ChaunceyRiddle

Sept. 16, 2017

“Neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.” (Moroni 7:29–30) Please read the following list from the bottom up because all below is foundational to attaining a pure love of Christ.)

• Pure Charity: Ministering in the pure love from Christ.
• Full Hope: In a glorious future of serving others.
• Full Faith: Unto overcoming every temptation.
• The covenants of temple sealing of husband and wife.
• Consecration: Using all control to further righteousness and Zion.
• Chastity: Using the divine gift only to serve God.
• Live The Law: Love God with all heart, might, mind and strength.
• Obedience and Sacrifice: (obedience without sacrifice is mere convenience).
• Receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood.
• Receiving the companionship of the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands.
• Making the promises of the covenant of baptism by immersion.
• Repenting of all our transgressions of the law of God.
• Faith, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s.
• Thou shalt not bear false witness.
• Thou shalt not steal.
• Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• Thou shalt not kill.
• Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother.
• Thou shalt keep the sabbath day holy.
• Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain.
• Thou shalt not worship any graven image.
• Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

These steps are the strait and narrow path. But they are all preparation for charity. One can go through the motions, but unless the heart and mind are changed and purified through this process, going through the motions is but vanity. The prepared can then fill the forms, the works, of godliness:

To create: To build farms, factories, businesses, inventions, art, records, etc., all to bless mankind.

To beget: To engender children in temple sealing and to nurture them in the pure love of Christ.

To entice: To teach the ways of righteousness and to encourage all to enjoy living those ways.

To organize: To establish Zion, so that a people have one mind, one heart, are righteous, and no poor.

To bless: To scan the environment each day to uplift and bless everyone and everything around one.

The purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to reveal to people the important opportunity they have to know who they are, what is ultimately good for them, how they can be released from the burden of their transgressions of God’s laws, and how they can go on to perfection through the Atonement of Jesus Christ by entering into the New and Everlasting Covenant.

One cannot comprehend the value of this message until he realizes that he has made a mistakes, cannot make up for these mistakes by his own power, and is not intelligent or strong enough to avoid making some future mistakes or transgressions of God’s law unless he has divine aid. This divine aid is a power which gives divine direction to those willing to enter into the covenant, showing them, as they are worthy, all things they should do; it comforts them with a divine witness that the Gospel Message is true, and that righteousness is the only way to happiness and power. This divine aid is given through and by a member of the Godhead whom we call the Holy Ghost.

It is the guidance and comfort of the Holy Ghost that enable a person to have the strength and wisdom to overcome the world, to put on the “new” man, as Paul says, to go on unto perfection; and the visitation of the Holy Ghost is the agency by which a person is cleansed of his sins, as it were by fire, after he has accepted the blood of Christ in baptism.

When a person receives the Holy Ghost after faith in Christ, repentance, baptism, and the laying on of hands by those having authority, that influence will linger with and labor with him as long as he does not sin. Should a person succumb to temptation and transgress God’s law, he again becomes unclean, an unfit tabernacle for the Holy Spirit, which must leave him until he can again become free from sin. He cannot be baptized again, but the Lord in His mercy has provided another ordinance that His children may again receive the Spirit, knowing that they are weak and cannot overcome all evil immediately and finally upon being baptized.

This other ordinance is the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper in which commemoration of the Atonement of the Savior we have the opportunity to review our covenants. If we have sinned but desire to be forgiven and have done all in our power to repent of our transgressions, we then may renew our covenant by taking the bread and water and eating and drinking them as a witness that we have repented and desire to accept our Savior and to be like him. Should we partake of the Sacrament not having tried to repent of ever sin we know we have committed, we eat and drink damnation unto ourselves, making a mockery of the renewal of covenants.

Thus in His mercy the Lord has commanded that we should meet together in Sacrament Meeting often, to confess our sins, to inspire one another, and to renew our covenants and again receive the Holy Spirit, that week by week we might draw closer to our goal: to become just men made perfect, citizens of the Lord’s Kingdom who eagerly seek and abide His law, and who are perfect in obedience to Jesus Christ, being led in all things by the Holy Ghost.

The most important verse? That’s a strong value judgment. But there are some reasons why it might be so. The verse is 2 Nephi 26:24:

He (God) doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

“Benefit” means doing good, blessing and ministering to others. He does this because of his heartfelt love for each human. The totality of human beings is “the world” in the scriptures. Christ has suffered for the sins and pains of each and every human being in order to be able to bless each one with forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and glory. He hopes to bless each human with all, with exaltation in eternity. But he respects each person and will put upon each that which each has shown he or she wants to receive and does follow the covenant path to become able to receive. Not everyone can stand to receive all that God tries to give them.

The reasons why this verse is the most important verse come under three headings:

1. This verse gives us a most important feature of our knowledge about our God.
2. This verse solves the problem of evil in this world.
3. This verse sheds great light on the commandments God has given us.

This verse gives us a most important feature of our knowledge about our God.

Usual discussions of the nature of our God sometimes focus on how much he knows, what he can do, and where he is.

Our God is said to be omniscient, that he knows everything that can be known, past, present and future. In the Book of Mormon Jacob exclaims: “O how great the holiness of our God. For he knoweth all things and there is not anything save he knows.” (2 Nephi 9:20) This means that God is never puzzled or in the dark about anything. He knows and understands all things. Therefore he knows how to bless each of his children.

Usual discussions also emphasize the power of God, that he has all power. This means that he can do anything that can be done. The Savior said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18) Thus he is never frustrated by inability to bless each human being.

Our God is also present everywhere in the universe. “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalms 139:7–10) This is to say that wherever any of his children are in the universe, God finds and blesses them.

And our god is also good, which is to say that he blesses or helps each of his children to enjoy as much blessing as each can stand to receive. And this is where our special verse from the Book of Mormon quoted above applies. It is well understood by mankind that God blesses his children. What is not as well known is what this verse explains: God only blesses his children. Some persons are wont to attribute curses to God, and the scriptures actually use that word. But this verse in the Book of Mormon tells us that any so-called curse from God is actually a blessing and will result in some great benefit and opportunity for the recipient. Thus God only blesses. Everything he does is to advance the happiness, power and well-being of his children. But again, he will not put upon any child of his a blessing which they cannot profit from. Thus some are damned to spare them agony from receiving blessings which would cause them to regress. And this damnation is a blessing.

This verse solves the problem of evil in this world.

Anything is an evil if it is not as good as it could or should be. Thus every human sin is an evil, something which need not be and should not be. For every human sin shortens the blessings and welfare of the sinner’s fellow-beings. God’s commandments are given so that we will have guidance and power not to do evil, but to bless only, even as God does. God holds each human accountable for all the evil each has done, and our Savior counts any evil we do to any other person as if we had done it unto him. If we repent of doing evil, our Savior forgives us. But if we will not and do not repent, he must hold us accountable on the day of judgment.

But there is a lot of so-called evil in this world that is not the doing of any human being. There are diseases, natural disasters, such as storms and volcanic activity, opposition from wild animals, heat and cold that devastate, etc. the point of this special scripture from the Book of Mormon is that all so-called evil is the hand of God delivering something to his human children which will eventuate in blessing which they will recognize and be grateful for. God’s hand is in all things, and thus nothing happens in this universe except by his permission. Thus he lets what we call evil treatment by humans and natural disasters in nature function as avenues for blessings greater than the evil humans suffer. Thus, each human being should be grateful for any suffering he or she undergoes, understanding that if he or she will turn to God as little children and humbly submit to the so-called evils that come upon them, that paves the way for greater blessings from God. “For the natural man (a man without Christ or God in this mortal world) is an enemy (does not love) to God, and has been since the Fall of Adam (because of the influence and temptations of Satan), and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit (and accepts Jesus Christ as his father and guide), and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love (for Christ and all mankind and all of God’s creation), willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him (to bless him with), even as a child doth submit to his father (for that person who comes to Christ counts Christ as his father). (Mosiah 3:19)

This discussion makes no sense to those who do not believe in the immortality of the human soul: no pre-mortal, no post-mortal. For only in the post-mortal life do all the evils of mortality become blessings.

Thus everything God brings to pass happens because God is using it to bless his children, to help each enjoy all the blessings and powers of God himself if they can stand to receive such magnificence.

This verse sheds great light on the commandments God has given us.

Salvation in Christ is to change our personal character from the way we were as a natural man in this mortality into the character and nature of Christ himself. This is done by means of faith in Christ unto repentance of everything we are that is not like him, to “come unto the measure of the fullness of the stature of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13) This explains why our Savior commands us to : “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. … Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5 44–48) This is what Christ himself does, and he bids us to follow his example.

This verse in the Book of Mormon is the most important verse because it clarifies for us the most important characteristic of God: that his heart is filled only with unmixed, pure love for all his children and for all creation. Knowing the most important things about God our Father is the most important thing any human could know. And gaining and using that pure love from Him in order to purely minister to others is the most important thing any human being will ever do.

The atonement of Jesus Christ has its focus on redeeming mankind from the two deaths which are the result of the Fall of Adam. The first of these two is the temporal death of the physical body of each human (the separation of the spiritual body from the physical body of the individual). The second is having the senses of the spiritual body cease to function. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve could perceive with the sensory organs of their spiritual bodies as well as sensing with the senses of their physical tabernacles. Because Adam obeyed Satan rather than God, these two deaths came upon Adam and Eve and upon all of their posterity, the human race.

When Adam and Eve were created by Jehovah (Jesus Christ) they were immortal and could have live forever, having the same DNA as the gods. Their immortality is testified to by Lehi: “If Adam had not transgressed he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.” (2 Nephi 2:22) Having the same DNA as the Gods is testified by the fact that Elohim was the literal father of Jesus Christ in the flesh with Mary of Nazareth, a mortal woman.

The physical death which ensued upon the disobedience of Adam and Eve was doubtless imposed upon them by Jehovah under the Father’s direction, and as all of God’s gifts, was a blessing to enhance their future possibilities. This physical death which came upon mankind in the Fall would be reversed when appropriate by Jesus Christ (Jehovah), but that physical death would not be reversed to the same status for every person. In order for the resurrection to be a true blessing to each individual, it was decreed by the Father that each would receive a body appropriate to the degree of power the person could and would use it for righteousness. Those who showed in their mortality that they would and did fulfill all righteousness through Jesus Christ would receive the same physical body and powers of the gods: be exalted. Those who proved in their probation that they could and did act in some lesser degree of righteousness would receive a body with all the powers appropriate to the degree of their demonstrated righteousness. Some would be like the greatness of the sunshine (celestial), some would be like the diminished light of the moon (terrestrial), or some like the faint light of the stars that bless the earth (telestial). And there would be some who demonstrate an eternal hatred for righteousness, who would receive a physical body but with no power to do any righteous act. This because they were in mortality totally overcome by and followed the enemy of all righteousness, Satan.

The spiritual death, having the senses of their spiritual bodies stopped up so that they could no longer sense the spirit world around them was likewise a blessing imposed by Jehovah to make possible for Adam and Eve and their posterity to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. For God would prove all human beings as to their inherent desires of the heart, not the knowledge of their minds. The desires of the heart are the indicators of the true nature of the person. Some knowledge and understanding in the mind are necessary for the heart to make a meaningful choice. But the knowledge and understanding of the mind give power but not direction for choices. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:8)

The proving of the true desires of the heart of each person was to be shown by giving each of God’s mortal children two opportunities. The first was that each person who would come to accountability and thus have a true mortal probation would be given the light of Christ as a guide. This light of Christ would manifest itself as the conscience of the person, and would steer each person to avoid succumbing to the temptations which would come from Satan to do evil. The mission and work of Satan and his followers would be to oppose all righteousness by enticing each individual to be selfish and use others to fulfill selfish desires. Thus each accountable child of God would be free to demonstrate his or her true nature: to choose righteousness through the light of Christ, or to choose selfishness through yielding to the temptations of the Satanic influence. But it was also set by the Gods that the influence of the conscience would be relatively weak as compared to the temptations of Satan.

Thus everyone would find themselves giving in to selfishness to some degree. This was deemed by the Gods to be a good thing because it meant that every mortal child of God would taste both the bitter and the sweet, the evil and the good. This would be an important part of their mortal probation, to have tried doing both good and evil, both righteousness and sinning.

But this beneficial experience of doing both good and evil while helpful in determining the true nature of each person also brought a problem. Each giving in to the evil influence of selfishness would be a breaking of God’s commandments, a sin. And every sin the person would commit would separate them from God and make it impossible for the sinner ever to return to the presence of God. This is because every sin is a wounding of someone or something else, taking advantage of that person or thing for some supposed personal benefit to the sinner. Thus every sin diminishes the happiness and blessing of those someones or somethings, God’s creatures. God, who only acts to bless others, cannot then accept that sinner back into his presence, for that would pollute the heavenly place where the gods dwell. Thus the mortal experience of proving ourselves throws up a barrier to our ever returning to the presence of our gods, the Father and the Son: “for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.” (Alma 45:16)

God, knowing that we, his children, would have this problem, prepared a way to overcome the predicament. He not only sends each of his children the light of Christ, a conscience, but he sends also to those who largely obey their conscience a special heavenly messenger, the Holy Ghost. The task of this messenger is to bear witness to the individual who will receive that witness that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God the Father, and that Christ has been sent into this world to rescue each child of God who will accept salvation from sin and sinning. Christ, the specially anointed rescuer, is sent by the Father to help each of his human children both to stop sinning and to help each pay the debt incurred by each sinful act. Stopping sinning is possible only by trusting Christ unto coming on to the path of righteousness and staying there. Stopping sinning is called repentance. Paying the debt for past sins is called restitution, and total restitution for human sins is possible only in and through the atonement of Jesus Christ. So any child of God who wants to repent of sinning and restore the blessings he or she has denied someone or something else in that sinning may do so. They may do it through their own efforts and through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and can become clean and acceptable back into the presence of the gods. But that repentance needs to be celestial repentance. Telestial repentance is saying, “I am sorry for having done that.” Telestial repentance is restoring one for one, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Celestial repentance is replacing the sin with a blessing, and involves at least fourfold restitution.

Thus the full satisfaction for having sinned necessarily includes both replacing the sinning with acts that bless, repentance, and making full restitution. Both of these can be accomplished fully only through the atonement of Christ. Full repentance is possible only under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, for only God knows what acts will bless and not harm. And full restitution must also be guided by the Holy Ghost to be efficacious, besides it often being out of the scope of the power of the sinner to make full recompense to the one(s) sinned against.

Restitution is an important part of the Law of Moses as found in Exodus 22: “If a man steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it: he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking in … he should make full restitution; if he hath nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep; he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man’s field; of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. Etc.” (Exodus 22:1–5+)

Likewise is restitution part of the New Testament, in the testimony of Zacchaeus: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him four-fold.” (Luke 19:8)

We also find the principle of restitution in the Doctrine and Covenants. “But if [thy neighbor] trespass against thee the fourth time thou shalt not forgive him, but shall bring these testimonies before the Lord; and they shall not be blotted out until he repent and reward thee four-fold in all things wherewith he has trespassed against thee. And if he do this, thou shalt forgive him with all thine heart; and if he will not do this, I, the Lord, will avenge thee of thine enemy an hundred-fold; And upon his children and upon his children’s children of all them that hate me, unto the third and fourth generation. But if the children shall repent, or the children’s children, and turn to the Lord their God, with all their hearts and all their might, mind and strength, and restore four-fold for all their trespasses wherewith they have trespassed, or wherewith their fathers have trespassed, or their father’s fathers, then thine indignation shall be turned away; and vengeance shall no longer come upon, saith the Lord thy God, and their trespasses shall never be brought any more as a testimony before the Lord against them.” (D&C 98:45–48) This passage makes it plain that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, and that therefore a given individual’s repentance must necessarily take account of the sins of his or her fathers. All of this emphasizes the importance of restitution as part of the atonement of Christ. For Christ must restore and make restitution for the sins of those who he forgives and blesses through his atonement.

There are then three main aspects of the atonement of Christ: the sacrifice, the suffering and the restitution. The sacrifice is the Savior giving up His potentially unending mortal life and all the good He could and would have done by living forever as a mortal. The suffering was that He suffered all the pain that anyone who has been trespassed against suffers, pain for every sin of mankind. The suffering is finite and was completed on the cross of Calvary when he said, “It is finished.” The restitution was that he makes whole the damage done by every particular sinning, (the reason sin is sin is because every breaking of the commandments of God causes hurt to something or someone, and these hurts have a chain of reaction that would go on forever if not blocked. The Savior blocked all of these damaging ramifications that would go on forever. Insofar as an individual human being can make restitution for his or her sins on his or her own, this will be part of his or her repentance in coming unto Christ. But it is likely that the vast bulk of the restitution due for human sinning cannot be completed by human power and this larger burden falls upon our Savior. Since the consequences of sinning and the necessities of restitution extend into eternity, even so must the restitution extend into eternity. Thus, the atonement of Christ must be infinite in its power and scope.

Thus, how grateful we humans should be that our God offers to each of us the forgiveness of our sins on condition of repentance. There would be little point in forgiving us if we did not repent, for we would then continue to wound and damn others by sinning against them. But if we have truly repented, have changed our natures so that we now bless others and never harm them, there is real benefit in Christ’s suffering for our sins and making eternal restitution for them. Oh, the greatness and the goodness of our God, Jesus Christ, who has atoned for the sins of all mankind. All who will accept his grace will have future glory in blessing others.

[It is interesting that in our LDS society today repentance is given great prominence, but restitution is seldom mentioned. Repentance is for the most part portrayed as stopping some wrong act, but usually does not include going on to replace the harmful act with a beneficial act. Restitution is not even a topic in the scriptural Topical Guide.]

The Savior has been very clear about the temporal order he wishes his servants to create on this earth: “For verily I say unto you … it must needs be that there be an organization of my people … for a permanent and everlasting establishment and order to my church. … That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things; For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things.” D&C 78:3–6

And again: “For Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments. … And you are to be equal … you are to have equal claims on the properties, for the benefit of managing the concerns of your stewardships, every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just. … Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.” D&C 82:14–19

As we attempt to create a Zion in preparation for the Second Coming of our Savior, one of the great tasks is to get every faithful person to be so unselfish that we will again have all things in common, every person a steward, all having the same standard of living. As you can see, we have quite a ways to go to get to that point. But we can all pray for and work for that goal.

As I think about departing this mortal sphere, my mind keeps coming back to why we are here. And we are here for two reasons. First, to get a physical body. Second, to choose what kind of body we will have, which we do by choosing the kingdom we would like to live in for the rest of eternity. [Some persons believe we do not live after mortal death. I cannot prove that we do, but there surely is a lot of evidence that we do. And I believe the evidence. Of course, accepting or rejecting the evidence for an eternity of existence is part of choosing the kingdom we will be in for the rest of it.]

We choose a kingdom for eternity by how we treat others:

If our desires and actions are to bless others in mortality, we are choosing celestial eternity.

If our desires and actions are to deal justly with others in our mortality, to keep the Ten Commandments, then we are choosing terrestrial eternity.

If our desires and actions are just to feather our own nests in our mortality, then we are choosing telestial eternity.

If our desires and actions deprive others to obtain what we want, then we are choosing perdition eternity.

And we choose each day in each action which one of these patterns we wish to follow.

But some follow one pattern one time, then another the next. Where will they wind up? We all finally settle into the pattern with which we are most comfortable. And in each kingdom apparently there are degrees.

So it all boils down to whether we at any moment choose to do good or evil, to bless or to use those whom we affect. And we get help from Satan to use others and from Christ to bless others. At every moment we can choose to follow Satan or Christ as each welcomes us to do so.

We do not get to choose our temptations. But we do choose which temptations we give in to. That is our agency. And that is our eternity.

1. We are born into this world with a body fashioned in the likeness of those of the gods. (Christ is the creator of all things in heaven and in earth.)
2. The light of Christ is given to each person who comes into this world, to teach them the difference between good and evil. Everyone knows the difference, but each of us gets to say which one is good and which one is evil for us.
3. By the light of Christ everyone will eventually be able to locate the Holy Spirit and its teachings. It will teach us of Christ.
4. By the Holy Spirit, each of us will eventually receive and recognize the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by those who have the true authority of God. They will invite us to be baptized.
5. As we accept baptism, we covenant to be willing to take upon us His name, to remember Him always, and to keep all the commandments He gives us.
6. When we make the covenant of baptism, we are given the right to the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The Gift is the constant companionship, differing from the occasional witness which led us to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
7. If we actually receive the Holy Ghost when we are confirmed, or after, we also receive at least one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
8. As we treasure the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost by being humble and obedient, and as we use well the gift of the spirit we have been given, we become heir to all of the other gifts of the spirit.
9. As we learn well to serve others, young men are given the Aaronic Priesthood to enhance the power of their service to bless others temporally.
10. As a young man serves well in the offices and responsibilities of the Aaronic Priesthood, he becomes ready and receives the Melchizedek Priesthood, which further increases his power to serve and bless others. There are three steps in receiving the full power of the Melchizedek Priesthood:
          a. Conferring of the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordaining to the office of elder. This grace gives one the power to bless others spiritually.
          b. Receiving one’s endowment (gift from God) in the holy temple. This enables one to resist the power of Satan and overcome the world.
          c. Being sealed to one’s spouse in the holy temple by the power of God. This gives a man and a woman the right to have children and to preside over their posterity as an eternal kingdom.
11. Callings and opportunities to serve in the Kingdom of God on earth come (but none is greater or more important than the opportunity to preside over and bless one’s own posterity). The person grows in power and ability as he or she is faithful in family and church responsibilities.
12. The ultimate grace is to overcome the world through faith in Jesus Christ and to be given the gift of a pure heart. He who has the pure heart has everything. He who lacks the pure heart is still nothing. He and she who receive the pure heart will be exalted, will become one with the Father and the Son. The scriptures call this gift, “charity.”

Easter, 15 April 2001

When I was a young student of the scriptures, I quickly learned the importance of having the Holy Ghost with us to do good, to do the work of the Lord. I virtually made emphasis on this topic my theme song.

But as I have grown older, I have realized that there is something more important than the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I learned that you can have the Holy Ghost with you and still fail. I finally heard the words I had known most of my life: “Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.” (1 Cor 13:1–2). One must have the gift of the Holy Ghost to speak with the tongue of angels, to prophecy, to understand the mysteries and have all knowledge, to have faith to move mountains; but all these marvelous and supernatural powers are nothing compared with the one special gift—the pure love of Christ. Unless we specially seek and gain and master the gift of charity, all else we do is relatively in vain. The companionship of the Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary, but it is not sufficient; we must press on to the end, which end is to receive and reflect charity, the pure love of Christ. To be able to show forth that love is eternal life.

That love is what makes the Kingdom of God on the earth prosper. Those leaders who give it draw their flocks to Christ. Those missionaries who have it draw their contacts into the Church. Those husbands who have it draw their wife and children into the celestial kingdom. It is the sine qua non of all good work in Christ.

So in this Easter season, I wish to turn our minds to that greatest of all manifestations of pure love, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He who knows all truth makes sure that all humans are invited to know all truth. He who was sinless suffered for the sins of all humans so that they too might have the opportunity to become sinless. He who never would have had to die gave up His own mortality in order to assure that you and I would also live eternally. There is nothing necessary or desirable for your salvation and for my salvation that our Savior has not done or will not do to share all that He has received from the Father with us.

So far as I can see, there is really only one thing to live for on this earth: to live to promote the cause of Christ in the earth. Which is to say, to promote the cause of the pure love unfeigned, the cause of peace, the cause of health and happiness. Anything else is a distraction, an investment unworthy of our time or effort. For as we lose ourselves in that great cause of Christ, He provides for our needs and desires so much more fully than we could wish for that there is no contest. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the blessings God has prepared for them that love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9)

May the Kingdom of God on the earth prosper. May the Oak Hills Stake be a stake which is Zion, not only a stake of Zion. May each of us find that fulness of blessing which the Lord has in store for each of us as we ever more humbly and diligently reach out in the pure love of Christ to our wives, to our children, to our stake members, to our friends outside the Kingdom, as we thusly love and serve our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

20 January 2001

Brothers and Sisters: I humbly ask an interest in your faith and prayers, that someone might be helped by what I say, and that no one will be harmed. I am speaking to myself as much as to you.

To understand the universe we live in, it is important to have a firm grasp on three ideas:

1. Righteousness: Righteousness is not arbitrary. It is built into the very nature of social existence. It is the way powerful people must act to live together in peace and happiness.
2. Agency: Agency is the knowledge of choices and the power to carry out what is chosen.
3. Power in the Priesthood: Power in the priesthood is the greatest prize in the universe, for it is that which creates and controls all existence.

The interconnections: Complete righteousness freely chosen by a being having agency is the only access to power in the priesthood. There is no righteousness without agency, there is no power in the priesthood without righteousness. Every agent may choose between good and evil (good is righteousness, blessing others; evil is unrighteousness, selfishness). If the agent learns to choose good and nothing but good, he or she can obtain all righteousness, and through all righteousness, obtain all power in the priesthood. That power then enables the person to do even greater works of righteousness.         

The Gospel of Jesus Christ invites every human being on earth to seize his or her agency, choose and do righteousness, and to attain the full power in the priesthood that God has. If the person uses his or her agency to choose righteousness, power is delivered to the person through the New and Everlasting Covenant. The focus of that Covenant is the temple ordinances.

The temple ordinances are not an appendage to the Gospel of Jesus Christ: They are the principal focus of the work of the Church and the indispensable means to full righteousness and power in the priesthood. Missionary work, ward and stake functions, genealogy activity—all point to the temple. Because it is in the temple that the full blessings and powers of God are revealed and bestowed upon the children of Jesus Christ. We are there taught very particularly what the path of righteousness is, and if we use our agency to keep our covenants, all of them, we gain power in the priesthood that enables us to do full good in this world and empowers us as exalted beings in eternity.

It is important to understand that the war in heaven was all about power in the priesthood. Lucifer wanted that power but was not willing to use his agency to be righteous and gain that power in the regular way open to all of Father’s children. So he pretended to be able to save everyone. But his plan would not have given power in the priesthood to anyone but him. That is because he would have denied everyone their agency; thus denied, they could not choose good or evil. Not being able to choose, they could not become righteous through choosing good, and thus could not inherit power in the priesthood. Satan wanted that power for himself, but for no one else. When he said, “Give me thine honor,” he was really saying, “Give me the godly power in the priesthood, and I will save all men.” But what he proposed was impossible as well as unrighteous.

Our older brother, Jesus, agreed to come to earth, pass the test of mortality himself, then suffer and die for all men. This would fulfill the Father’s will and make the way possible for every child of Heavenly Father to inherit the full power of the priesthood. To do Father’s will, it was necessary for Jesus first to receive for himself the full power of the priesthood, for he could not be the creator of heaven and earth and be the redeemer of mankind without that power. Using that power, he created the earth and everything on it, then came to earth, chose good over evil at every choice, suffered for the sins of all men, died so that he could seize the keys of death, and now sits on the right hand of Father to plead the cause of each human being. For those who have accepted the New and Everlasting Covenant and have learned through Him how to be truly and fully righteous through the temple instruction and ordinances, to those who are valiant in fulfilling the priesthood work of the kingdom, he will have to say very little, for they will already have entered into their eternal blessings.

The temple ordinances were administered by God to Adam and Eve. They accepted the New and Everlasting Covenant, lived it and were redeemed from the Fall during their mortality. They sought to help all of their posterity gain these same blessings. But Satan came among their posterity and convinced them that the physical, social, and psychological powers of this world were all they needed to get gain, and convinced them that there was no hereafter in which to enjoy power in the priesthood. Satan’s message was: dominate others now, and I will give you power to rule over them and gain all the earthly delights you desire. Most of them bought this message, despised the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the New and Everlasting Covenant, and built evil kingdoms on this earth.

But there were righteous souls among the posterity of Adam who recognized the whisperings of the Holy Spirit as the voice of God. They chose the Gospel of Jesus Christ, entered the New and Everlasting Covenant, received their temple blessing and overcame the world.

Thus the temple ordinances were on the earth from the beginning, and every religion on earth had the beginning of its rituals in the temple ordinances. Let us point out some of the things we know about the temple ordinances in other cultures:

1. The tower of Babel was a counterfeit temple. God had provided a way for all men to get to heaven, but most despised it, for it required being righteous, which they did not want to do. So they went along with those who would try to force their way into heaven using the powers of this earth and whatever help Satan could give them.
2. The Egyptians stole the temple ordinances and practiced them. They did not have the power of the priesthood to make the ordinances effective, but they apparently gained some psychological comfort from the process. We can see evidences of their knowledge of the temple in the murals they left in their temples.
3. There were Christians in Egypt after the time of Christ who had received the true temple ordinances from the apostles of Christ. Our friend Wilfred Griggs excavated a Christian cemetery in Fayum, Egypt, and found that a very high percentage of the bodies exhumed had on the temple garments, marks and all.
4. The American Indians are heir to the temple ceremonies. A member of our stake has shared with me his experiences when he was a missionary to the Lamanites. In their kivas he saw many things which were obvious correlates with our temple ceremonies.
5. Tom Rogers spent sabbatical time in India, described how the priests in the Hindu religion wear their priesthood insignia on one shoulder when they are lower priests, and change it to the right shoulder when they advance.
6. My son has discovered in ancient Chinese literature a description of the four marks on the temple garment.

If you wish to see a full-blown account of the evidences of the temple ceremony in the religions of the world, please consult the works of Hugh Nibley, Temple and Cosmos, for instance. If you wish to see a summary of what we know about ancient temples, consult the first chapter of Richard Cowan’s book, Temples to Dot the Earth.

Since Satan was denied any access to power in the priesthood, he has made it his business on this earth to see that no one else get it, if possible. He has three principal strategies to accomplish this:

1. Among the faithful, he tries to get them to be careless about passing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the understanding of the importance of the temple to their children. Since everyone on earth is a descendant of persons who were endowed in the temple and who had power in the priesthood, it is plain to see that Satan had done very well in fostering this carelessness.
2. Satan has created false religions which do not have power in their priesthoods, and which do not demand the rigors of full righteousness. They are often comfortable religions, giving men a sense of well-being but shielding them from the true gospel and from the temple ordinances and thus shielding them from power in the priesthood.
3. Satan diverts people from the eternal tasks and gets them to bury themselves in some worldly pursuit: making money, gaining political power, being artistic, being scientific, being a slave to appetite and passion. What he does is to get people so involved in these things that the spiritual side of their lives is mostly neglected. This is the case of the seed falling on good ground, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches crowd out the good seed which would have otherwise borne good fruit.

A good example of Satan’s use of false religion is the salvation envisioned by Christians in the world today. They see salvation as not having to go to hell to pay for one’s sins and to be ushered into bliss for eternity. The point of being a Christian for them is to do some good in the world and trust that God will save you from hell and give you the beatific vision.

Latter-day Saints have quite a different version of salvation. We see salvation as consisting primarily in an overcoming of all of the character weaknesses in our own souls. With help of the Holy Spirit and the ordinances of the Gospel, we work steadily, day and night, to try to perfect our character until we have attained the fulness of the stature of Christ: His character. Having His character, we can do the works of righteousness, profit from the temple ordinances, gain power in the priesthood for time and thus be ready for eternity of work in priesthood assignment in the hereafter. Salvation to the ordinary Christian is forgiveness; salvation for us is total repentance, overcoming every sin and weakness until we are made perfect through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

And how shall we become perfect? By fully utilizing the gift of the temple ordinances. Have we been through the temple and received the endowment and sealing? Well and good. But the real question is, Has the temple been through us? Is our life changing so that we are in earnest pursuit of perfection, of actually coming to the fulness of the stature of Christ?

Let us ask ourselves some questions, the answers to which will reveal something about how much the temple has been through us as individuals:

1. Do we understand the overwhelming importance of power in the priesthood?
2. Do we understand how power in the priesthood relates to immortality, eternal life, and eternal lives?
3. Do we understand the three steps for receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood?
4. Do we understand the process of gaining power in the Melchizedek Priesthood once we have received all of that priesthood?
5. Do we know what the word “endowment” means, and where the real “endowment” is, the heart of the endowment ceremony?
6. Have we received the special blessings of the endowment or only the promises of it?
7. Do we understand and obey the law of obedience?
8. Do we understand and obey the law of sacrifice?
9. Do we understand and use daily and fully the law of the Gospel?
10. Do we understand and live the law of chastity in heart, might, mind and strength?
11. Do we understand consecration and are we actually consecrated (as different from being potentially consecrated)?
12. Do we understand and use the essence of the true order of prayer every time we pray?
13. Do we use the power of the priesthood every day to strengthen our family and to prosper the kingdom of God on the earth?
14. Do we see every sign, token, gesture and covenant in the temple as a representation of Jesus Christ and His life and mission?
15. Do we really believe that it is possible to become perfect in Christ, or do we excuse our sins and say that Christ cannot save us from ourselves?

What does the Lord want? He wants Zion. What is Zion? Zion is a people who are pure in heart, so pure that He can come and dwell personally with them. Zion is His pavilion, His dwelling place. When the pavilion is ready, He will come and dwell in it, and all who are in that Zion will see and know Him personally.

But to have Zion we must be righteous. To be that righteous we must receive and keep all of the laws of the Gospel and the temple covenants. If we keep the laws of the Gospel and our temple covenants, we will have power in the priesthood. If we have power in the priesthood, we can perfect our families and finish our preparations for Zion and for the Savior’s Second Coming.

Will the Provo Utah Oak Hills Stake soon become a Zion? We shall see. How could it be done? It could be done if a thousand people in this stake would study the temple ceremonies, pray for understanding and strength, work with all their heart, might, mind and strength to be faithful to Christ in keeping their covenants, and never let down. What this stake needs is a thousand Enochs, husbands and wives who see eye to eye in the things of God and who work together to fulfill their godly potential. Is this possible? Certainly. With man it is not possible, but through the power of God and the blessing of the temple, it is completely possible for us to become Enochs and for this stake to be Zion.

It is my prayer that each of us will look into his or her own soul, see what needs to be done, and do it. We serve a master who looked into His own soul each day of mortality and lived a perfect life in order that He might save us, to bring us to the same perfection He enjoys. This is our opportunity and calling in life, and nothing else really matters. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and all else will be added to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

19 June 2022, Hillcrest 6^th Ward

My daughter, Elizabeth, and I moved into this ward a little over three years ago. We are grateful to have been warmly received. My dear wife of 70 years passed away six years ago, and I hope to join her soon. While she was alive, we were blessed with thirteen children, filled four full-time missions, published ten books, served as temple ordinance workers for twenty years, and enjoyed filling many church callings. We are blessed with 42 grandchildren, 78 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great grandchildren.

One of my regrets is that I do not yet know the names of many of you. When I was teaching at BYU, I memorized the names of all my students each semester. That power has now faded; so please forgive me if I do not know your name.

I specially address my remarks today to one special group here: those who are 12 to 20 years old. The rest of you may also be interested, but it is the rising generation that I most wish to speak to because the cause of Christ in the earth will soon be in your hands. I hope and pray you will mightily further that cause, because it is this world’s only real hope for the future and each of you can play a significant role in that cause, especially mothers and fathers. Please remember that I speak by way of testimony. I will tell you what I know and believe. It is your task to hear me and accept only that to which the Holy Spirit tells you to accept.

When I graduated from BYU in 1947, I went to work for my father in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he operated the Yellow Cabs of Nevada and Riddle Scenic Tours, a sightseeing company that took people on limousine tours, principally of Death Valley and the Utah Parks. I found that I did not especially like that business, having to work most Sundays, so I decided to go to graduate school and study philosophy. I was admitted to Columbia University in New York City to enroll in the Fall Semester of 1949.

In the summer of 1949 I was assigned to drive a passenger in a limousine from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. The passenger turned out to be a member of the philosophy faculty at Columbia University. When I told him that I had been admitted to begin study in his department, my passenger invited me to call him that fall to arrange to have dinner at his home. So that fall I did call and was invited to dinner.

This professor’s residence was a lush apartment near Columbia University, for he was a very wealthy man, having inherited much from his business tycoon father. There were three of us at the dinner, the third person being another professor at Columbia. After dinner the two of them engaged in a lively discussion about the movement they were engaged in. This movement, they said, was to destroy the influence of Christianity throughout the world and to replace it with the philosophy of Humanism. They recounted the success the movement was having, and that soon all forms of Christian religion would be either captured or rendered useless. They talked of the success that Humanism was enjoying in taking over the universities, the public schools and the media, and they said they could see the time in the near future when their project would be a complete success. They emphasized that Christian morality was a real detriment to the enjoyment of life which all humans should experience. I did not enter into the conversation, and they largely ignored me. But they opened my eyes to what was and is going on in the world.

Humanism is the philosophy and religion that there is no God, that the smartest humans ought to reign over all the others, that so-called moral scruples are a detriment to mankind, that science gives the only reliable answers to questions. If you would like to know more about Humanism, look on the internet to find Humanist Manifestos Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Humanism is the philosophy behind both Communism and Fascism, for the far left and the far right meet each other as you go around the circle.

So there is an operating program to destroy morality, the family, the US Constitution, and to bring all mankind into slavery except for the elite who have power and govern things. This program is in nearly total control in China and Russia, and is gaining ground everywhere else, even in Utah.

But enough of the negative. The negative must exist for the work of Jesus Christ to be meaningful. That’s why there was a Fall of Adam, to give foil and chance to all mankind. Let us now recount and rejoice in the work of Jesus Christ to save all mankind.

First of all, let us be clear just what we need to be saved from. The work of Christ is not to save us from Humanism or any other persuasion. The work of Christ is to save us from ourselves, from the littleness, the selfishness, the worldliness that grasps at each of us. We need to be saved from ourselves so that we can reach our full potential. Being the literal children of the gods, our full potential is to become as the gods, to come to enjoy the full stature, nature and power that Jesus Christ has. Christ has been sent into this fallen world to make that growth possible.

So from the beginning, meaning from the Fall of Adam, mankind has had two basic choices: To become a disciple of Jesus Christ and become like Him, or yield to the temptations of Satan and become like Satan. Each of us has been granted the agency to choose either of these alternatives or to make our own personal mixture of the two. Satan is busy trying to hide the Gospel of Jesus Christ from mankind, but our Savior sees to it that every human sooner or later will hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have the opportunity to become as He is. Satan stands for selfishness and Christ stands for righteousness.

Selfishness is using others to feather one’s own nest. Righteousness is taking the feathers from our own nest to bless others. To actually bless someone else it is necessary to have both knowledge and power. We need knowledge to know what will actually help another person, then we need power to bring about that help to someone. Jesus Christ helps any person who wants to bless others to have the knowledge and power to actually bless other persons.

To help us in our desire to help others, Christ gives us commandments. The commandments are not arbitrary. Each commandment is there to help us in our quest to escape selfishness and to gain the power to bless others and is required by the nature of our social existence.

The basic commandments from Christ are known as the Ten Commandments. These ten are the things human beings must do and not do to live in a society where they can enjoy safety and prosperity. When a society exists where the majority of people honor these commandments, they enjoy peace and do prosper. The history of the United States of America is a testament to that prosperity. But now that the Ten Commandments are a hiss and a byword to many in our country and are under legal attack, this nation is in a downward spiral.

And only when a people first live the Ten Commandments can they enjoy and prosper under celestial law and principles. That is why Christ gave Moses the Ten Commandments after the children of Israel rejected the Celestial Law and the temple ordinances during their forty years in the wilderness after being freed from the Egyptians. The celestial law is the law that helps a human being to bless others, even unto blessing them the way Christ did and does. The celestial law is essentially embodied in the two great commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all of thy heart, with all thy might, mind and strength; and in the name of Jesus Christ thou shalt serve him. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self.” (D&C 59:5–6) To me, these are the most important verses in all of holy scripture.

Most importantly we must love God with all of our hearts. This means to want and treasure what He wants and treasures. He wants and treasures righteousness, which is blessing others. Blessing other is not giving them what we think will help them, but what He thinks will help them. Only as we treasure the guidance of the Holy Spirit can we be aware of what He thinks is good for someone. It is as his humble servants, not as self-appointed do-gooders that we actually make this world a better place. He would have us master kindness and real caring about others above the honors and acclamation of this world. He would have us care enough about those who do not know Him to serve difficult missions to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He would have us spend hour upon hour in genealogical searching and verifying personal data so that each departed soul may be given an opportunity to receive the freeing, saving ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ even though they are now in the spirit prison. He would have us seek out the poor in health, the poor in wealth, the poor in knowledge and in courage, and to minister to them as He would. The heart that loves God with all its power is a busy heart, scanning the horizon each day for those in need and hastening to their support. And if the ministering person has attained that greatest gift of God, a pure heart, then their service is exactly what Christ would do if He were there doing the actual ministering Himself.

If we love God with all of our might, we will take the treasures of the earth with which we have been blessed, and all the powers of skill and knowledge we possess, and all of the influence we have in the cause of relieving the suffering, misery and needs of those who have less might than we do. Our might also includes our power in the priesthood, which gives us greater opportunity to bless those in need. That power is not ours; it is the power of God. But if we have it and wield it to make this world a more habitable place or a less painful existence for those in need, we are using our might to love God.

To love God with all of our minds is to believe Him in everything He tells us, and to take the Holy Spirit for our guide, being unwilling to believe in anything unless that Spirit tells us to do so. We human beings actually know very little of ourselves, for most of what we think we know is just what we believe. So it is vitally important that we take the Holy Spirit for our guide as to what we believe: “And by the power of the Holy Spirit you may know the truth of all things.” (Moroni 10:5)

We live in an ocean of propaganda and half-truths. Unfortunately, both our professors and our politicians often feed us what they want us to think, rather than the way things really are. For instance, we are taught that organic evolution is a proven fact when in fact it is but a factually unsupported theory. We are taught critical race theory to assure the hatred of people of different skin colors for one another. The recent Covid epidemic has witnessed half-truths and suppressed truths mixed with real truths to thoroughly muddy the waters. Et cetera.

But if we love God with all of our mind, we will ponder his scriptures daily, pay close attention to the words of our prophets and leaders, and pray about what we should not believe. This is holding to the rod of iron as we wade through the mists of darkness, and only by holding fast to that rod can we find the tree of life. The mists of darkness are the lies and half-truths with which we are bombarded in our schools and media.

Finally, to love God with all our strength is to use our physical tabernacle to bring about Christ’s good in this world. This good can range from a neat and orderly home to a beautiful garden to painting and sculpture which increases faith in Christ. But the most important thing we do with our physical body is to have children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord, happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.” (Psalm 127:3–5). God’s work and glory is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39) and we get to partner with God in His great work by bringing children into this world, that they also may have the great opportunity each of us has to grow into the stature of Christ and become a blessing to many others.

Note that the scriptural order of these ways we may learn to love the Lord is heart, might, mind and strength, which is the order of importance. But the temple order is mind, heart, strength and might, which is the order in which they must be done.

All of this now brings us this Father’s Day to the Proclamation on the Family, given to the Church 23 September 1995, a most important statement by the General Authorities of the Church. It is an example of revelation which should be the rock upon which our faith in Christ is founded.

“We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” I understand that the reason for this is that God Himself is married and has children who are His principal concern. It is our privilege to be parents here as He and our Heavenly Mother are there, that we might demonstrate here that we are willing and able to be faithful parents in eternity by being faithful parents here.

Continuing the Proclamation: “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual pre-mortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” This tells us that we should treasure our gender and make the most of it, for gender is a gift from God. Satan and his world would have us question our gender and be dissatisfied with it so that we might not fulfill the purpose God has given us in mortality. But knowing that our gender and roles are an eternal gift from God makes a big difference. Satan is especially active in trying to get women not to be mothers or to have few children.

The Proclamation: “In the pre-mortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” Having a physical tabernacle made in the image of God makes it possible to be parents in mortality. To bear and nurture children in the Lord is the most godly thing any human can do, and is the perfect training and preparation for godhood.

The Proclamation: “The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.” The world would have you think that the earth is overpopulated. But that is not true. This earth could sustain two or three times its present number of inhabitants if only they would cooperate and not hate one another. And the physical union of a husband and wife is a beautiful thing to be cherished and protected, not to be counterfeited by the many ways the world would popularize.

The Proclamation: “We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and its importance in God’s eternal plan.” Each child is a gift from God. Those who hate God have no trouble killing their children or preventing them from coming. Millions and millions of aborted children are a blemish on the escutcheon of this nation, and this must and will be answered for.

The Proclamation: “Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord.” (Psalm 127:3) Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of god, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.” It does not matter what the occupation of husband and wife is: the most important thing they will do in this life is to nurture children in the Lord and raise up strong saints. Raising children in love is maximized only where husband and wife have conquered selfishness and have learned to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which means to have mastered the steps to be able to manifest the pure love of Christ as they deal with each other, their children, and their neighbors. This mastery is attained only by pursuing the covenant path laid down by Jesus Christ, the same path that He followed to the end.

The Proclamation: “The family is ordained of God, Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.” Each person on this earth is a child of God and has the potential to become a God. But each must choose and deliberately pursue the covenant path. There is no accidental exaltation nor is it possible to slide into the celestial kingdom on a parent’s coattails. That is because exaltation is a matter of character, and character can be built only by deliberate, personal choosing of right over wrong successively until one has finally eliminated the choosing of evil over good. Only then can one enjoy the powers of exaltation.

The Proclamation: “We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” Most non-believers dismiss the idea that they will ever have to account for and stand for their choices in mortality. But each and every human being will know from God that they are responsible to God for their choices and actions and will have the opportunity to repent before they meet that final judgment. At the final judgment, everyone judged will admit that God is fair and that their judgment is just. And morality is not just a nicety for eternity. As the prophets have warned, those who ignore and break the commandments of God give power to Satan and bring upon themselves and others calamities and suffering, both from nature and from other men.

The Proclamation: “We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen family as the fundamental unit of society.” One way you and I can measure the governing authorities over us is how they treat the family. Those who try to lessen and destroy the family are evil, and those who try to strengthen and protect the family in Christ’s pattern are good. That is a simple test we all can use to measure those who have governing authority.

The most important thing each of us can do to be good Latter-day Saints is to get and keep with us the gift of the Holy Ghost. President Nelson has warned us that the only way to survive these Latter Days is to have that gift with us and to use it. I make now some suggestions for getting and keeping the companionship of the Holy Spirit.

First and foremost: Listen to your conscience. Your conscience is the light of Christ within you and is given to every human in this world who gains normal intelligence. The role of conscience is to help us know the difference between good and evil. Some individuals are born with a strong conscience, others with weak ones. But the gift is precious, strong or weak. As we accept and abide the advice of our conscience, it grows stronger. As we reject the advice conscience gives us, it grows weaker. If we bash our conscience enough, it will eventually just go away, and we are left in the control of Satan. For there are only two directions to go: Further into the arms of Christ and his righteousness or to back into the arms of Satan and his selfishness. Most of us wallow back and forth, first turning to good, then turning to evil. The way of intelligence is to steadfastly seek only the good.

If you have a problem and lack wisdom as to what to do, take the problem to the Lord in humble prayer, even as Joseph Smith did in the Sacred Grove. If we are truly humble, we will get an answer from the Lord. Often the answer will come with blazing speed, coming even before the prayer is finished. We have been told by the prophet Joseph Smith that nine times out of ten, the first flash of answer we receive is the correct one, from the Holy Spirit. Then the challenge is to act on that prompting without delay. We learn by sad experience that often we have known what we should do but were either lazy or timid about doing it, later to see our folly and to bask in remorse for not having seized the moment to do what we knew we should do.

Another clue as to how to receive the Holy Spirit is to pause and listen during a prayer. Let the prayer become a conversation, undertaken as a little child on our part. The Lord has told us that He loves to answer prayers: “Then shall you call upon me, and find me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:12–13).

In fact, the best way is to have a prayer in our hearts at all times, our daily experience being a constant conversation with the Lord.

And let us not neglect reading the Holy Scriptures, which includes the Standard Works and the Conference Reports. The greatest value of the scriptures in my experience is that reading them humbly and thoughtfully becomes an occasion for revelation as the Holy Spirit reveals special messages to us, some of them related to what we are reading and some of them totally unrelated to what we are reading. But each message from the Holy Spirit will bring us either greater understanding, which is seeing how things are related, or direction as to something we should do, or both.

One clue for dealing with temptation: When we are tempted to think an evil thought or if we come upon pornography, we get one chance to reject it and be unscathed. But if we delay and either look a second time at the pornography or savor the temptation, it grasps us and we lose the Holy Spirit. So, never give evil a second chance, for if we do, it takes possession of us and Satan gains power over us.

But after all is said and done, the main way to get inspiration from the Holy Spirit is to hunger and thirst after righteousness, seeking ways to bless our fellow beings. “Blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.” (3 Nephi 12:6)

To make a long story short, to obey the Holy Spirit in the “right now” is the best way to have more of it.

I conclude by bearing to you my testimony. I have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives. I know that righteous prayers are answered. I know there is power in the priesthood in this Church for I have seen it perform miracles and have used it to give real blessings. I know by the testimony of the Holy Spirit that we are presided over by mean of God, and especially that President Russell M. Nelson is truly appointed to preside in this Church by Jesus Christ. I believe that any one of you can gain a rock-founded testimony of the truth in this Latter-day work and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by following the covenant path, not just receiving the ordinances, but then doing the service and righteousness that we undertake in accepting the covenant path.

May I commend to you a regular study of the Book of Mormon. Reading it every day will bless your life, for it is the most correct book under heaven and the keystone of the religion of the Latter-day Saints. One marvelous thing about pondering the passages of the Book of Mormon is that that thinking provides a unique opportunity for further revelation. As we heed that additional revelation, it becomes an extension of the covenant path which leads to power in the priesthood and to exaltation itself.

It is my hope and prayer that everyone here today will gain and live by an unshakable testimony that God lives, that Jesus is the Messiah who will soon return in glory, and that blessing our fellow-men under His direction is what the work of Christ is all about. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.