One of the aspects of our social existence which makes life interesting and, at the same time, somewhat exasperating is the phenomenon of disagreement. As we compare ideas, objectives, goals, and plans with our fellow man, one of the things we are faced with immediately is the wide variety of attitudes, beliefs, and feelings which we and our fellow beings exhibit. One might go so far as to say that because of the nature of our mental existence and of the knowledge we have of the world, each human being acts as if he lives in his own private universe. We construct, as it were, a universe in our own minds. We people it with the things we know, with the people we know about. We furnish it with the things that we believe to exist. We cause it to function according to the pattern of existence we believe obtains. And, all in all, we structure it according to the experience, evidence, and desires of our own personal nature. There are among the many worlds that we see exhibited in other people’s lives and thoughts two principal worlds which are somewhat standard and of special interest to us who are Latter-day Saints. One is the world, or the universe, which is pictured to us by the teachings of the scriptures and the prophets. We might call this the “Universe of the Gospel.” The other is the world, or the universe, which is the standard world of our western civilization, the one which every one of us has encountered in our education and which is sufficiently stereotyped that we can describe it in general terms fairly accurately. It is our purpose this evening to examine these two special worlds and to contrast them and to note the very fundamental and important differences that exist between these two worlds. For purposes of analysis we shall break our discussion down into four main headings and under each of these main headings pursue special subtopics.
The four main headings we shall use will be: (1) the spiritual realm, (2) our understanding of history, (3) the nature of values, and (4) the source of salvation.
The Spiritual Realm
Let us first of all examine the nature of the spiritual area. We will take first the gospel picture and then contrast with it the standard world of western civilization. In the gospel frame of reference there is a definite spiritual realm of existence which is different from, though certainly related to, the physical realm with which we are all familiar, which we experience daily. The spiritual realm is important because it contains the things that are believed by Latter-day Saints to be the most important things in the universe. It contains, for instance, a personal God, a being who is our literal father, who is a kindly, good, exalted man and who has our personal interest at heart. He is a God of justice, but also a God of mercy, a God of power, but also a God of righteousness; and it is to him that we look for our understanding of the universe and for every good thing that we hope for in this universe. Now there is no existence without opposition we are told, and so correlative with the idea of a personal God necessarily goes the idea of a personal devil in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe that there is a person who is a devil. This is not to say that he is the only evil, or that he is necessary to evil, but he is a person who promotes evil in the same manner in which our Heavenly Father promotes good. This personal devil is a being like unto ourselves, and like unto God, but having a personality which differs in respect to the things that he desires. He desires to bring about the misery and the misfortune of mankind. A third aspect of the spiritual nature of existence relates to the personal spirit which is in each man. Each human being is composed not only of the physical body which we observe, but his real self is rather something quite different. We believe that this body is inhabited by a spirit and that spirit body by an intelligence’ so that there is a definite and complete distinction between the spirit of man and his body. In Latter-day Saint terminology the basic struggle of this life is the struggle between the spirit and the body. Our Heavenly Father, assists the spirit in its side of the struggle, and the devil works through the physical body, attempting to further its domination over the spirit. A fourth aspect of spiritual existence which is important to Latter-day Saints is simply the reality of spiritual experiences. Not only are God, the devil, and the spirit in man realities, but they are things which may be experienced. We, each of us, experience a stream of consciousness wherein we are aware of influences which cannot be traced to the physical environment. It is in this realm of consciousness that we experience the whisperings of God, the whisperings of Satan, and our own personal response to these things.
Let us contrast with this spiritual understanding of the universe, now, the standard world of western civilization. In western civilization the existence of the spiritual realm as a whole is denied, except perhaps as a mental ideal. In this realm there is no God; there is no devil; there is no spirit in man; and man has no such thing as spiritual experience. This fundamental denial, of course, assumes a burden of proof which is much greater than the assertion of the existence of these things in the gospel light. To assert that there is no God and no devil in the universe necessitates a sufficient omniscience that one could survey the whole universe and in no part of the universe find any God or any devil. To say that there is no spirit in man is similarly a most difficult thing to prove. This might be likened to asserting that, because we cannot see any electricity in a wire, that therefore there is no such thing as electricity. But one can certainly feel electricity, especially when grounded, and one certainly can be aware of the existence of at least his own spirit, especially when he is grounded in the strength of independent thought and not short-circuited by the shame of the world. One of the most fundamental experiences a human being has is the inner struggle that goes on within himself, the struggle between right and wrong, the struggle between truth and error, the struggle between what is ennobling and what is degrading. To deny the existence and the importance of this realm is to deny what we are: independent spiritual human beings. To relegate ourselves to the realm of machine is to give up independence, individuality, and everything which has brought significance to human achievement.
Our Understanding of History
Let us move next to the realm of history. Here again we see extremely divergent views separating the gospel picture of the universe from that proposed by western civilization. The gospel teaches us plainly of the divine origin of man, that men are the children of the Gods, and that at one time we were of the same basic nature as God is physically. That is to say, that in the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve had celestial bodies and never would have had to die. They, of course, were not like our Father in Heaven in every respect, but at least in that physical respect were like him. A second important teaching in the historical perspective relates to the Fall of man. In the gospel, when Adam partook of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, he became fallen. This involves several important ramifications. In the first place, man became dead to that personal God who is his literal and real Father. That is to say, he was cut off from the presence of his Father and righteousness because of his disobedience, no longer able to see God with his physical senses. Being cut off from God and righteousness made Adam completely subject to that personal devil who then had full access to tempt and to try him. Man, thus, comes under the burden of an overwhelming influence to do evil. Unless this overwhelming influence is counteracted by the Spirit of the Lord, man is not a free agent, but must and will do greater or lesser amounts of evil, depending on the ability the individual has of his own desires to resist Satan or not to resist. Hd Adam been left in this state, he would have been doomed to remain estranged from God, his Father, forever. But Father sent the Holy Spirit and angels to minister to Adam of truth and righteousness. With these two influences in balance, that of Satan and of the Holy Spirit, man became an agent to choose between good and evil.
Two aspects of the future history of man which are important in this connection are first, the literal reality of the resurrection of each human being. To know that we go on living forever and that death is not the end and that we will be reunited with the bodies which we have in this life and will go on living into eternity is, indeed, a most important aspect of our understanding. Secondly, coupled with the idea of resurrection is, of course, the necessity of our accounting for the acts of this life. We must stand before the bar of judgment and be held accountable for our acts, whether they be good or whether they be evil. The net result of this understanding of history is to place upon each individual the full weight of the responsibility for his actions and to teach him that his actions are important and that the ramifications of his mortal actions are of eternal significance.
The world, on the other hand, teaches in connection with history a very contrary view. So far as the origin of man is concerned, the world teaches that man came about by a slow, chance evolutionary process, beginning with some non-living form of life, and over the course of millions and perhaps billions of years evolving into the present status of what we call man. This, of course, gives man an extremely low origin compared to the gospel account. Evolution is a scientific theory which, though valuable to scientific tinking, is not proven and for which there is very important and serious doubt as to the necessity of its truthfulness. It suffices to say that this along with all other scientific theories rests in a realm of speculation where nothing can really be proved. If an individual believes in the evolutionary origin of man, it is because he wants to. It is not because there is any evidence which necessitates such a belief. Indeed, if one wishes to gather all the evidence concerned, there is at least a piece of evidence contrary to the theory of evolution for every evidence which supports the theory of evolution. This is a rather safe generalization, or course, simply because evidence by itself is completely neutral as to its explanation. Explanations are provided by humans, and any piece of evidence which could be construed one way could also be construed another way by the person involved. Since the evidence itself is completely neutral, the individual makes up his own mind as to whether he believes in evolution or not. However, many people are browbeaten into believing in the theory of evolution. According to some this theory has the status of scientific fact. But there is much evidence against evolution and no necessity for any human being to believe it as a proven idea.
In contrast to its account of the humble natural origin of man, the standard world of western civilization aggrandizes the present nature of man. We are taught that man is basically good, that men can be trusted, that the important thing is that we not degrade man by supposing him to have in any sense evil motives. If it is true that men are subject to Satan, it makes a great deal of difference in our understanding of the processes of this world. If every politician is subjected to the influence of and adversary who attempts to get him to do evil, thinking beings would rather not put into the hands of any one human being any great concentration of power. But, if on the other hand, as western civilization teaches, every man is inherently good, perhaps we need not fear. Each individual may be given the opportunity to account for himself and his own personal experience as to what the real nature of existence is. What is your sample of human nature? Are most human beings good, or do most human beings do evil in one degree or another? When human beings have a highly concentrated power in their hands, do most people use it to do good, or do most people use it to do evil? Single examples may be taken to prove either side. But the question, or course, is, what is the generalization which is true?
Going on to the future history of man, again though the world recognizes that death is a necessity which comes upon every human being. The important thing is, what is the consequence of death? The world teaches that there is an oblivion, that when we die, we pass into a non-existence where we no longer exist as entities. Coupled with this is the idea that there is no judgment for the acts of man, that the only possible consequences of our acts in this life are the physical rewards and punishments which affect us up until the day of our death. This leads, of course, to the idea that getting caught in doing anti-social things is the problem and that if we suffer social disapprobation, it is simply because we were not wise enough to elude the restrictions of our community.
The Nature of Values
Going on to the third general area, let us contrast the values of the gospel and the world of western civilization in regard to the status of values themselves. The gospel plainly teaches that there is a right or wrong. There is a morality which is not simply the whim of God and which man can know. There is an eternal righteousness which leads to happiness both now and later. Accompanying this idea of the eternal nature of right and wrong is the concept of the worth of the individual. In the gospel frame of reference, the individual person is the most important thing in existence, and every human being is of virtually infinite worth compared with anything else in the universe, compared with any non-personal or non-individual existence in the universe. Whatever programs, governments of society, or actions of individuals which are proposed and executed, the church would teach us that the worth of the individual ought to be respected and kept in mind at all times. No human being should be treated simply as a means to an end, but every human being ought to be treated as an end and worthy in and of himself. Now, in contrast to this, the world teaches that all values are relative, that the thing that is important is simply the satisfaction of desire, that there is no right or no wrong. The world also teaches that the individual is of little worth. The individual may have some worth insomuch as he finds himself on the top of the social power structure, but the teaching of the world is that the important thing is the social group, the social group being the basis and source of all values for individual human beings. The important thing, therefore, for the human being is to accommodate himself to the nature of the group. Most education is carried on under this valuation, attempting to get the individual to subordinate himself to the nature of his social existence and group rather than attempting to bring out in him the important things which he feels are of worth and to enable him to be an independent individual.
The Source of Salvation
The fourth category in which we might contrast these two worlds is in relation to salvation. In the gospel of Jesus Christ salvation is vertical; that is to say, man has to look upward to a supernatural source for his salvation both from the troubles of life and the perils of eternity. Man seeks to receive from his Father in Heaven first of all the Spirit, to be guided in truth and light; secondly the priesthood by which power he can control the elements of this earth, the power of Satan, and anything necessary which stands in the way of his salvation. Thirdly, he receives the blessings of a personal God, a Father who loves him and who is anxious to reunite with him.
Salvation for the world, on the other hand, is lateral. This means to say, the teaching of the world is that salvation is to be obtained from our fellow beings. The teaching is that man is saved first of all through learning, so we must go to school and be taught by our fellow human beings what is truth, what is right, what we should know. Ultimately, the problems of our civilization and the struggle against nature are to be solved according to the world through physical force. To this end science is employed, but even more the power of government to pass laws and physically to force certain requirements upon society is looked upon as the great panacea. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, the ultimate salvation is looked for in righteousness; whereas in the world salvation is looked for in physical force. In this connection we quote President David O. McKay in his speech in the October, 1962 General Conference. President McKay says this:
“Today many nations have lost their independence. Men defeated have been compelled to labor for their conquerors. Property has been seized without recompense, and millions of people have surrendered all guarantees of personal liberty. Force and compulsion will never establish the ideal society. This can come only by a transformation within the individual soul, a life redeemed from sin and brought in harmony with the Divine Will. Instead of selfishness, men must be willing to dedicate their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the alleviation of the ills of mankind. Hate must be supplanted by sympathy and forbearance. Peace and true prosperity can come only by conforming our lives to the law of love, the law of the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A mere appreciation of the social ethics of Jesus is not sufficient. Men’s hearts must be changed. In these days of uncertainty and unrest, liberty-loving people’s greatest responsibility and paramount duty is to preserve and proclaim the freedom of the individual, his relationship to Diety, and the necessity of obedience to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only thus will mankind find peace and happiness.”
So it is we see that we are faced with this fundamental choice. We can choose the universe the gospel commends to us, or we may choose the world of western civilization. Under the one, we will seek righteousness, which is to say, we will seek by the help of God to better the lives of our fellow men through kindness, through love, through any way that does not involve physical force, which is compatible with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If, on the other hand, we seek the power of the world, if we seek to follow the pattern of the world, we will try to solve the problems of man through physical force. May I remind you that these two are essentially the two plans propounded in the council in heaven. The one is the plan of righteousness and agency and honoring of the individual propounded by our Father in Heaven and accepted by the Savior in the pre-existence. The other is the program of Satan which denies the agency and worth of the individual man and tries to solve all problems and bring about salvation through physical force.
Again may we note in this Christmas season that the life of our Savior Jesus Christ is a monument to his belief that righteousness is a much greater power than physical force. When the Savior came among men in his earthly existence, the Jews were expecting a Messiah who would come and blight the Roman armies and physically destroy all the enemies of Judaism. But the Savior recognized that there is something much greater, that righteousness is the greatest triumph of all. In his life he sought and succeeded never to succumb to the temptations of the adversary in any particular or in any degree. By this triumph Jesus Christ was able to gain the power of righteousness which is for him the power to resurrect all human beings, to bless those who have themselves sought righteousness with the blessings of eternity including exaltation, and to deliver to each man that happiness which he deserves and wants. He rejected explicitly the possible salvation he could have wrought even with the power of Godhood in destroying armies, in destroying disease, in destroying physical force. He recognized the worth of the individual and that the only salvation worth anything is getting human beings to choose righteousness of themselves, that he might honor them as persons. So in this Christmas season, may we remember the example of our Savior. May we seize upon a clear understanding of that world in which the Savior believed and in which he acted and which was the basis of his triumph. May we reject the sophistries of the adversary and the very unreal world which he and his proponents would have us believe in, the world which leads to destruction.