Mission Moments

Some Insights

We all have challenges of all sorts, but seldom do we experience this:

Few gave to the cause of missionary work as did Brigham Young.  His description of coming to Kirtland Ohio, after serving a mission for about a year is a tender account of the sacrifice he had made for this work.  He said, “When we arrived in Kirtland in September of 1833, if any man that did gather with the Saints was poorer than I was, it was because He had nothing.  I had two children to take care of and that was all.  I was a widower.

(I said to myself) Bro. Brigham do you have any shoes?  No, I had not a shoe to my foot, except a pair of borrowed boots.  I had no winter clothing except a homemade coat that I had for three or four years.  Any pantaloons?  (tight fitting trousers that fasten at the instep of the foot).  No.  What did you do?  I borrowed a pair of trousers to wear until I could get another pair.

I had traveled and preached and given away every dollar of my property.  I was worth a little property when I had started to preach.  I had worked and preached till I had nothing (left) with which to gather.  But Brother Joseph said, ‘Come up!’  So I went up the best I could.” (Deseret News, semi-weekly, March 9^th 1867, page 2).

Can Common Ground Be Sacred Ground? (By BYU Professor Joseph Fielding McConkie, Fifty Truths, page 117

“The single greatest heresy in missionary work is the idea that we seek common (religious) ground with those we teach.  Any time a missionary tells an investigator that we share common (religious) ground, he or she has testified against the need for the Restoration.  Joseph and Hyrum Smith did not die in Carthage Jail to assure that we could believe in the same things everyone else already believed.

There are (many, many) different Christian denominations.  When I have asked how I am to find a sure path amid such confusion I have always been told

by (other religious leaders) that though various Christian churches disagreed on matters of lesser importance they were all united on the basic and important doctrines.  (It was) here they shared common ground. 

This response raises at least two important questions:  First, what are the lesser or optional commandments that Christ gave?  And second, what principles of the gospel are negotiable?  Furthermore, one might ask if there are really principles upon which all the (different) denominations agree.

It is not enough for these churches to say, ‘Well, we all believe in the Bible.  The question is, what in the Bible do they believe?  Do they all believe in the necessity of baptism?  And if not, are they all united in the rejection of this ordinance God required of His Only Begotten Son?  Yet another question steps forward which also demands an answer.  What if their common ground unites them on principles that are false?

For instance, what if they all ascribe to the creeds of men?  This forces on us certain beliefs that cannot be sustained by the Bible.  In like manner, what of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity or the idea that the heavens are sealed, that all revelation that God intended man to have has been given and nothing can be added to it?

If these things are numbered among the common ground doctrines, then how are we to know it?  We have no acceptable scriptural text to sustain them and we have robbed God of a voice whereby He can reject them.

In a revelation given to those of our day for the purpose of responding to the kind of difficulties just noted, the Lord said:

‘But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye would do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men and others of devils.’ (D&C 46:7)

If ever there was a doctrine born of confusion and mischief it is the doctrine of common ground.  Where the truths of salvation are concerned there is no neutrality.  The Lord told his missionaries, ‘Ye are not sent forth to be taught, but to teach the children of men the things which I have put unto your hands by the power of my Spirit;

And ye are to be taught from on high.  Sanctify yourselves and ye shall be endowed with power, that ye may give even as I have spoken.  (D&C 43:15-16)

Our divine directive is to be in the world but not of it.  The greatest heresy in missionary work is the concept that we want to be just like everyone else.  We do not answer questions about our faith by making it appear that we are just like others.  Ours is not a common ground, it is sacred ground.  It is where the heavens open and the God of heaven speaks.”