, meaning other churches; some in scientists; some in politicians; some in philosophers; some find it in the majority; some find it right in themselves. I suppose everyone has a right to put his faith and trust in what he wants to. We find people of all different kinds and varieties in this world. That is what makes it such an interesting place. Some people find themselves able to put their trust in the prophets of God and other people would rather put their trust in something else. I’ve often pondered what makes the difference. It’s just obvious that some people can trust prophets and others can’t. I relate this to the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God moves upon certain people, and they are able to receive it, to accept the prophets and to delight in their counsel, and to work with them in the building of the Kingdom of God. Other people for some reason find themselves unable to accept this counsel and find they would rather put their trust in one of these other sources; and so they do. And they reap their reward. I suppose that’s why we’re here, to make our choice; to reap whatever reward we really want. It’s safe to say that a person has to be a prophet to tell a prophet, so the only people who like prophets are prophets. We might define conservatism, then, as the association of prophets in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose who are able to have the spirit of the Lord, to have unity of the faith, to support the cause of Jesus Christ through his spirit and in accordance with the directions and suggestions given by those who preside.
Why do this? What’s the point in doing this particular thing? To me this is the same as asking, what’s the point in living the gospel of Jesus Christ? The point of living the gospel of Jesus Christ is to gain eternal life. There are many definitions of eternal life. I don’t which to quarrel with the principal ones that are taught. I’d like to give you one that is a little different that I think is quite compatible with the usual definitions. In the scriptures the word eternal means “god”. Eternal marriage is God’s marriage; eternal life is God’s life. And it seems to me that the purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to teach a person to live a godly life; a life in which he thinks, acts, feels, and does what he does as a God would do. The purpose of the gospel is to change us, to convert us. When we are converted over from the beings that we start as, we will arrive at the station of godhood and spend the rest of our eternity doing godly things. But this time of mortal life is the time for change. This is the time for repentance, for initiating and making possible this total conversion process, where we are changed from the worldly, selfish, impotent persons that we are into persons who can do the work of gods. So eternal life is to begin to live the life of a god. This is a matter of degree. My conception is that everyone in every kingdom of glory in the hereafter will have some degree of eternal life. That is to say, they will be doing some work, some good. They will spend the rest of eternity working out some portion of the work of the gods, in harmony with the gods. Not all will be gods, but all will be doing some portion of God’s work. Only those who succeed in obtaining to the fullness, in other words, those who are exalted or become gods in their own right, are they who are able to eliminated every difficulty, every barrier, everything that would cause the necessity of any kind of damnation. These are people who can be turned absolutely free in the universe because they desire no evil; and desiring no evil, it is possible for the gods that be to share with them all power and all knowledge, and they will spend all the rest of their eternity, then, doing good with this power.
Living the Gospel, then, in this world, is very much like and apprenticeship. If you wish to be, to learn to be, a good plumber, the first thing you would want to do would be to find a good plumber who already knows what he is doing, then you would make some kind of formal arrangement with him, for he would not likely take you without some formal agreement. So you would sign some kind of contract, and he would agree to teach you the skills of the trade if you would agree to follow and learn faithfully, and work with him for a certain period of time. At the end of this time you would then be called upon to pass an examination, showing that your work had indeed been profitable, that you did know how to do the work of plumbing. Then you would be a certified journeyman and be able to go forth on your own to do the work of a plumber. I take it that this is a pattern for learning almost anything that is good to do in this world. And learning to be a godly person follows exactly the same pattern and format. It is the purpose of the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to introduce us to this apprenticeship, to make a formal arrangement with God, to give us association with godly persons that we might grow and develop strength and skill in righteousness as far as we wish to go.
For instance, the purpose of baptism is to make a covenant. There isn’t much point in being baptized unless we are assured that the person we are covenanting with is what and who we wish to emulate. In this world there are many forces, many ideas, many claimants to be saviors of mankind. But there is one special person, Jesus Christ, with whom we may associate ourselves. The Savior invites all mankind, every man, woman and child, to come unto him, to be fed and nourished by him in all the ways of godliness. We have a sample of what it means to be godly as we read of the life and words of the Savior. And we read of the lives and doings of the prophets of God who have been his servants. The scriptures give us this wonderful opportunity to see for ourselves what an apprenticeship to Christ would entail. And if we find that this way of life is enticing to us, it becomes a real option for our future. If we somehow find the work the Savior did is repulsive to us, if we don’t want to relate to our neighbors as he admonished, then we could see that this apprenticeship is very burdensome. If so, we will turn to the world and find some other apprenticeship that is more attractive and apprentice ourselves to that manner of life. Not everyone wants to be saved from sin and sinning. Not everyone wants to be saved from ignorance and impotence. It is a rare bird that wants to be saved from unrighteousness, judging be the actions of most persons. But there are a few humble and faithful persons who recognize in the message of Jesus Christ the thing that they have a burning desire to achieve. This desire burns so brightly within them that it is more important to them than life itself or the honors of men. So they are able to come unto Christ and submit themselves as little children to Him, to be apprenticed, to learn the trade. And so they take the covenant of baptism. They promise that they will take upon themselves His name, that they will never be ashamed of Him or of His works or of His ways; that they will be pleased to witness for Him. If any other person they meet is interested also in this apprenticeship, they will be pleased to tell them about it, to explain this great opportunity to become as Christ.
The second thing this person would do in entering this agreement would be to obey all the instructions of the Master. Obviously, one wouldn’t learn all they should and could if they did not obey the Master. So the Lord has us promise that we will obey all of his commandments. Fortunately, he is a very wise Master and does not just give us some generalizations. He is interested in us as individuals, therefore He takes the time and trouble to tailor-make an apprenticeship program exactly suited to our needs, our character, our challenges, so that there is no possibility that our apprenticeship will misfire.
Our program is exactly tailored by the knowledge of an omniscient and omnipotent being to the needs that we have to become godly.
The third thing we promise is that we will never forget that we are apprentice servants of Christ. We will always remember Him. For this apprenticeship in a real way the abandonment of our old self. In a sense, it is committing suicide. It is saying: This is what I am now, but I wish to die and become a new creature, a new person made in the image of Christ. I wish to be remade completely, born again, with a new heart, a new mind, a new countenance, with new associations with people. Now it is true that many people do not want to be remade. They are quite satisfied with themselves the way they are, so this new covenant is not very attractive to them. So the New Covenant is not for everyone, though everyone is invited to make it. Those who see in themselves things they would like to be rid of and that they would like to fashion themselves in the image of Jesus Christ find it delightful to enter into this covenant. The do this officially by going down into the waters of baptism, a symbol of the death and resurrection of Christ and also of the death of their old self and their rebirth as a new creature, reborn unto eternal life. This begins their journey to become godly, even as Christ is.
Having embarked on a new path with the help of an authorized servant of Jesus Christ, they are given an official right to communicate with their new Master. Hands are laid upon their heads, and they are given the right to the enjoy the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the unseen messenger of Jesus Christ, a personal companion and guide for their new life.
Christ is the Master, and the things that the Savior wishes to teach us are not so much of the physical world as they are of the heart and mind. These are the controlling factors of our lives, so it is important to Him to send the Holy Ghost as His messenger. The Holy Ghost does not speak for himself, but for the Son and the Father. He speaks what he hears, and therefore is a perfect messenger. He is able to help us shape our heart and mind to be more and more like the heart and mind of the Savior. As we begin to think and see as the Savior does, we can begin to act as the Savior would.
But there is more than one unseen messenger who affects us. Satan is always present with us, giving us the opportunity to be selfish and to ignore the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, It is possible that even though we might be very anxious to enter into this apprenticeship to Christ, that we might become confused and listen to the wrong voice. So the Lord Jesus Christ has given us two safeguards that are extremely important and to help us to know when we have the right spirit and are following the right master. These two safeguards are His written scriptures and words of His prophets and those who preside over us in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those two sources give us counsel in a general way. They do not give us all the specifics, because they are not the Master. It is not the prophets that we are trying to pattern our lives after, though trying to do so would be good. But they are sent to give us warnings, to help us know what things are both within and without the boundaries of the righteousness of Christ. They also warn us that there are some spirits we should not follow, so that we need not stray off the narrow path that leads to the Tree of Life.
Receiving the Holy Priesthood is another of these opportunities. Receiving the priesthood is another covenant we make with Christ to use this power to bless others and to learn to be a bit more godly.
We all have physical power to do certain things, and this is the way we get much of the work of this world done. But priesthood is a special power. We must push something in this physical world to do our work in the world. But priesthood is pull power. It is the power to achieve things in this world without compulsory means. If I have an automobile, I must do certain things with my body to start it and control it. But if I want to accomplish things in the social realm, push power is possible and usable, but it ignores the agency of the other people one is dealing with, and does not produce excellence. It is never possible to use push-power to create a godly person. So to help other people, we must do it by persuasion. We help other by persuading them to use their own power to change, to repent and to serve Christ. This persuasion preserves them as an independent agent and builds them instead of controlling them. It gives them the possibility of themselves growing towards godhood. But those who use push-power on other human beings are saying “I am content to pretend to be god myself, but I don’t want anyone else to have that opportunity. I want to manipulate everyone around me. They will do what I want them to do because they can’t help it.” That is quite different from the way God would operate. The point of the ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to bring us into the way of living a godly life.
Let us now say a few words about the principles of the Gospel, some things we do and why we do them, and how they fit into this apprenticeship program. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is not a matter of consulting occasionally with the Savior. The scriptures are blunt. They say: Whatsoever act a man performs that is not an act of faith in Christ is sin. That is pretty strong doctrine. The point is, a godly being is not one who is one kind of person at one moment, then changes in the next moment. A godly being is one that is constant. One of the greatest things we know about our God is that He is always there and will never let us down. He tells us that He is without variableness or shadow of turning, which means that we can absolutely depend upon Him. The only things in this world that are that dependable are the laws of nature. But the laws of nature are the handiwork of that same dependable God. So to have someone we can go to day or night, summer or winter, rain or shine, someone we can trust and depend on, as a great anchor to our souls, a great blessing and opportunity. If we are to learn to be godly ourselves, we must learn to be constantly obedient. So, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is simply obeying our Master in all things so that we may learn to be constant as He is.
There is no faith in Christ except we first receive revelation from Christ, then obey him with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. As we so act he enlarges our knowledge and ability. He comforts us, strengthens us as we act through his Holy Spirit in faithful obedience.
The concept of repentance fits right in in the same way. Repentance is changing, turning. In repentance we change from not acting on faith in Christ to consistently acting in faith in Christ. One of our troubles in this world is that we sometimes act for the wrong reasons and thus do the wrong things. Repentance means doing it differently, acting in righteousness instead of sinning. The Greek word for repentance is “metanoia.” which literally means “change your mind.” Our big trouble is the way we think. But if a person can get his thinking straightened out, and begin to think as God thinks, he can then begin to act in godly ways. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So to think in godly ways, we must repent. We must take the Holy Spirit for our guide, for it brings to us the words of Christ, and thus as we obey, we are acting on faith in Jesus Christ.
A person who repents thus strains everything he thinks and feels through the Holy Spirit, be it the sayings of some man, the words of the scriptures or the teachings of the prophets of God. There is a great temptation in this world to take the revelations of God and to measure them by the teachings of men. That is the reverse of what an apprentice servant of Christ must do. Those who are genuine apprentices are so because they know that Christ is our God and they trust in Him, not the world. The wise person thus uses the word of God to measure everything in this world. And that is what repentance enables one to do. It is changing our mind so that we put our trust in God, not in men.
Why pray? Prayer is the opportunity to draw close to our Master. It is one thing to receive instruction from the Master, but it is another thing to have a close association with Him, and we will not learn to think and feel as He does unless we draw close to Him in constant prayer. I believe God does not just want servants. So he invites us to draw near to him in prayer. I am sure that you have all been in the presence of someone who is powerful and dynamic, and it is very easy when you are in their immediate presence to acquire their mannerisms and habits, to become like them. I remember when I was in the U. S. Army just after World War II. I was 18 years old and impressionable. I came to my first hearing of the Articles of War by an officer from our post. He read the Articles and then discussed them with us. I only saw that man for an hour that day, but he so impressed me that I tried to talk and act as he did for the rest of my life. The manner he had, the way he talked, the way he handled questions left such a powerful impression on me that I wanted to be like that also. I think we see the same phenomenon in the prophets of God as we experience them. And we may have the same experience with our Savior as we constantly pray to the Father in His name and experience the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. Thus we may come to think as he does, to pray as He does, to act as He does. Being changed, we can go about our daily work doing it like He would do it.
Why do we fast? We fast because a godly person is not controlled by his or her body. A godly person would rather die than submit to the pressures of the flesh. He would rather give it up and go to the next world rather than sin by breaking the commandments. The next world is a better place, anyway, so there is really nothing lost. As long as he or she is in this life, he or she is pleased to do whatever as long as the spirit is boss and the body is subject to the spirit. So a person who is learning to be a god will fast consistently and often so that he or she can perfect oneself in this process of bringing the physical tabernacle under compete submission to the spirit. Then he or she will never have the unhappy circumstance of being directed to do something and not be able to do it.
I irrigated all night a couple of nights ago and about four o’clock in the morning I had the strange sensation of saying to myself: “Okay, go down and do such and such,” and my body just wouldn’t respond. One can get so tired and so numb that the body becomes very recalcitrant. When we get into physical extremes of tiredness, of hunger, of emotion, of lust, it becomes nigh impossible to control this physical tabernacle. That is why the Savior gives us some very good rules. E.g., stay out of such circumstances, or if you must be in them, be sure that the Spirit of the Lord is with you so that you won’t be overcome. It’s just a sheer matter of who is boss. A godly person must never be controlled by his or her environment. What kind of god would be controlled by the environment? That person would be no god at all, just part of the machine. A godly person has to be independent of the machine, of all the forces that play upon the physical tabernacle, free of the advertising, of the speeches of others of the personal pressures to sin. The only influence that such a one can accept is influence that is not of this world but rather from God.
Why pay tithing? Tithing is a schooling in becoming unselfish. As a person pays tithing and learns to give joyfully because it is the right thing to do and because it gives blessing to other people, he is enlarging his soul. He is learning that it is not important what we have, so far as the material things of this world go. What is important is what we do with what we have in the blessing of others. And tithing is the very beginning of this principle. Consecration would be another step that one may go. If he can learn to give 10% gladly, this would be a real help in learning to give 100%. When he has mastered tithing, then consecration comes into line nicely. I think that it is obvious that he would never have much success in giving his all if he could not start with giving 10%. We must be disconnected from our physical possessions. We must not covet our own money, our own time, anything of this world. The Lord gives us the opportunity to give our possessions away, to use them in his service, to learn to be completely disconnected from anything material.
The Lord would have us practice sacrifice, where we do not just use things for the service of the Lord as we do in consecration, but actually give up something that is very important. That thing might be our life, maybe our reputation, our honor among men, our wife and children. If any of these things are more important to us than righteousness, than doing the will of God to bless others, we are in difficulty.
Sacrifice is different from consecration. To consecrate a 100-dollar bill, we give it to the Church. To sacrifice it, we would take a match to it and burn it up. The Lord requires both sacrifice and consecration from his faithful servants, even as Christ himself consecrated his mortal life to blessing the children of men, but later sacrificed his mortal life to make possible the resurrection of all mankind.
The principle of mystery is another thing very important in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The word “mystery” in the Greek comes from the word myein, which means to shut the mouth. A mystery is simply something about which we should keep our mouths shut. It is not something we cannot know or should not know, but something we know that we should not talk about. A godly person has to be able to know things he or she will not share, so part of the apprenticeship training is to receive very important truths and to be told not to share them with anyone, anywhere, anytime, unless instructed by the Holy Spirit to do so. An example of a sacred mystery is certain things about the temple ceremonies. Another example would be certain revelations from the Savior given through the Holy Spirit which should not be shared. If one can be faithful with a few important mysteries, then he has the opportunity to receive more mysteries until he knows them in full. But all mysteries are given only to persons who have through their faith in Christ become godly persons.
The final triumph of all the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the principle of mercy. This principle is to forgive others their trespasses against us. It is the role of a god to be just, but no person can wield omnipotence justly without learning to be first merciful, and being merciful is harder than being just. As we deal with our brothers and sisters in this world, our God wants us to forgive, and we must forgive others to receive any forgiveness from Him. We accountable mortals have all sinned, and so come under condemnation ourselves. We should be willing to suffer for each sin we have committed to satisfy the demands of God’s justice. But Christ has suffered for our sins and is willing to forgive the necessity of our suffering if we will forgive others all of their trespasses against us. Our hearts should go out in mercy; forgiveness should be the rule of our lives. This is part of the charity of which the scripture speak. When we come to the bar of justice in our final judgment to see if we have passed our apprenticeship test, there will be only one question asked, as I read the scriptures. No one will ask how much theology we know; no one will ask what fine things we did with our priesthood, how many books we wrote nor how many things we discovered scientifically. The scriptures tell us plainly: If you do not have charity, you are nothing. You may have learned to speak with the tongue of angels, or to move mountains with your priesthood power; you may have made great sacrifices for the Kingdom of God, but the scriptures say rather pointedly: all these things will fail you when you stand before the bar of justice. If you desire to be godly, the one thing we must learn above all else is to have mercy, to forgive. This is godliness. As the scriptures say we should do, we should clothe ourselves with charity, as with a mantle. Charity should become our way of life. There is nothing so wonderful about the Lord Jesus Christ as that he is merciful unto all who have fought against him, who have despised him, who have sinned against him. He gives everyone the opportunity to repent, the chance to do better, to become like himself, to overcome this world and every evil influence in it. So, if you desire to fulfill your apprenticeship, you need to make sure that you have fully in mind what the final test will be, to see if we have learned to forgive, to be able to suffer ourselves but not require that others suffer. The Savior passed this test in the Atonement. He who did no wrong, ever, suffered for the sins of all mankind. This was the supreme act of mercy that we know about.
Let us now bring this discussion to a conclusion. In this apprenticeship I think there are three fundamental factors that the Gospel will bring every day of our lives. And if we realize as apprentices that these are to be our partners, it would be very helpful. Number One: We must have communion with our Master. We cannot grow in our apprenticeship without constant prayer, frequent fasting, and careful meditation. I believe that our day ought to begin with a solemn and joyous period of prayer and meditation, I hope you are aware that President McKay gets up at 4:00 in the morning because the most important thing in his life is to meet the Savior, to be with him for a few minutes. I don’t mean that the Savior is necessarily there in person, physically, but President McKay communes with Him to get his instructions for the day, to know what the Savior would have him work on, what his assignment is, his commission for that day. Interspersed throughout the day there ought to be prayer so that our apprenticeship is guided moment to moment, so that we will not lapse into the ways of this world. He will not need to fail and fall into the path of sin, the way of error, but can know what is right and be blessed to do what is right.
Secondly, I think that every day we would want production, to accomplish some good work, something of real worth in this world. I think that there is something noble about doing physical labor. When the Lord told Adam that he should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, I think that was a blessing to Adam, not a curse. That gave Adam the opportunity to grapple with and subdue part of this earth, to cause it to bring forth its fruits. This is part of the training of a godly being. I think that every person should strive to know how to do something well in relation to subduing the earth. Contributions are many and varied, but if each of us gives heart and mind, we will know what our assignment is, what we should produce.
That producing is for the sake of the third activity that ought to be in our lives every day, which is sharing what we have with others. We may share with others the good things we have produced. If we produce food on a farm, to share it with others can be a great delight. If we search and produce knowledge, to share that knowledge with others is again a delight. If we produce systems of order for society that ennoble men, such as new mathematics, we can greatly bless others. In all of this we are but doing the work of the gods, for the work of a god is to bless others. The gods are as one god: they work is perfect harmony to bless others, each having his or her own tasks. And as we mortals meditate daily we will know how our labors may fit into the work of the gods. Their task is to create a universe full of good things with which to bless their children. And as we mortals share with each other, we get to participate in that great work of the gods to bless others. This is part of mercy and is charity, the pure love of Christ. We also may share and buoy others up, even as Christ does.
My conception of this world is that it is a rather evil place. To put it bluntly, I see this world as a hell. Hell is a place where Satan largely rules, where things are not nearly as good as they could be, where there is much suffering and ignorance. Into this hell comes the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which gives men the opportunity to be good, even godly, even in the midst of hell. The apprenticeship for being a god is to do godly works in a hell, and to rescue other souls in that hell unto righteousness, godliness. It is to go to the ignorant and unfortunate, to the miserable, and to bless them, to share with them, to lift them, to ennoble them. Because we are in a hell there is no shortage of opportunities to do good. And there is no danger of one person usurping all the opportunities to do good. The field is white and ready for the harvest, but the laborers are few. There are few who are willing to undertake the godly pattern of making hell into a heaven. I believe that eternal life is for now, not just for the next world. If eternal life is meaningful to anyone of us, it will be because we labor now, we cannot really sleep well at night because there is so much around us that needs to be done. And yet we have the wisdom to know that this world can be truly helped only in a godly way, only in and though the power of Jesus Christ.
This is what I think it means to be conservative. It means to hang on to that which is good, and that which is good is the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I bear you my testimony that I know that these things are a reality. This gospel of Jesus Christ is not a mythology, something one person tries to foist off onto another. If you want to fight the Brethren, go ahead, but remember it is in your own personal experimentation that the Lord Jesus Christ will come to you or not come to you. The words of the Brethren are enticements for you to enter into the apprenticeship. You must work out the apprenticeship yourself. They aren’t the masters. They only point the way. They give you a sense of opportunity. But when you see the opportunity and through the Holy Spirit are able to humble yourselves as little children, oh how great it is to be in the presence of men and women who are in the path of godly lives, who themselves are learning to have eternal lives. That is the greatest enticement I know of that this world affords.
I bear you my testimony that the Lord is real, that his Holy Spirit is real and is precious. The Holy Spirit is sweet: you can almost taste it. When you are filled with the Holy Ghost it just tastes good. This is real life, to have that Spirit and to be in the path of godliness, growing to become better, to be more Christ-like each day. I bear testimony that these things are true in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
