ChaunceyRiddle

May 1972 Commencement Remarks

As many of you have come to the climax of your formal education, it is appropriate to ask what you have learned. Likely you have learned in two areas, acting and thinking. Training is the educational approach which has taught you how to act: how to write a history, how to run a titration, how to conduct a survey, how to analyze a business, how to produce a play. Hopefully each of you is well-trained in the business of your specialty, and that this training will be the basis of a solid contribution which you will now make to society. Knowing the people and the programs under which you have been trained, I have confidence in the future of your contribution.

But I am more concerned with your thinking than with your acting. Learning to act skillfully in the work of the world is crucial, but it is in thinking well that the real power of man lies. Training is basically the process of stimulating imitation. You have served with and under masters who have led you to emulate themselves and thus to be successful producers. But learning to think is never a matter of imitating. Thinking is a process of challenge, it is the unique assertion of individuality wherein you establish your identity as a person. You cannot really be trained to think, but you can be challenged to think. If you can think, you can better meet any challenge, you thrive on difference, you delight in problems. For if you can think, you can rise to meet the exigencies of new occasions, you can bring unity out of difference, you turn problems into progress.

Do not confuse thinking and the challenge to think with iconoclasm, for the latter is an oft seen counterfeit of the former. Every person comes to the university with a worldview, a set of values, a heart full of desires, all more or less naïvely held. The iconoclast is the person who cleverly invades that naïvety, demolishes the appertaining mindset of the naïve and substitutes his own prejudices and opinions in place of that which he destroys. Iconoclasm thus does not teach a person to think; it merely trains him to parrot the responses of the current academic vogues.

The challenge to think, by contrast, is administered effectively only be persons who think. A person who thinks may well have a worldview, values and desires, but each is subject to constant scrutiny and to possible change. He who truly thinks values the freedom and power that thinking brings, knowing that it is his personal access to individuality and increased ability. Treasuring that individuality and power for himself he cannot righteously deny that freedom to another. Thus he will not indulge in iconoclasm, no matter how superior to those of his contemporaries he perceives his ideas to be.

How then does one person challenge another to think? It is done by throwing a person back into his own naïve mind and asking him to justify what he thinks and says. In other words, it is to challenge the person to substitute his own personal deliberate basis for accepting what he believes in place of the happenstances of upbringing and formal training which have produced his naïve initial approach. Whether a person changes anything he believes, values or desires in this process of thinking is incidental. The change is that what he thinks are now his thoughts, a reflection of his personality, and the emergence of a true individual. He who thinks is no longer the creature of his social environment. In one sense he has now become a threat and a challenge to it, for he is no longer subject to it, and now has the power to change it. Any indication of such independence or move to change makes the non-thinkers, especially the iconoclasts, most uncomfortable. I suppose that discomfort is the source of the fear that drives some men to try to dominate others, classic examples of which we see in the auto da fe

of the inquisition, the witchcraft trials of Salem, the liquidation and incarceration of political opposition in communist nations, which are in turn but repetitions of the answers of fear administered to Socrates, to John the Baptist, to Jesus the Messiah, and to Joseph the Prophet.

Let us use an example to show the contrast between the approach to a problem as exhibited by a fearful non-thinker on the one hand and a genuine thinker on the other. I deliberately choose an example which is current.

It is popular among the iconoclasts of our day to speak sneeringly of the “Protestant work ethic.” For their purposes this is a happy collocation of concepts already on the run, and derogating them in unison makes “rhetorical hay” most efficiently.

Protestantism is on the run. A hundred years of iconoclastic attack on the Bible has so withered its foundations that to be a believer is virtually synonymous with being non-rational or non-educated. The original protest has sunk from the noble purpose of affirming God’s revealed word to the support of communist aggression in Indo-China. So it is easy and profitable to kick Protestantism.

“Work” as a concept and an action is similarly on the run. In a day when labor-saving devices are seen by many as the real fruit of scientific endeavor, it is seemingly a mark of progress and intelligence to work as little as possible. Labor unions, whose stock in trade might reasonably seem to be work, are saying, “Workers of the world unite and we will see that you do as little work as possible.” When welfare is perceived as a right, when the criminal is favored over his victim, when men would far prefer to fight than work, it becomes a delightful populist technique to kick work.

The term “ethic” is another rhetorical pushover. In a day that defies restraints both legal and moral, the connotations of the word “ethic” seem like relics of the dark ages. As permissiveness abounds, so do restraints, rules, regulations, and laws, of any sort, become horrendous. The good life is seen to be as one floating in the sea of impulse, washed by the waves of desire, mindless in a wallow of gratification. “Ethic”?: a thing of derision.

But we as Latter-day Saints should know better. We should know that for all of its problems, Protestantism has been beneficial to mankind, nurturing in a sustained way both political freedom and scientific thought as no other culture has ever done. And it laid the foundations necessary for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days. Work we know to be the basis of all good things, both in time and in eternity, a commandment of God to men, and a sanctifying activity to all who know when, where and how to apply their strength. We know that ethics is what makes man more than beast, and that as the world sinks in our day into the miasma of sub-bestial permissive irregularity, we know that it is only by wholehearted adoption of the true ethic, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that there will be anything saved or worth saving when the cataclysm of the Second Coming comes. Hopefully we as Latter-day Saints and as educated people will not mindlessly sneer against the “Protestant work ethic” with the iconoclasts.

Perhaps we do perceive, however, that the Protestant work ethic has some defects. What will the thinker then do? Rather than sneer and destroy, he will go to his own mind and will attempt to conceive a cure for the ills of mankind. Relentlessly he will ask himself why? wherefore? Does it work for me? Will it work for others? Out of the best thinking he can muster will come a hypothesis, an idea he is willing to sacrifice to experiment upon, something worth testing. If his test proves affirmative, he will bear witness of his hypothesis and the experiment he has performed, but without any attempt to coerce any hearer. He will patiently hear others who have sacrificed to perform their own experiments, hoping that perhaps someone has come closer to the answers than he. But above all he will respect the sanctity of the individuality of his fellow human beings. Being true to thinking, he will never try to damn the progress of humanity by attempting to prevent or to inhibit their thinking. And in so acting he will serve his God, the greatest good which he knows.

It is my hope that each of us will think, and think, and think until we become thinkers. Then our education will not have been merely training. Then our lives will not be lived simply as animals. Then we will not mindlessly parrot the cliches of our times. Then we can truly serve our God.

14 August 1992

Let us begin by dividing up reality. The first part of reality is the natural world, that which is created and governed by the hand of God; this is the terrain, the flora and fauna and the atmospheric events in which we exist. The second is the artifactual world, that which is created and governed by the hand of mankind; this is the realm of clothing and computers, automobiles and armed forces, factories and farms. The third world is the symbolic world, that which is created and enjoyed in the heart and mind of each human being as he or she contemplates the verbal and artistic productions of mankind. It is this third world which we in the humanities emphasize.

How are these three worlds interrelated? The natural world is the home base, that which makes the other two possible. The artifactual world is the arena of our comforts and conveniences. But it is in the symbolic world that we human beings come to full flower and fill the measure of our creation.

The measure of our creation is that we have been sent by our Father in Heaven into this natural world of His to create a heaven out of a fallen world, which is essentially a hell, for Satan largely rules here.

We are in hell because of the fall of Adam. This hell is carefully designed to try the soul of every individual, to prove for each of us whether we most desire our own personal pleasure or rather desire the welfare of all. In this hell where selfishness abounds, righteousness is a singular achievement, attained only by walking humbly with God, to attain a genuine accomplishing concern for the welfare of all.

Now the interesting thing about this situation is that everyone claims to be working in behalf of heaven and earth. The Serbian snipers in Bosnia fancy that they do the world a favor when they gun down Croatian children. The marauding bands of Somalia are grasping at heaven by stealing everything they can lay hands on. Every candidate for political office touts himself or herself as the savior who will really do things right. Advertisers would have you believe that what keeps you from heaven is your body odor or your beverage selection. Madness all.

All of these human attempts to create heaven run afoul of two things. First, heaven is never an individual attainment. If I seek only for my personal heaven, I will fail. I may indeed gain some momentary pleasure. Indeed, some manage a mortal lifetime of selfish advantage. But personal privilege always fails in the long run. Heaven is a corporate venture, and cannot be attained for some at the expense of others. If heaven is to be real and lasting, everyone must have the opportunity to participate, and all who enjoy it must labor in concert to perpetuate it.

The second problem which human beings face in establishing heaven is that we humans do not know how to be wise. Even if we were to solve the first problem and all work together, we would and do miscarry because we do not know enough about our problems and the future to bend our energies in precisely the right way. What the quest of heaven needs is a God, one who is wise and omniscient, who will direct a people intelligently to meet every contingency in time and eternity.

So mankind has two great problems. Some think they can create heaven for themselves without worrying about everyone else who is suffering, and some think that they are smart enough to figure out how to create heaven on their own. The former problem is selfishness, and the latter is pride.

But how to quell selfishness and pride? This is where we return to our three worlds. Selfishness and pride cannot be successfully confronted in either the natural world or the artifactual world. They can be understood and dealt with only in the third world of the symbolic development of the human imagination. What is needed is art forms and arguments which clearly show forth the reality of the human situation, that show selfishness and pride for the great stumbling blocks which they are.

The problem is that much of the symbolic transaction of the human community is the celebration of selfishness and pride. That which could be used to cure is deftly and artfully wielded in behalf of the enemy. Many who could show the correct way mock what will help and glorify this hell in which we find ourselves.

So, what is the solution? I offer the following suggestions:

1. We who are Latter-day Saints and skilled in the disciplines of the humanities can make a difference. If we make it the business of our lives to seek out everything that is virtuous, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy, and to create the same. If we promulgate and celebrate that good, we can accomplish that difference. There are many on the earth who are tired of the world and worldliness, who would welcome a stand for principle and virtue, but know not where to find it.
2. We Latter-day Saints who would assist in the creation of heaven on earth must have no illusions about the order in which things must be done. The Savior has made it plain that no one can assist in this work until they themselves are clean from their own sins and those of the generation in which they live and work. We can become free from sin only through the Atonement of our Savior in partaking of the New and Everlasting Covenant and in living the law of the Gospel. If you and I will not first eschew selfishness and pride, there is little we can do to help others.
3. We must not be snared by the pernicious doctrine of “art for art’s sake.” This doctrine of the world is the very embodiment of both selfishness and pride. It is selfish because it puts the desires of the artist ahead of the result his work creates in the rest of mankind. It is proud because it rejects the mortality of God and good. No one ever created heaven by courting Satan. Yet much of what the world hails as great art, technically superb and thoroughly titillating, is the worship of being carnal, sensual and devilish.
4. As Latter-day Saints we can have the power to do good in all of the world of symbols if only we will go humbly before the throne of the author of all good, which is Jesus Christ, and faithfully do His will. The trouble is that to promote good one has to be much more skilled than one needs to be to promote evil.
5. Evil is always short-sighted and short-lived. To be intelligent is to look to the long-run happiness of all. In other words, to be evil is to be unintelligent, though perhaps clever, and to be good is the only real intelligence.
6. The only real source of intelligence in this life for us is Jesus Christ. He will not save us unless we first save ourselves in the symbolic world. He comes to us as the Word, the messenger of salvation, to excite our minds to hunger and thirst after that which is good and holy. We then begin to treasure that which is good and holy, then and only then can we as persons begin to be good and holy and intelligent. Only as we persist in making every sacrifice to cleanse our minds and hearts of that which is base and evil can we help to create and dwell in a heaven with other persons of good will.

Your graduation today shows that you have been able to meet the requirements of this university for your degree. The question remains, did you meet those requirements with cleverness or with intelligence? Whichever it was, we shall all be found out. For in the not too distant future there will be another commencement day, the day when our mortal probation is past and we commence our individual eternities.

At that time some of us will be told, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into my rest.” These souls will then have the delight of laboring successfully to build heavens for others for all of the future. But some will be told, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” These are they who celebrated selfishness and pride in their mortal probation, who sought comfort and aggrandizement only for themselves at the expense of others. They will be sent out into the darkness to say anything they please, no matter how foul or perverse, and to depict evil in all of its gore, to their hearts content. But let us hope that none of this company will then be found weeping and wailing and gnashing teeth. Thank you.

(Written in about 1975)

Each of us files a daily report as to how we feel about the Church in our actions. Silently we acclaim or protest through our support or non-support of what we see and hear. This is an unsolicited verbal report filed for any and all who might be interested. As you might guess, what is said below is the perspective of a single individual. You are also a single individual. May we compare notes?

The first thing I must do to give you my reactions is to separate some things out. The most important of these are the Savior, the Gospel, the Church, and the people of the Church.

I think of the Savior as my friend and companion. That sounds presumptuous, but I am willing to say it because I think of myself as His friend and servant. And I say it because I know the sweet peace of His spirit.

Feeling His spirit is the sweetest, most desirable experience in my life. Sometimes it gives me an overwhelming spiritual shock, as when I read Micah 6:8, or D&C 121:45–46, or Matthew 25:40. That shock shakes the very core of my being; I cannot deny what is said, for I know it is true. I know, because of such experiences that the Lord loves righteousness, and, therefore, He loves me. I know also that I love righteousness, and, therefore, I love Him. That’s why I think of Him as my friend. We both desire the same goals, and delight in the same things, especially to do justly, and to have mercy.

But, to be frank, the Lord scares me at the same time I feel His friendship. He is perfect in righteousness, and I am far from it. Though I think less of myself for it, I do yet yield to the flesh, filling its desires when I should not. Or sometimes anger or pride well up within me to defy the humility of the Holy Spirit. I know well what Nephi was talking about when he lamented because of his flesh in 2 Nephi 4. But Nephi is small comfort on that point. I see clearly that I will go on being scared until I have fully repented. I think that is what it means to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.

Sometimes I wonder about the whole business. The thought comes to me: You are just telestial material; no matter how hard you try you can never be like the Savior. But as I cry out in desperation to the Lord through hot tears, the sweet peace of the Spirit reaches to me like a cool breath to a fevered brow. It says: God is just, so do not worry about where you will be in eternity. There is much to be done now, for the sheep are scattered. Let the love of the lost sheep cause you to hunger to see them blessed. That hunger will enable you to overcome the flesh through the Savior; then you can do great good in this world.

So I have this testimony of the Lord. He speaks to me often through His spirit. He shows me the vision of righteousness and of Zion. He tells me how to read the scriptures. He has given me every good idea I have used in my professional and family life for many years. He reproves me when I am wayward, showing me the better way. When I am ill, His spirit heals me when I have learned my lesson, and He always teaches me some precious lesson that way. Do you see why I call Him my friend and companion? I have no mortal friend who compares with Him, save my wife. For Him I would gladly die, anytime, anywhere, even though I have never seen Him. But I also feel that I will die if I can never be faithful enough to see Him.

I love the Gospel because it teaches me of the Savior. I understand it to be those simple but marvelous ideas expressed in a few verses within 3 Nephi 27. It seems to be a formula for receiving the companionship of the Lord through His Holy Spirit. I know the Gospel is true because I have applied the formula and know that it works.

It took me a long time to learn the Gospel. The greatest obstacle was unlearning much of what I had been taught as a youngster in the Church. Until I seriously sought to dig out for myself the true meaning and application of faith and repentance, they were baffling because the cliches I heard didn’t fit the scriptures. With the help of some very spiritual people of the Church and the help of the Holy Spirit itself I have learned what I think are the essentials of the Gospel. My hesitation stems from the fact that every now and then I get a new and clearer glimpse of the first principles that makes me wonder if I ever really understood them before.

The scriptures seem to be the intellectual battleground where one struggles with ideas to get a clear and true idea of the Gospel formula. When we know the formula, our minds and bodies become the battleground for self control so that we might gain the companionship of the Holy Spirit. When one has the Holy Spirit, the world seems to be the battleground where one struggles to do good in the midst of great evil. As one succeeds in doing some good, the mysteries of heaven begin to unfold, a glimpse of celestial order and celestial kingdoms. If one is wise enough not to talk of them, knowledge of the mysteries becomes a great anchor to the soul. But there is no anchor to compare with the more sure word.

The Church, to me, is the priesthood organization extending from the Savior through the president of the Church down to each member. I like to think of the priesthood as a harness; it gives us a specific place to work, a specific relationship to other workers, a real opportunity to move along the work of God, which is the work of righteousness and salvation. If I can learn to fill my role, to do my priesthood assignments well, the Church can move forward. If we all pull together as the Savior directs, we together can do good things for this suffering world which could not be done by us alone or in any other way. It is both a great thrill and an awesome responsibility to be in the harness.

There have been times when I have aspired to high office in the Church. I dreamed once of becoming a general authority. I can see the adversary laughing gleefully when he has gotten me to think of desiring high office. The Lord in His kindness has let me have enough office to discover two most precious things. He has taught me first that there is no greater priesthood calling than father and mother; nothing is more challenging or more worthwhile than the firm establishment of a celestial family. Secondly, He has shown me that office in the Church is something I cannot refuse, but I must see Church office as an added burden which may destroy my primary family responsibility. If I am doing well in my family, I will have power to do well in my Church calling, and the better I then do in my Church calling, the more help I will have with my family. But if I am not doing well in my family, I will have little to offer to the Church; as I fail in my Church assignment, I destroy the possibility of ever having an eternal family. There is no way out but up. My love of the Lord must become so consuming that it will burn the dross out of me. Then I can be the father and the high priest that I want to be. Then I am fully on the Savior’s team and can do great eternal good. But oh the deceitfulness of the temptation to desire that which we do not have!

When I think of the priesthood order of the Church, I think particularly of the General Authorities, my Stake President, and my Bishop. I love to attend conference or any meeting where I am instructed and encouraged by those over me in authority. When any one of my file leaders speak, my soul resonates to the message, and their voice seems like the voice of my Father. Sometimes I am out of tune with them; I still get the message that they are right, but I am jarred by it. When I am most in tune, I can often anticipate what they will say and do. Needless to say, when I am in tune, sustaining them is a joy, for it is the Savior that I and they are unitedly sustaining.

The Brethren scare me, too, as does the Savior. I feel uncomfortable around them because I know that what they say is right and I am not yet doing all I could do. When, oh when, I keep wondering, will I ever get on the ball so that my confidence will wax strong in the presence of the Lord? Even though they burn me and scare me, I am proud of the Brethren and so grateful to have them to help me find the way of the Savior. I know many of them personally and can testify that they are great and godly men.

Sometimes I hear people criticize the Brethren. I hurt inside for the criticizer, for I know that he does not enjoy that great and uplifting gift of spiritual unity with them. The Holy Spirit has taught me to listen first to them, out of all the voices in this world, on any and every subject, at any time and place. When I talk with them, I perceive they are highly intelligent men. They have seen more of the world and know more of what is critical and urgent than any other group I have ever read or listened to. I marvel at the power and precision of the programs they bring out; the programs are not always final, but they are marvelously suited to the needs of the Church.

I see the Correlation work of the Church as the great struggle to convert all members of the Church to become servants of Jesus Christ. Church membership makes us nominal servants; the work of the program of correlation will bring our heart, might, mind and strength under that head, culminating in the establishment of the full patriarchal order. But the patriarchal order is simply the rule of Jesus Christ through His priesthood, the kind of rule that can be established only when people are fully faithful.

Home teaching (now Ministering) is the key to all Church work, as I see it. If it succeeds, the patriarchal order will be established; if it fails, I presume the Lord will simply wait for a new generation of children or converts who will be faithful. I have never glimpsed a greater organized power to raise souls to perfection than the Home Teaching Program (now the Ministering Program).

The genealogy program is another facet of the patriarchal system. I understand our greatest responsibility to be to seek after our kindred dead. Living or dead, we cannot serve Christ fully without honoring all our righteous fathers and blessing our children.

 The missionary program is exciting to behold. As the great net sweeps the seas the harvest of souls almost breaks it. What a hope to know that there are kindred spirits in every nation, tongue and people! And what a joy to find them and to bring them unto Christ.

The welfare program is sort of the “proof of the pudding.” If the other programs “take” on us, then we feel a fierce urgency to do something for the poor. And that something will be to consecrate all we have to the Lord and His work, that His children might not lack blessing. The size of our souls is measured by the size of our ability to help others spiritually and temporally. For the whole Gospel, spiritually and temporally, in time and in eternity, for the saviors and those who save, is one great welfare program.

How does it look from the bottom? It looks great. The ship is sound and is on course. There are no better shipmates to be found anywhere. The officers know where they are going and are steering a correct course. I know that because my private receiver lets me listen in on their instructions. They are following the Master indeed.

Are there no troubles, no breaches, no lapses, you say? Indeed, there are problems. False doctrine is taught by some of us. Some of us in authority have little love. Some of us just relax in the harness and let the leaders pull us along. But the problems are the problems of the people of the Church, not problems of the Church, or the Gospel, or the Lord.

For this is my testimony, too: “Stick to the old ship.”

Atonement: At-one-ment. To become one with Father.

The Great Commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all of thy heart, might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ shalt thou serve him. (D&C 59:5)

One mission of Christ is to bring about the great at-one-ment.

•             He teaches us how to stop sinning (faith and repentance).
•             He suffered so he could forgive us if we stop sinning.
•             He sacrificed his life so that all men would live again.

Only through faith in Jesus Christ is it possible to fulfill the great commandment, which is to become perfect, even as Christ is perfect. Then we can be one with Father, even as Christ is.

Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and the Holy Ghost. And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the father and the son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ, with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. (2 Nephi 31:17–20, emphasis added)

17 August 2009

Topic: Exit strategy: How to leave this world as intelligently as possible.

(Definition of “this world:” This fallen state where Satan controls most of what goes on.)

Main goal: To be “unworldly.” To love God with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. (D&C 59:5)

(Definitions: Heart is our desires. Might is all we own or have power over. Mind is what we think and believe. Strength is our physical body and its powers.)

Heart:

1. Want and pray of only that which is good before God. (D&C 88:65)
2. Live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
3. Add to our faith, virtue … (2 Peter 1:4–8)
4. Forgive others any and all trespasses we have suffered. (D&C 64:10)
5. Repent of every evil desire. (Mosiah 16:12)
6. See the good in everything and everybody, and pass over the evil unless we are assigned to remedy the evil. (Articles of Faith 13)

Might:

1. Possess only that which we need. (D&C 82:17)
2. Have all that we need in place, in order, our stewardship ready to present to the Savior. (D&C 107:84, 128:24)
3. Minister to the widows and orphans, keep ourselves unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)
4. Use our power to support good causes in this world. (D&C 58:27)
5. Complete all legal arrangements for the handing on of our estate.
6. Restore four-fold to anyone and everyone we have defrauded. (Luke 19:8)

Mind:

1. Don’t believe anything not attested to by the Holy Spirit. Get rid of every false idea. Do believe all that is attested by the Holy Spirit. (Moroni 10:5)
2. Seek to understand all the ways of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 10:12)

Strength:

1. Eat for nutrition, not just for taste. (D&C 89:10–21)
2. Exercise/work hard enough to perspire and breathe hard every day (except Sunday). (Mosiah 13:17–18)

It is impossible to be saved in ignorance. (D&C 131:5–6)

Seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience we may possess our own souls. (D&C 101:35–37) If we don’t possess our souls, who does?

Remember: To be prepared for death is not the goal. The goal is to be prepared for disability.

Questions:

1. Is chastity a matter of heart, might, mind or strength?
2. How can we leave this world a better place for our having lived in it?

Exit strategy checklist:

1. Have I put my heart, might, mind and strength in order, ready to depart this world?
2. Do I have a will or trust with power of attorney for health and estate?
3. Have I paid all my legitimate debts?
4. Have I put all my property in order, ready to present my stewardship to the Savior?
5. Have I restored fourfold to anyone whom I have defrauded?
6. Have I apologized to all whom I have wounded?
7. Have I established an eternal bond of love with my spouse?
8. Have I taught my children the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ?
9. Have I witnessed of the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel to all my neighbors?

15 November 1968

God created man to be free—to act, and not to be always acted upon. The work of Satan is to thwart the work of God; Satan thus strives to make men captive, to be always acted upon rather than being free to act for themselves. Satan’s work seems to prosper, for most men are not free. They are subject to and controlled by physical and psychological forces.

The mission of the servants of Christ in this world is to set these captives free. Any human being who is of age and of normal mentality who comes in contact with the Witness of the Holy Ghost is momentarily set free from whatever hereditary, physical, mental, emotional, and social forces that have fettered his spirit through his flesh. In that moment of freedom, every child of God, every human being, may choose to become permanently and eternally free by accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and being born again. Being born again, the new son or daughter of Christ has the opportunity to proceed consciously, deliberately, and freely, to replace each bad habit with a good one, each weakness with a strength, each false notion with truth, each emotional knot with peace and charity. No person born again must make any particular change. He is simply free to mold and shape his own nature and character as he wishes, to progress to that degree of being Christ-like, which is his desire. The real end result for those who love the Lord with a pure love is that they become exactly like Him, with a new mind, a purified heart, an enlightened countenance, and a renewed physical body. Then nothing need bar them from inheriting all that the Savior has, to become joint heirs with Him.

But Satan does not want any joint heirs. His goal is to rule all, as when he sought to take the glory of the Father to himself in the council in heaven. The opposition between Satan and Christ can thus be designated: force and compulsion versus freedom and individual integrity; concentration of power versus equal sharing of power; rule by someone else versus the rule of self; to be acted upon versus acting.

The struggle between Satan and the Lord reflects itself clearly in the problems of teaching, and especially in teaching the Gospel. Thus there are two basic ways of teaching and learning.

Satan’s mode of teaching is to operate through force and pressure, physical and psychological and intellectual, both positive and negative. The following chart depicts the basic alternatives of the Adversary:

The essence of Satan’s plan is that the person is acted upon: he does not act for himself. The person is manipulated by someone else without regard to his own desires. One great key in detecting Satan’s work is that the principal concern is with ends, not means: “It doesn’t matter what happens to the people involved. Let’s get the job done.”

Many people are fooled at this point because they think Satan must be wholly negative, that he manifests himself only in brute force, in fear, and in lies. They do not understand that he can damn people just as effectively, and preferably, with rewards, kindness, joviality and part truth. Any person will remain confused until he looks for the basic factor: Does a given program set men free or is it simply a more clever and scientific way of controlling them? Only as men are set free in Christ can they grow to be able to become joint heirs. Always to be acted upon is to remain stunted and damned. Thus any program that sets out to produce good ends without building great people in Satan’s program. Satan would have “saved” everyone, through force and compulsion; and thereby no one but him would have had any growth.

There is then only one godly pattern in education. It is to introduce each person to the opportunity of having the Holy Ghost as his constant companion and guide. That holy spirit does not compel men. It only invites and entices everyone to come unto Christ, who is the fountain of all truth and all righteousness. In that still, small voice men are warned and instructed, but they must assert themselves and must choose according to their own desires in either accepting or rejecting. In this necessary choice of accepting or rejecting the way of Christ, men are free, and being free, each accepting choice builds and strengthens their character.

The Holy Ghost will manifest to each person the truth of any or all things at the exact time and circumstances where appropriate. The Holy Ghost will impart gifts that will allow the person to become full of truth, pure in heart, strong in the path of righteousness, powerful in the ways of godliness, full of charity, grateful to serve in the stewardship order of the Holy Priesthood. The Holy Ghost has the perfect tutoring program and ability. The person must struggle, grow, and apply what he is given, or his tutor leaves him. As he struggles and applies, he grows. And he grows to be Christ-like, for the Holy Ghost is the unseen messenger of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the end of his life he will not be judged simply for what he has done. He will be judged for what he has become through what he has done. Those who serve Christ through the Holy Spirit will be like Christ. They will see as they are seen and know as they are known. But he who rejected the Holy Spirit will have it said to him when he protests his good works, “Depart from me ye that work iniquity. You never knew me.”

The conclusion of the matter is plain. To teach or to work upon people, even in kindness, benevolence and great service, in such a way that we manipulate them and do not make sure that they understand and taste of the powers of the Holy Spirit is to become a tyrant. It is to try to make them captive to our will. It is to pretend that we of ourselves know what to teach them and how. It is to assert that we can be free to control them, but they must not be free. It is to be as Satan, to perpetuate the captivity and spiritual degradation of men.

On the other hand, to be as a little child to Christ, then under the influence of His Spirit to teach men to come unto him and to partake of his Holy Spirit is to introduce them to the greatest of all wealth and gifts: eternal life. For Christ is God and from Him and in Him come all good things to men. But the Savior does not force men to follow. He sets them free; they choose; they reap the consequences. The Savior does not insist on saving everyone.

For those who are covenant servants of Jesus Christ and who teach covenant servants of Jesus Christ, the choice is simple. We either invite, persuade and entice those whom we teach to learn and know through the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost, or we may proceed to instruct them ourselves. We either lead them to the source from which they may learn all truth, or we thrust our own ideas upon them as truth. We either set them free or we enchain them in the opinions of men. We either serve Christ or Satan.