Answers (Part Two)

 

AMAZING ANSWERS (Part Two)

 

(By Joseph Fielding McConkie, from his book, 50 Truths).  (Emphasis & parenthesis added, except in the case of scripture references).

 

Does knowing require doing?  (page 157)

 

6. Some years ago I developed an interest in running.  I shared my interest with a fellow faculty member whose office was right next to mine.  He was the best-read person I ever met on the subject of running.  My commitments were such that I had little time to read much about the subject, but I did get out and run regularly.  To my knowledge, my friend never ran a step in his life.  I ran, he read a couple more books.  Which one of us, do you think, knew the most about running?
 

 

If we liken this illustration to knowing about God, we ask who knows the most about Him, the vocal proponent or the disciple who acts as He would act, believes as He believes and does as He would do?  Is the knowledge that saves academic or experiential?
 

 

I do not mean to suggest that there is no advantage to be gained by thoughtful  scripture study; however, such study takes on appreciably greater value when sustained with a concerted effort to make the principles being taught in the scriptures an active part of your life…
 

 

It has often been observed that the Lord could devise a more effective way to do missionary work than to send out teenage missionaries.  It that were true, the Lord would do it.  The making of a missionary is the working of a miracle, and it works in the same way on senior missionaries as it does on young men and women, if the senior missionaries will work as hard and be as obedient as their junior counterparts.
 

 

There is no better evidence of the truthfulness of the gospel than the way it changes the lives of both missionaries and those they teach.  That those who accept the gospel have their lives changed by it is (self-evident).  That it changes the lives of the missionaries so that in the process of missionary work they work out their own salvation is one of the distinctive revelations of the Restoration,
 

 one which no other Church on the face of the earth can match.  It is a great, sustaining witness that the message they bear is true.
 

The reading of scripture alone does not change lives, but living the principles found in the scriptures does.  It is for this reason that we are a lay Church and are constantly called upon to serve.
 

 

Who can speak in the name of the Lord?  (page 163)
 

 

7. No one by birth or by choice has the right to speak in the name of the President of the United States or the governor of the state in which they reside.  Such offices as president or governor must be properly conferred upon you.  In like manner, no one has the right to act for and in behalf of God without being called.  If God wants a particular person to act in his name, he must both call him or her and also announce that call to all the world…
 

In a related warning we are told:

“61. Wherefore, let all men beware how they take my name in their lips—

62. For behold, verily I say, that many there be who are under this condemnation, who use the name of the Lord, and use it in vain, having not authority.”  (D&C 63:61-62)
 

In the Church and kingdom of God there will be no paid ministry.  There will be no competing for offices or positions.  There will be calls made for people to serve for a time and season and there will be releases given after an appropriate period of service.  People will be asked to serve in capacities that they would rather not and to sacrifice their time and talents.
 

In the true Church, this will be the expected norm.  You do not choose the congregation that you meet with nor the time of the meetings.  You simply serve as you are called to serve. To preach the Gospel in the name of Christ without being properly called to do so is to take the Lord’s name in vain.
 

What is the plan of happiness?  (page 165)
 

8. Lehi, in one of the finest expressions of the plan of salvation ever given, said, “Adam fell that men might be and men are, that they might have joy.”
 

(2^nd Nephi 2:25) (Or, as Bruce C. Hafen of the 70 said, “Adam fell that men might be {mortal} and men are {mortal} that they might have joy.”)
 

This is to say that the earth was created for men (meaning humankind) and that Adam partook of the forbidden fruit so that Eve could find fulfillment as a woman in motherhood, and that, in the family unit, they, as parents, could find meaning and purpose in life.
 

Mother Eve proved herself equally articulate when she said: “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed and never should have known good and evil and the joy of our redemption and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.” (Moses 5:11)
 

Interestingly, the word “plan” is not found in the Bible.  However, phrases like “plan of redemption” and “plan of happiness” are found thirty-one times in the revelations of the Restoration…
 

This is the plan of happiness.  The plan calls for creation and eternal preservation of the family unit.  This plan will always be sustained by principles of righteousness, persuasion, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness and love unfeigned. (D&C 121:36, 41).
 

By contrast, that which comes from the prince of darkness will exercise control, dominion, or compulsion over the souls of men in unrighteousness. (D&C 121:37)  The plan of salvation is not in flux.  God is the “same yesterday, today and forever.”  (D&C 20:12)  Perfect faith could not be exercised in any other being.  Latter-day Saints alone lay claim to such a God.
 

Why did God create and people the earth?  (page 169)
 

9. All scripture is not of equal worth; all ordinances are not of equal importance.  For example, baptism is more important than blessing a child and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is more important than being set apart for an office or position.  We have ordinances of blessing and ordinances of salvation.  The most important single thing that any member of this Church does in this life is to marry the right person, in the right place, by the right authority.
 

The composite of all saving ordinances is known as the new and everlasting covenant. (New to us because it was restored from the past and everlasting because it is an eternal blessing).  The same phrase is used to describe eternal marriage because all other ordinances lead to it.  The earth was created so that a man and a woman could be married.  (D&C 49:16-17)
 

This is certainly one of the most distinctive doctrines of the Restoration.  It is ironically one of the most often criticized and often borrowed of the doctrines.  It is a doctrine of the heart and simply bears witness of itself.
 

Time is one of the great measures of our commitment to that which is eternal.  If a young man came to a young woman and said, “I love you for two months’ worth,” she probably wouldn’t have much interest in his proposal unless her interest in him was as limited as his interest in her.
 

Years ago when I was in the military, (as a chaplain) a young lady, to whom I was a home teacher married a fellow outside the Church.  Their plan was to get around to eternal marriage later.  Unfortunately, he fell asleep while driving on their honeymoon and had his life taken.
 

Some months later, she married again and (unbelievably) again her newly wedded spouse fell asleep while driving and lost his life.  There is a degree of judgment and sense that those getting married must bring to the altar with them.
 

On one occasion I stood for hours in an evacuation hospital on the battlefields of Vietnam while skilled surgeons sought to save a young soldier’s life.  The last thing he said to me before he underwent anesthesia was, “I wish I had married my wife in the temple.”
 

It is for us to choose what we take with us into the life to come, but our choices are limited.  We take our character, what we believe and what we do not believe, our faith and we take the composite of what we have become.  We take the promises of the covenants that have been made to us if we have kept those promises and we take the curses of covenants unkept.  We take what we are.
 

We take with us the love we have for our spouse and children.  This love will continue to grow in the hereafter as it has here.  It is our greatest treasure and like all treasures, it must be guarded and protected.  To have failed to marry in the temple is to have joined with far too many who were too busy to do as God asked and instead placed their own agendas in precedence to the plan of happiness.
 

We offer no more perfect evidence of the purpose, goodness and truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ than the new and everlasting covenant.  No other principle gives more meaning and purpose to life than marriage.  (Despite the teachings of the world)
 

Nothing could be further from the mind of God than to have a man and woman love and serve each other for the course of a lifetime only to take this sacred relationship from them in death.
 

What becomes of those who die as children?  (page 173)
 

10. There is not a single sentence in either the Old or New Testaments that gives answer to the question as to what becomes of the child who dies without arriving at the age of accountability.  All such children leave this life without having ever had the ability to accept or reject Christ.  This absence of commentary is a perfect illustration that plain and precious things have been taken from the sacred writ and that the plan of salvation does not and cannot rest with those who cannot give an adequate answer to such a question.
 

The principles involved were first revealed in the Book of Mormon.  Mormon received a revelation on the matter, in which he was told that Christ came into the world to call sinners, not those who were whole, to repentance.  The curse of Adam does not rest on little children because Satan has no power over those who are incapable of sin.  Thus God declared that it is “solemn mockery” to baptize little children (Moroni 8:8-9)…
 

Joseph Smith taught, “The Lord takes many away even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil & we shall soon have them again. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith {TPJS}, 196-197)
 

The principle here involved presents a perfect expression of justice.  Those who will be blessed to receive the gospel in the spirit world must comply with the same principles as they would have complied with in the flesh.  They must, in the language of Peter, “be judged according to men in the flesh.” (Peter 4:6)
 

From the vision of the celestial kingdom we learn that in order for such individuals to be saved, they must die without having had the opportunity to accept the gospel in this life.   God must judge that if they had the opportunity come to them they would have acted on it and God must also judge that they would have done so with all their hearts.  (D&C 137:7-9)… A God who, with the aid of loving parents, creates a child without the interest and power to save that child, is no god at all.
 

What is the veil of stupidity?  (page 177)
 

11. Joseph Smith spoke of a “veil of stupidity” that covers the minds of men.  (TPJS, 13)  This veil is brought on by disobedience or refusal to stand in the light and results in the shabbiest thinking which is reserved for principles that are eternal.  It always seemed a strange thing to me that people reserved their worst thinking for religion.
 

A glance at an obituary often makes this point.  There we read announcements about the blessings that are to be enjoyed by the deceased which are generally at complete odds with the theology of the church in which they professed membership.  It is of particular interest that no punishment for failure to keep any standard or commandment is to be read.  Obituaries simply do not carry such things.  Here the family gets to sit in judgment on its members.
 

A God, we read, who they believed is not a personal being and who is described in their chosen creed as without body, parts, or passions, will embrace them.  They will join with loved ones in a family unit, one that their faith denies and looks down on and (yet will) bless loved ones throughout all future times of trial.  Somehow, these people are able to lay claim to all of this without ascribing to any particular standard, making God and the gospel simply a scare tactic but not something that you would take very seriously.
 

It is not a small God with puny ideas and negotiable standards that we worship.