Chauncey C. Riddle
21 June 1962
ADDRESS TO SEMINARY AND INSTITUTE FACULTY
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, PROVO, UTAH
One important truth known to Latter-day Saints is the idea that man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge. That is to say, no man attains the special supernatural blessings bestowed by the Lord upon the faithful except as he learns and then implements the formula upon which the receiving of a given blessing is predicated. The attainment of true ideas as keys to success in spiritual matters is then a challenge and an opportunity which faces each of God’s children.
But it is notable that the majority of the peoples of the earth and even a significant portion of the members of the LDS Church find their lives devoid of the special blessings and rewards promised to the followers of the Savior. Probably these persons have not been blessed because they lack the knowledge—the formulas, the true ideas—as to how to qualify for those blessings. Not that they lack teachers. The world and the Church abound with persons eager to lead others. But upon observing that those leading and those led generally fall into the ditch, a wise man will want to know by what means he can gain for himself a sure knowledge of the correct formula for spiritual success. It is our purpose to examine how we might as individuals solve our religious problems to attain true and effective ideas, thereby to reap the joy of the saints.
It is important to begin by defining the word “knowledge,” and the best method would be to portray the way the Lord himself uses the term in speaking to us. We note in the scriptures that the Lord uses the term “know” in situations of direct observation of the object known—as in Doctrine and Covenants 93:1, wherein the Lord promises the faithful that eventually they all will see his face and know that he is, suggesting that now they do not, even though they might have had ever so powerful a witness from the Holy Spirit. Upon receiving the Spirit, we know that we have had a spiritual manifestation, but the message conveyed by the Spirit itself may not strictly be said to be known to be true. Through the Spirit, then, we learn true ideas, but we know these ideas to be true only after we have subjected them to the tests of application and experience,
This distinction between knowledge and having true ideas is no mere play on words or idle philosophic nicety. It is, rather, fundamental to our spiritual success. For the essence of success in spiritual matters is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But faith is not to have a perfect knowledge or to know of a surety at first. Rather is faith a trust in the true ideas vouchsafed to us by the divine power of the Spirit.
Having received true ideas from the Holy Spirit, by acting upon them we come to know by direct experience that these beliefs are true. Belief is the basis of faith.
But belief is not only the basis of faith in God, but of all human action. When an engineer designs a bridge, does he act on belief or knowledge? Obviously he acts on both. He knows that certain kinds of structures have accomplished their intended function in the past. But he cannot know that if he duplicates that type of structure for his present problem that it will succeed. That he knows only after the bridge is built and has successfully withstood the test of experience. Thus he uses known formulas in a way he believes and hopes will be successful.
We may observe that we mortals never know the future. We know the past but do not act and make decisions in the past. We act and decide in the pre sent for the sake of a future we believe in, believing and hoping that the ideas we have will work. Life is thus really a series of trial-and-error attempts to find ideas which work. But we are limited in our knowledge to the past and must act on belief for the present and future.
These commonplaces of everyday life lead us to a conclusion which is rather uncommon, however, and which cuts deeply into the ingrained prejudice of our proud and scientific age. This conclusion is the idea that what a man believes is really more important than what he knows, for the basis of all human action is belief rather than knowledge. There are many other arguments to support this conclusion which make the case overwhelming if one is not already convinced. If one is not convinced, he should examine those additional evidences. This is important because of the widely-touted false notion that when a man acts on the basis of science, he knows what he is doing, whereas in religious matters he acts only on faith. This insidious bit of intellectual hypocrisy needs to be exposed and the mind of every intelligent person disabused of it. Let us again re-emphasize: the basis of all human action is a hope that the intellectual tools we believe in will enable us to anticipate the future correctly and to be able to accomplish the fulfillment of our desires.
What then are the possible sources of ideas worthy of our belief, sources which will give us with reasonable assurance ideas that we will later come to know to be true? We will examine the principal contestants for the honor of being the best source of true beliefs.
1. Tradition: Most men get their beliefs from other men. Historically we note that almost overwhelmingly tradition, and especially religious tradition, has had the practical result of fettering men rather than of freeing them to be spiritually successful. It is hard enough to have to depend on our own minds and motives, let alone to depend upon the limitations of other men. Let us exclude tradition as a final test of truth, simply because we want to know for ourselves. We will certainly not exclude all ideas from other men. We may find their ideas to be very useful hypotheses; but we will want to test those ideas for ourselves.
2. Reason: The mind of man is a powerful tool, but it has certain limitations. It can only reason when supplied with premises, and those premises control the conclusion. Since the initial premises can never be attained by the use of reason, the conclusions, though in accord with the premises, are just as unreasoned as the premises, even though we congratulate ourselves for having become psychologically aware through logical deduction of what we really started with in the premises. He who thinks that reason is the test of true ideas is forever trapped by his premises, or, to put it more bluntly, by his prejudices. If a thing doesn’t seem reasonable to him and he therefore rejects it, he is simply manifesting contentment with whatever values the accidental vagaries of his youth instilled in him. To make a long story short, reason is a good test to detect certain kinds of errors, and for this reason ought to be vigorously employed at all times. But reason is never a sufficient test of truth, and therefore cannot be a basis for achieving a spiritually successful life. Note the sentiments of President McKay expressed in the 1961 semi-annual conference: “He who walks by the light of his own reason walks as by starlight, rejecting the brightness of the sun.”
3, Science: Science has become a bandwagon in modern times. In ancient times the failure of the apostate religions of the world stimulated the rise of philosophy, and in particular rationalism, or the supposition that human reason is a sufficient test of truth. Because of its obvious superiority over the ancient apostate religions, philosophy became a bandwagon to which all would-be-successful intellectualists flocked. As the panacea for all human ills, philosophy became, in the eyes of most people, the source of salvation. It is no accident that apostate Christianity turned to philosophy and produced the magnificent spectacle of the insufficiency of human reason which we call scholasticism.
The gradual realization of the limitations of pure reason forced men to look again at reality and to combine experience and experiment with reason, thus creating modern science. Because of the obvious superiority of science over scholasticism, science has become the current bandwagon and thus the modern cure-all, the modern supposed source of human salvation, to which the present would-be “intellectuals” flock. But powerful and good as it is, science can never be a panacea. Science can never make any but probable statements about the future. It is limited to a description of what exists in the physical world and can never tell men what they ought to become. To run a society by making scientists the leaders is to inflict with the full might of scientific technology the non-scientific prejudices of those scientists upon the whole population. To act and make decisions, these scientists must use not only the scientific evidence they have of the past, but they will decide on the additional basis of what they believe about the future and on what they think will be good for the future. But remember: No statement of what is good can be justified scientifically. Science is at its best in highly-controlled manufactured opportunities; it is at its worst when it hypocritically tries to make so-called “objective” statements about what men ought to do. Clearly, for the problems of our personal or community lives, science can never provide the answers.
4. Imagination: If we reject tradition, reason, and science as bases of true ideas for successful human life, what have we left? In and of themselves, men have left only one way of attaining ideas: imagination. Men capitalize upon this opportunity by creating all kinds and varieties of theologies and proffer them to their fellowmen as “truth.” Because of the hunger most people have for truth, a new idea will almost always have takers, no matter how absurd or ridiculous the idea might be. Once accepted, such ideas begin to acquire the weight of tradition, and as the theology is worked out, to become “reasonable.” From this source has come the vast and almost amusing (were it not pathetic) array of religious sects, all having at least a grain of truth, but none leading to the fulness of human happiness. Thus the Lord said of them, that they have imagined up to themselves gods of their own making in the image of the world. When these monstrosities of fancy are believed by only a single individual, he is called mentally unbalanced. When the same sort of monstrosity is believed by many, it is called a theology.
Thus we have completed the gamut of the human resources for attaining true ideas by which to become extraordinarily successful in attaining human happiness. We must conclude that human resources fail, because we see that each has large and glaring weaknesses, making it impossible for any or all of them to satisfy man’s need for true ideas. If there is a way to joy and happiness, it must come from a non-natural source.
Let us suppose, for a moment, that there is a god in heaven who is the literal father of all men, who loves each of his children, who sees and knows all, is perfect, and able to guide his children, to give them true ideas so that their righteous purposes will not fail. Is it not plain that if human beings are to be successful spiritually, to attain true happiness, that some such possibility must be available? What a delight and a comfort it is to have the assurance that our supposition is not an empty hypothesis, but is a functional reality, awaiting only our acceptance. For there is a solution for and a salvation from all human problems. But sure knowledge of the solution to every human problem, secular or religious, can come, if from anywhere, from one unique source: personal revelation from a super-human being who knows what we should do and is pleased to share those ideas with us.
Thus it is that those who are Latter-day Saints have the greatest potential source of true ideas known to or imagined by man. If they will qualify for it, through the Holy Spirit they can come to know of the unseen spiritual realities that fill the universe; of the past and its significance for our present situation; of the future and the great potential every child of God has. Besides these true ideas, we can gain direction that will enable us to make correct decisions at every juncture of our lives, for we are promised that this constant companion, when honored, will show us “all things that we should do.” Indeed, we are told that there is no mystery in heaven or earth which will not be made known to us if we will qualify. Having access to such divine omniscience, sharing through the power of the Priesthood in an operative omnipotence, being transformed in mind and body under the tender enticement of Godly benevolence, is there any height of happiness, or joy, or blessing to which a human being could not aspire, even a fulness?
This then is the genius of the Latter-day Saint religion: personal divine revelation is the potential answer to all of our collective and individual problems. But unfortunately, few there be who successfully seek this pearl of great price, even within the Church. If any sizeable group of Latter-day Saints were to begin to live by this Spirit, the results would be so remarkable that the world would quickly acknowledge, if not accept.
If then this is the genius of our religion, should not each individual make it his first order of business to seek after the Spirit? Should not those who teach humble themselves in mighty prayer and obtain the personal daily and momentary guidance of the Spirit in all they say or do? Should it not be the first and foremost objective of every teacher of the Gospel to bring those whom he instructs to a personal, functional living by the Spirit in their everyday lives? Then would Zion be a reality in this dispensation as it has been in many ages past.
Like any other successful act, obtaining the guidance of the Spirit necessitates using true ideas. These ideas are not complex, but are the simple grand message of Peter: if we believe in Jesus Christ and His atonement, if we will truly repent of our sins and take the covenant of baptism at the hands of authorized administrators, we shall receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. There is a simple experiment. Any person who will try it can know for himself of the truth of this pattern.
But what about those who are already members of the Church and lack the Spirit? If the Spirit is not operative in our lives, it is because we have failed somewhere in the above formula. Perhaps we are unwilling to believe in the message about Jesus Christ. Perhaps we have some sins we enjoy and therefore have not repented. Perhaps we break the covenant of baptism by being ashamed to bear the name of Christ, or by deliberately rejecting some commandment, or by not remembering him always. Perhaps we have been misled and we have put our trust in tradition, or reason, or science, or imagination, and have thereby excluded the Spirit. Whatever the fault is, there will be one way to find out what it is. When our conscience pricks us on a certain point, that’s where we need to go to work.
In fact, it is my opinion that the conscience of a Latter-day Saint is continuous with the still small voice of the Spirit. No matter how we rationalize, if we have a spark of righteousness left in us, we know when and what our conscience says. If we will live by the voice of our conscience, it will become the indispensable key to every prospect of success in our lives and will someday lead us to hear words, “Well done, thou true and faithful servant.”
Brethren and sisters, let us be in the world but not be of it. To not be of the world is to humble ourselves as little children before our Savior and to be willing to be led by Him through the voices of the Spirit in all things. Then we will have those true ideas which will enable us to know the joy of the Saints and to enter into the rest of the Lord. May this be our happy lot I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.