1 Wonder If Sometimes Our People Think...

I wonder if sometimes our people think when they hear each speaker ask for divine guidance that it has come to be just a habit. If you were asked to occupy this position, you would know that that is not the case. For that guidance I humbly pray. ¶

I should like to follow the example of being brief which was set yesterday by President Joseph Fielding Smith. I think he demonstrated the truth of the statement that for a speech to be immortal it does not need to be everlasting. ¶

It is not surprising that Elder LeGrand Richards and I should be thinking along similar lines, because both of us have had missionary experience, and whenever a missionary stands before a congregation of Saints, if there is one single individual present who is not a member of the Church, the missionary will talk to him and ignore all the rest. I should like to follow his lead, if I may, and address what I have to say to you out there, our other brothers and sisters who are not members of the Church, and I think it is not presumptuous to think there are thousands of you listening in. ¶

Since our last April conference, reporters, editors, commentators, and others at home and abroad have given considerable time and space to the Church and its activities. As has been intimated, this results partly at least from the tour of the choir, the dedication of the Swiss and Los Angeles temples, and the announcement of other temples to be built. We appreciate the uniform friendliness and general accuracy of these reports and comments. ¶

They have ranged from learned discussions of various phases of the gospel to such brief and inaccurate generalizations as that, "To be a Mormon simply means that one does not drink tea or coffee or use tobacco or liquor." ¶

Now, we do accept and try to live the Word of Wisdom, a law of health, first because the Lord thought enough of it to give a revelation on it and also because for a hundred years we have proved its worth. But there are other things we would like our friends to know about the Church, and so for a few moments I would like to discuss some phases of Mormonism which are not so generally known. ¶

Because of limitation of time and of the speaker, any attempted exposition will be inadequate and incomplete. I should like first, however, to say to you that the conduct of a typical member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, or Mormon, is influenced not so much by prohibitions, inhibitions, or Church discipline as by his own inner convictions regarding the essential dignity and possible glory of the individual, the meaning of life, man's origin, purpose, and possible destiny. ¶

Mormonism is not just a code of ethics; it is not merely a set of inhibitive injunctions; it is not just a theoretical system of doctrine and philosophy. It is rather a way of life, based upon a concept of God as our Eternal Father, and of man, created in the bodily image of God, a son of God, who has all of the obligations, opportunities, and potentials of heirship. The Mormon concept of Deity with its accompanying concept of man's potential Godlike status, should cause believers to resist the down drag of habits and indulgences which are inimical to or would impede or delay man's progress towards his goal. ¶

Perhaps you would like to take a quick look at Mormonism through the eyes of a non-member of the Church who has taken time to study it. I have the author's permission to read some paragraphs from a pamphlet recently published by the department of humanities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the general caption "The Sociology of Mormonism." These studies were made and written by Dr. ¶

Thomas F. O'Dea, who has a distinguished academic career at Harvard, at Stanford, and at M.I.T. These writings show careful study, keen analysis, and an enviable facility of expression. ¶

I shall read some excerpts: ¶

Of the many churches founded in the regions south of the Great Lakes in the first half of the nineteenth century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Mormon Church alone avoided the stagnant back-waters of sectarianism. The need to start over again four times in sixteen years contributed to flexibility and avoided sectarian atmosphere and culture. ¶

And again he says, In 1847 the Mormons, harassed and persecuted, dispossessed of all but faith, leadership and a superb organization, crossed the plains and settled in the Utah desert. * * * The Mormon leadership deliberately chose an unattractive region to gain the necessary respite that isolation would give, and resisted the seductions of more pleasant prospects. ¶

And then speaking of our Americanism, he said: ¶

Their American patriotism is an Article of Faith with them. * * * The development of a nationhood was inhibited by American patriotic convictions on the part of the Latter-day Saints themselves. Mormonism sees America as a chosen land and holds that the second coming of Christ will be to this continent. America is a divinely-preferred country and the previous periods of history were preparatory for the Mormon restoration. Thus the Mormons, while exalting America and exulting in it, could at the same time feel called out of Babylon to build the city of God. * * * The Mormons are pre-eminently practical and are the typical American religious movement. As such Mormonism presents a heightening, a more explicit formulation and summation of the American experience of time and of America's timeliness. ¶

The Mormon Church defines itself as a restoration in the latter days of the original gospel of Jesus Christ, which had been corrupted and lost in part for the past fifteen centuries. Its restoration is conceived in terms of Christian history. * * * It is a new interpretation of Christianity itself. A unique prophet and a unique and timely moment as well as a uniquely appropriate place are part of this conception. Mormonism holds itself to have been revealed in the fullness of time — a fullness of time which involves the destiny of the Western Hemisphere and the American nation. The discovery of America and the development of the political institutions of the United States are seen as prepared by divine guidance for the restoration which was to be made through the agency of the original prophet, Joseph Smith. ¶

Within this larger framework the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has its own history, a record of wandering and persecution, of construction and conquest over hostile elements coming to fruition in the building of Zion in the mountain tops. ¶

• • • Mormonism lived its Exodus and Chronicles not once but many times. It had its Moses and its Joshua. Circumstances had given it a stage upon which its reenactment of Biblical history was neither farce nor symbolic pageant.

Yes, our history has been in part a reenactment of biblical history, but what is more important, our doctrine is a reaffirmation of biblical truth. We believe in the God of the Old Testament — Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We believe that that Divine Personage became Jesus the Christ of the New Testament, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. ¶

We emphasize "all mankind" and "obedience" because the gospel and its saving ordinances are to be made available to the living on this earth, and to the living elsewhere, with obedience as prerequisite to blessings. ¶

For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. ¶

(I Peter 4:6.) Believing as we do in the great vicarious service of the Master which is the very foundation of Christianity, we undertake to do for our dead, what they cannot do for themselves, and therefore we build these temples which you, our friends, have seen and of which you have heard. ¶

We believe in a pre-existent state where we exercised free agency, where there were individual differences, where life was purposeful and progressive, and where man in his original state existed as intelligence. ¶

After referring to "the inestimable contributions to the settlement of the West and the planting there of a viable and vital American civilization," Dr. O'Dea says: "How remarkably familiar are the basic elements of the Mormon gospel, how remarkably like the general apprehension of America by other Americans when it sheds its theological poignancy." ¶

He refers to Mormon theology as A distillation of what is peculiarly American in America and that by incorporating the goals of the present world into a vision of eternal progression the Church succeeded in annihilating for its followers the line of demarcation between time and eternity in quite a new way. ¶

For Mormonism the world is uncreated and God and men are winning mastery over other uncreated elements. God has become a demiurge once again * * * which means one who works on existing material, a craftsman. ¶

All that is, is in process, and it is a process that is marked by two main characteristics: It is becoming increasingly more complex, and intelligent beings, God and men, are collaboratively gaining increasing mastery over it. Man's life on earth is seen as one of an infinity of episodes characterized by increasing development and mastery of the other elements of nature. This concept of God's purpose and method respecting man's existence was clearly stated by the late Dr. John A. Widtsoe, himself a great scholar and a profound student of the gospel, The law of progression is then a law of endless development of all the powers of man in the midst of a universe, becoming increasingly more complex. No more hopeful principle can be incorporated into a philosophy of life. (A Rational Theology.) The Lord revealed in the 93rd Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verse 29, Man was also in the beginning with God. ¶

Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. ¶

• • • For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy; . . .

On this point Dr. Widtsoe wrote as follows: ¶

In the beginning, which transcends our understanding, God undoubtedly exercised his will vigorously and thus gained great experience of the forces lying about him. ¶

As knowledge grew into greater knowledge by the persistent efforts of the will, his recognition of universal laws became greater until he obtained at last a conquest over the universe which to our finite understanding seems absolutely complete. ¶

We proclaim the scriptural and inspiring doctrine that man should look up and not down for his source, for he is of divine lineage; that man is innocent at birth, which is the antithesis of the ball and chain doctrine of original sin and innate wickedness. ¶

Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God. (D & C 93:38.) Man faces a vista of limitless development, eternal progression, if he will cooperate in winning mastery over himself and the universe. We believe that man's earth life was made possible by Adam's role in a foreordained plan which included the provision for man to come face to face with both good and evil and, under the eternal law of free agency, elect good or evil without compulsion, knowing however that under the immutable law of the harvest he must abide the consequences of his choice, must reap as he sows. Free agency is prerequisite to any characterbuilding plan, and while with free agency any plan is inevitably crammed with risk, we, with all the sons of God, accepted that risk and shouted for joy at the prospect of earth life. The Lord said to Job, Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? . . . ¶

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? ¶

(Job 38:4, 7.) If God is in fact our Father, then we, Father and children, belong to the same society of eternal intelligences. Among them he is supreme, he is the most advanced, most powerful, and most intelligent. ¶

Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abra« ham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones. . . . ¶

I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all. (Abraham 3:22, 19.) When we say man may become like our Father, we do not mean to humanize God, but rather to deify man — not as he now is but as he may become. ¶

The difference between us is indescribably great, but it is one of degree rather than of kind. ¶

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, . . . (John 1:12.) To the Latter-day Saints salvation or being saved does not imply a sudden transformation or metamorphosis into something entirely unlike one's nature nor can it be achieved by mere mental assent or sudden conversion. It is rather a continuing process of becoming or unfolding pursuant to law and divine plan, of bringing one's life into harmony with eternal and inexorable law. ¶

We believe that in his infinite and eternal development toward a Godlike status, man moves toward and through a turnstile called death; that there is no interruption of life at this portal, for eternity is indefinitely prolonged time. ¶

We believe that man, after passing through this turnstile, will continue his eternal journey from the point where his actions in this life have brought him. ¶

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection." (D & C 130:18.) To deny the possibility of eternal progression is to accept the awful alternative of eventual stagnation which would be damnation. ¶

We believe that being saved involves education, that man cannot be saved in ignorance any more than he can be saved in sin, for as the glory of God is intelligence, or light and truth, so the degree of our intelligence will be the measure of our glory. Neither the ignorant nor the sinner would be comfortable or at home in heaven. This concept glorifies intelligence as well as righteousness. But let us not confuse mere knowledge with intelligence. The knowledge of which we speak must seek enlightenment and be applied with wisdom. The knowledge that will save us is not mere know-how, certainly not cunning or mental agility or sagacity; it is not just erudition. The wise man may not be learned, and the learned are not always wise. The intelligence which is the glory of God is all knowledge (and knowledge is power) applied with supreme wisdom and total righteousness. ¶

Time will not permit a further discussion of our teachings with respect to some of the things that Dr. O'Dea has mentioned. Suffice it to say that Mormonism, among other things, is an eternal quest for knowledge which is power, for truth which is joyous because it makes us free, for intelligence, which is the glory of God, and for the righteousness which will enable us to feel at home in his holy presence. ¶

God help us to live worthily and to go forward fearlessly in our search for truth, I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶