Of Artificial Intelligence and Scripture

 

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

One of the latest artificial plans of those who apparently despair of human intelligence is to create new “scripture” via artificial intelligence.  The goal is to have a computer create text of a new Bible for a contrived religion intended to unite mankind.

This would not be the first time that someone has tried to counterfeit the things of God.  It will surely not be the last time.  Like all previous efforts, it will likewise fail, but not likely escape imitation, and succeed more in dividing than uniting people.

Even if all the best computers with all the linguistic input available were employed, the most that might be produced would be a product of the world, no more than worldly scripture.  That would fall as far short of heaven as did the ancient tower of Babel, both mere displays of the hubris of those who consider their own intelligence so great that they can ascend to the place of God.  Neither effort could ever rise beyond the world.

AI scripture—and the humans behind it—misses the whole point about scripture, divine scripture.  The source of true scripture is the living God.  Messages from heaven are intended to establish communion with heaven.  We surely need such communion, today more than ever.  God is eager to engage in meaningful interaction with any person who sincerely seeks it.

Replacing the reach to God with electronically derived impulses, however, is a short circuit.  Nothing worldly can create heavenly communion; nothing worldly can transcend the world.  God our Father, however, steadily reaches out from heaven.  He has made communication simple, through faith and prayer, prayer that He answers.  The examples of successful communication, ancient and modern, are abundant, accessed by all races and all ages.  This I have known since my mother taught me.

Perhaps someone might suggest a contest:  let AI masters produce some “scripture,” and a prophet of God produce some scripture; then in a secret, “blind test,” see whether anyone can discern the difference.  Again, that would be a failed exercise.  Divine scripture is just the opposite of secret.  It is plentifully provided from God through prophets He has chosen and acknowledged, His word presented to the world openly.  Its value has ever been available for divine affirmation through many spiritual trials and manifestations applied by those who in faith receive it.  There is nothing artificial or contrived about heavenly scripture and the connection it yields with the God of heaven.

The ostensible purpose of an AI Bible, to write a scriptural text that all can accept, has it all backwards.  How can a worldly creation do that?  AI scripture could not escape a worldly focus, a focus of which there is no earthly example of uniting mankind.  Mao tried it with his little red book, which after nearly destroying his people even he and his successors abandoned.  Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini gave it their best efforts, with more than a hundred million people united in death.

The point is not to change scripture but rather to embrace it.  The purpose of holy scripture is to guide people to a change of life, from a worldly focus to a heavenly focus, becoming the kind of people whom God can accept and receive into joy.

To do that, the Father of us all sent down from heaven His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to show us how.  The Son offered to each the power to make that personal change, based upon the love of God and of all mankind.  No computer program can match it.

Of Christmas and Faith in Miracles

The events associated with the birth of the Savior occurred in a miraculous time during an age of miracles.  It was also an era of grinding poverty, breathtaking opulence, and many gradations of wealth in between.  People were ignorant, well educated, parochial in vision, and metropolitan in view.  Religious beliefs involved spurious superstitions, animistic traditions, polytheistic practices, monotheistic faith, and sophisticated atheism.

That is to say that those times and ours have more in common than we might have supposed, which is the point of my writing this evening.  Perhaps we create too much distance between us and the birth of the Savior.  Measured in human lives, 2000 years is a long time.  In the eternal measures of God and heaven, it must be acknowledged as being brief, a matter of yesterday and common memory.

That being true, it would be odd to assume that God, whose miracles were on prominent display in Judea of long ago, would work by miracles yesterday and not do so today.  The lack of belief in either one logically undermines faith in the other, because it assumes limits on either God’s ability or His willingness to work by miracles, a possibility hard for the mind to accept.  The disbelief in either ancient or modern miracles inclines the mind to reject God’s miraculous interventions entirely. 

For some it can be much easier to believe in miracles of the past than to recognize modern ones.  Others may be willing to see God’s hand in their own lives but consider the ancient scriptural accounts as morality stories, the details of which should not be taken too literally.  We find examples of both among our contemporaries and throughout history.    

Of course, among the sophisticated set have always been those who doubted miracles of both past and present.  With no recognition of personal involvement in miracles, they reject the word of those who actually witnessed them.  They are quick to dismiss others’ experiences, with nice attitudes of condescension for the “lovely legends” and “faith traditions,” that must be taken figuratively if accepted at all.  When those who know assert the reality of the wonders, the sophisticates can be known to turn to anger and scorn.

And yet reality can be stubborn and defy rejection.  Angels delivering messages from God to priests in the Temple and to shepherds in the fields, God speaking to common men by dreams, signs from God to men in distant places motivating them to “traverse afar” to witness God’s works of salvation, and many other examples of heaven’s direct involvement in human affairs can be easier to dismiss if they only happened in hazy history.  When presented with facts of past and present miracles skeptics are hard put to know how to deal with them, other than to dismiss them out of hand and cast ignorant aspersions on those claiming any direct and tangible involvement with Divinity.  Nevertheless, the facts remain.

It works the other way, too.  Denying modern miracles makes it easier to deny their existence long ago and to convert them into lovely stories instead of real world evidences of the power and love of God and of His involvement in our lives.  If there are no miracles now, then they were unlikely to exist in the past.  The miracles attendant to the Savior’s birth are transformed into fabulous fabrications rather than marvelous signs of the reality of the birth of the Son of God.  The reality of modern miracles, however, attests to the reality of the miracles recorded in ancient scripture.

Admittedly, with rare exceptions, miracles are not for the edification of the faithless anyway.  The Lord usually provides room for disbelief for those who choose to disbelieve and for their own sake spares the doubtful from divine confirmation of what they doubt.  The Lord did not send angels to invite the leaders of society to the stable in Bethlehem, but instead He called out to those who readily accepted His invitation to witness the baby laid to rest in the cattle’s manger.  He did send signs, and through the signs a summons, to the believing wise men of the East who had faith that this child was to be the King of Kings.

Similarly, in modern times, to prepare the way for the approach of the Savior’s second coming, the Lord has reached out through angels, heavenly messengers, and by His own voice to the humble faithful who are ready to believe His word, confirming their belief with many and miraculous signs and wonders.

It is a lot easier to believe in the wonders of the Savior’s birth when we witness and receive their like in our own day.  Our unchangeable God works by similar methods with all of His children.  And the saints of all ages rejoice.

Of Wars and Rumors of Wars

The Lord Jesus Christ declared the hearing of wars and rumors of wars to be significant among the signs of the latter days preceding His personal return to the earth in glory, to rule and reign.  This from Matthew, in the New Testament:

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars . . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:  and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.  (Matthew 24:6, 7)

This from Mark:

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled . . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:  and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles . . .  (Mark 13:7, 8)

And this from the Lord through a modern prophet:

And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion . . .  (Doctrine and Covenants 45:26)

As well as I can recall, I have always thought—from my young childhood—that I was living in the latter days, shortly before the return of the Savior to the earth.  I cannot remember a time when I did not suspect that to be true.  Perhaps many in many ages have had similar thoughts. 

My study of the scriptures, ancient and modern, and the words of the prophets, dead and living, matched against what I have witnessed in my life have confirmed my belief that the day of the return of Jesus Christ, to live and dwell among men as the resurrected Lord, is near.  I do not predict precisely how near.  It may not happen in my lifetime.  The Lord said that the Father has not confided the precise day even to the angels of heaven (Matthew 24:36).  But if I do not live to see that day, I do not expect that the Savior’s return will occur long after I die, in which case I hope to come with Him together with many who lived and died faithful to the testimony of Christ.

Until recently I had considered these prophecies of wars and disasters to be a sign of something new.  Yet wars of men and convulsions of the earth are found throughout the annals of history.  Perhaps the prophecies refer to an increase in frequency and intensity.  Maybe that is so.  Looking back on the recent twentieth century it is hard to find a year without war raging one place or another, and I cannot identify another century in which so many tens of millions were destroyed at the hands of their brothers and sisters.  The Middle Ages and on into the Renaissance, if not many other ages, were also racked with constant conflict and mayhem.  Their numerous wars seemed interminable, including a Thirty Years War and even a Hundred Years War.

I have come to suspect that in reading these prophecies I misdirected my focus.  For something to be a sign, it must be new or different.  What was the Lord saying here that would be different, different enough so that we might notice?  Perhaps it was not the wars and physical upheavals themselves, as those have been with us since man and woman left Eden.  What is very much new and different about today is our ability to hear of the wars, rumors of wars, and the natural disasters. The evils of men and the destruction of nature may be increasing in frequency—and the case for intensity of human mayhem is not tough to make—but what really is new is our ability to hear of them. 

Nothing in the entire history of the world can compare with the very recent ability of mankind, anywhere and everywhere, to hear of what is happening anywhere at any time on the planet.  That is especially true of “rumors.”  Internet communications, and the many evolving formats of social media, make the spreading of rumor—always known to travel on wings—electrifyingly quick and amazingly ubiquitous.  Every day we do hear of wars and rumors of wars and the whole world in commotion.  It is hard to avoid.

As the dashed expectations held by many at the time of the Savior’s mortal ministry blinded them to the reality of the fulfillment of prophecy, holding too tightly to one’s opinion of how prophecy might be fulfilled is a risky business.  The Lord expects us, however, to think about it, else why would He make the prophecies and repeat them?  I offer these thoughts for pondering, even while we observe the mighty work of God unfold in our own lifetime, as He told the prophets it would.  

What have you heard today?

Of the Meaning of Life and the Purpose of Love

Does life have meaning?  If so, what is that meaning?  The answer, to be valid, must discover meaning for lives lived 70 years and longer as well as those lived for 70 minutes or fewer.  That is to say, that it must reveal meaning for all members of the family of Adam and Eve.  I have to admit that I cannot fathom an answer that life offers meaning only for some people but not for others, that the others are just stage props for those fortunate humans for whom life really matters.

I would also posit that in order for life to have meaning for man, then man’s existence cannot end with the end of mortality, that life must have an eternal character for there to be meaning to it.  Temporary meaning is no meaning in the end.  If there is an end, then in the end what does it matter?

I will add that, if there is eternal existence, that whispers to me a strong intuition of the existence of God, the existence of a being who has it all figured out, who has used eternity well.  I do not offer this point as a proof at this moment, but rather as a likelihood.  There are other proofs that I know and could offer for the existence of God, for God has not hidden Himself from His children who want to know Him.  He sent us here to find out which of His children really want to know Him:  that is one of the purposes of this life, closely related to the central purpose of life.  The process of coming to know God is an individual work that necessitates the personal development of what is also God’s defining characteristic.  That development involves the process of living in this life on earth.

That is to say that one way of describing the central purpose and meaning of life is this:  for each individual to develop an ever greater capacity to love.  That may sound sentimental and trite, but it is nonetheless true.  Good fiction draws its vitality from important themes of reality.  J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series climaxes with the discovery that the most powerful “magic” in the world is love, belittled and scorned by the arch villain of the series even as he is destroyed by its strength. 

Love, particularly the love of God, is the central theme of scripture.  The scriptures taken altogether are an unfolding exposition of God’s love operating among His children and either embraced or rejected by them.  The scriptures describe the deepest and most complete form of love as charity, “the pure love of Christ” (Moroni 7:47), the greatest of all the gifts of God (see 1 Corinthians 13:13). 

Elsewhere the scriptures name “eternal life” as “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).  This is not a contradiction, as eternal life and charity are coincidental.  To possess one is to possess the other.  Consider these passages of scripture together.  The first is how God describes His work, what He does, which must therefore be very closely related to His meaning, His purpose:

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39)

The second is how the ancient Israelite prophet Lehi described man’s purpose to his family:

men are that they might have joy. (2 Nephi 2:25)

This means that immortality, eternal life, and joy are all connected.  Jesus taught that they are united in the personal development of the divine trait of love.  During the Savior’s preaching in Jerusalem in the last week of His mortality, the legalistic Pharisees sought to trip the Savior up with a question that to them must have been a real poser, undoubtedly a favorite debate topic:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Conceptually this is just another way to introduce our topic about the meaning of life, for surely the commandments of God and the meaning of life are closely related, God’s commandments designed to lead His children through a life of meaning and fulfillment.  The answer of Christ, who before His birth had given the commandments to the prophets, silenced for a time His tempters; at least, no rejoinder is mentioned in the record, perhaps because Jesus was referencing what He had given in the laws He revealed to Moses (see Deuteronomy 6:4,5, and Leviticus 19:18).

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  (Matthew 22:36-40)

All the rest of the gospel is elaboration of these two commandments.  That is the purpose of life, to develop charity, the pure love of Christ, the complete soul-filled love of God, which manifests itself in loving our neighbors as ourselves.  How do we do that?  As Jesus said, that is the purpose of the law and the prophets.  “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

As the ancient American prophet Mormon taught,

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified as he is pure.  Amen. (Moroni 7:48)

Mormon’s people nearly all rejected his counsel and descended into a hatred that devoured their civilization in pointless dissolution.

Life has meaning because it has choices with real consequences.  We feel and see and live them everyday.  Amidst the easy-to-see evils of the world, there are plenty who choose to do good, to love their fellows and increase in their love of God.  There are and have been those who live life to its fullest, growing in the greatest of all gifts and the mightiest of all powers by being true followers of Jesus Christ, increasing in the love by which they become like Him and by which they will know Him. 

Beloved, let us love one another:  for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.  (1 John 4:7,8)

Let us love, that when at last we see God, as we all will, we will recognize Him, because we will have become like Him in the most meaningful way.

Of Jesus Christ and Revolutionary Doctrines

There are several key doctrines of the gospel of Christ revolutionary to the general world.  I do not include the existence of God, since belief in God is as old as human thought.  The first man and woman believed in God, and that belief has continued—with much variation—among their children to our present day.  Belief in God is not exceptional.  It comes easily to the human mind.  Disbelief seems to be more artificial.

Without an attempt to list the revolutionary doctrines of Christ by order of importance, I nevertheless will begin with the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and in His divinity He walked among mankind for some 34 years.  Through word and deed Jesus proclaimed His relationship to the Father.  That being true, and it is, all non-Christian religions are human inventions, however well-meaning they might be.  Christ being a God, what He said was true, what He taught was true, what He did had divine approval and purpose.  There is peril of the highest order in disregarding any of that.

Next I would turn to the revolutionary import of the resurrection, beginning with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Savior’s resurrection was as sure as His death.  Jesus made significant effort to demonstrate the physical nature of the resurrection.  When He appeared to His disciples in their shut up room on the evening of that first new day He had them touch the wounds in His hands and feet and the wound in His side inflicted by the executioners to make certain of His death, assuring the disciples that, “a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39)  When the disciples for joy yet doubted their own senses, Jesus emphasized the reality by eating some broiled fish and honeycomb to demonstrate the tangible nature of it all (Luke 24:41-43).  The disciples even felt His breath on them (see John 20:22).  In the Americas, shortly afterwards, thousands more beheld the resurrected Christ and personally felt the wounds of His execution (see 3 Nephi 11). 

In this mortal world, death is as common as birth.  The resurrection, already begun, will become as common as death, and will overcome death, making death as temporary as mortal life.  Hence the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that, because of the resurrection, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”  (1 Corinthians 15:54)  That very physical resurrection rescues from oblivion all done in this very physical world, endowing it all with lasting meaning, nothing of value lost.

The fact that we each and all existed before we were born, in another sphere and in the presence of God, our Father, is another revolutionary doctrine of Christ.  Jesus taught that His Father was also our Father, the literal Father of our spirits.  On the morning of His resurrection, Jesus commanded Mary Magdalene to tell His disciples, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father” (John 20:17).  The Apostle Paul, who taught that we should obey “the Father of spirits, and live” (Hebrews 12:9), wrote to the Romans, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16, 17). 

As His spirit children, we lived in the presence of our Eternal Father before this creation.  The earth was purposely made for us, designed for our growth and development in our brief mortality.  Not only did Christ’s resurrection preserve meaning and purpose for this mortal existence, but that purpose preceded the beginning of mortality.  Among the many consequences of that revolutionary truth is the reality that all members of the human race are more than figuratively brothers and sisters.  The children born to mortal parents existed before their birth, and they come from the same eternal home as did their parents.  There is a deep-rooted respect that is due in both directions between parent and child.

In that context it is appropriate to recognize the revolutionary import of the Christian doctrine of the eternal nature of the marriage relationship.  If we come from an eternal family that was formed before the earth was, then it becomes natural to recognize that life’s closest relationship, between husband and wife, is not a temporary arrangement.  Love is the highest virtue of the highest heaven.  Love finds its deepest manifestation in the marriage union.  God, who preserves all good things, could not mean for that relationship to end with death.  As Christ paved the way for us to live on through the eternities, so He prepared the way for a loving marriage to last forever for those who desire it enough.

Perhaps on another day I will more than touch upon other Christian doctrines that revolutionize the world and human relations.  Among these would be the opportunity to talk with God and receive direct, personal revelation; the ability to change human nature, for better or for worse; the reality of individual freedom, such that God is not responsible for our personal decisions, we own them; and the continuing, unfinished canon of divine scripture, from ancient time into the modern era (scriptures were always revealed in a modern era to those who first received them).

These revolutionary doctrines of Christ are eternal, connecting us to an eternal universe, which makes them revolutionary to a mortal world where endings seem to prevail.  They are rejuvenating to mind and spirit.  When Christ taught them to the people of the ancient Americas, He declared that “all things have become new.” (3 Nephi 12:47)  They make things new today.

Of Predictions and Prophecies

Two dangers to which members of our society—and perhaps members of many another society—have been prone is the eagerness to know the future, and dismay and disillusionment when the reality of the future does not play out as expected.  That makes predictors of the future in high demand and always at risk.

Experience also teaches us that most predictors of the future do not know what they are talking about and are highly susceptible to failure.  That probably explains why the oracles of history and modernity are sphinx-like in their pronouncements, offering up vague prognostications whose insightful value can only be appreciated after the ensuing events occur and are appropriately explained—or explained away.

In modern times our most prolific prognosticators are sports-wizards who tell you before the season begins and as it evolves who will be the champions and who the losers.  Not far behind are the political experts who make a living pronouncing who will win in the next elections, hoping greatly that their predictions will take the energy out of the doomed candidates and make the prophecy self-fulfilling.  Also high on the list in recent decades are the economic gurus who predict with assurance and precision everything from jobless numbers to economic growth to interest rates.

Some of these last are actually becoming reliable after a sort in terms of how consistently wrong they are.  An oft-cited economist from Standard and Poors comes to mind, who you can now generally count on getting his jobless predictions backwards.  I am reminded of Raymond F. DeVoe, Jr., who generously remarked that, “Economists use decimals in their forecasts to show that they have a sense of humor.” (Raymond F. DeVoe, Jr., The DeVoe Report, February 7, 1996)  Economists love to produce charts with erratic lines displaying the recorded past and smooth lines presenting their forecasts.  These are helpful in that you can be sure that the future will look nothing like the lines of predicted future performance.  It would be wise to keep in mind the observation of Alex Pollock concerning the recent recession, “Among the many losses imposed by the bubble is a well-deserved loss of credibility on the part of central bankers and economists.” (Alex Pollock, “2007 Bust:  How Could They Not Have Known?”, Real Clear Markets, September 21, 2011)

All of this is not to say that it is impossible to predict the future.  There are certain trends that can be predicted within tolerable levels of probability, such as that flooding the money supply will usually produce inflation, that you get less of what you tax (be that income, jobs, investment, or healthcare, for example), or that the Yankees will before long win another World Series.

Aside from acting upon reasonable probabilities based upon experience, good data, and rational analysis, it is safe to say that man cannot reliably predict the future.  We can learn from history, because although history never repeats itself it can teach us lessons.  In the world of human action there is nothing new that is wholly new.  All of this, however, is in the realm of managing risks and probabilities, something that we all have to do every day just in order to act.  Nevertheless, while we expect certain things to happen, none of us on our own can know what will happen.

God can and does know.  He sees it all, and He is never surprised.  God’s omniscience is not limited by time or place.  Moreover, our loving and generous Father shares or withholds from us knowledge of the future, depending upon our need.  God has shared with me enough glimpses of the future to help me prepare and be prepared for when the events arrived.  Yet many is the difficult experience of life that I am glad to have had and learned and grown from, looking at the experience in the past, that I am not sure that I could have mustered the courage to face had I known with any clarity that it was coming.  God withholds from most of us knowledge of our manner of death, all the while equipping us with the knowledge that we need in order to live well.

There is much that God does want us to know about the future, our individual future as well as mankind’s future, to aid us in our daily living, to give purpose and direction to daily activities that might otherwise seem pointless or even hopeless, or to elicit from us extra efforts and undiscovered talents.  From the beginning of time our Father has sent to us prophets, fellow humans like ourselves, to whom He has revealed prophecies important to His children.  The prophet Isaiah brought comfort to Ahaz, the king of Judah, when his land was invaded.  He prophesied that the invasion would fail and to encourage him offered the sign of the coming of the Messiah and His miraculous virgin birth (see Isaiah 7:14-16).

Amos was another such prophet, who declared, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)  That is why Jesus Christ has sent us new apostles and prophets in our day, to inspire, counsel, comfort, uplift, and in many ways aid us by divine guidance in the difficult times in which people always live, we no less than God’s children in the past.

We need, however, to keep in mind the point that while God’s prophecies are reliable and never fail our loving Father is careful to tell us what we need while withholding what were better that we not yet know.  That can leave room for misinterpreting God’s prophecies and assigning to them meanings and dressing them up with interpretations not included by God in the vision.  When the prophecy is fulfilled in ways that vary from our own predictions and expectations it is not the prophecy of God that has failed but rather our own unwarranted assumptions.

Throughout ancient scriptures there were many prophecies of Christ’s mortal ministry as well as of His triumphal second coming.  Many have confused the two, and such confusion led more than some to reject the Messiah when He walked among them in the land of Judea and Galilee.  Jesus Christ fulfilled all that was prophesied for thousands of years about His mortal ministry, including His sacrifice and death.  Yet many—but not all—eyes and ears were closed to Jesus because He did not fulfill mistaken expectations and traditions.  A similar pattern is playing out today as the hour approaches for the Savior’s return.

Inasmuch as God sees all, there is much that He sees and knows that He could not possibly explain to men bounded by the extent of their own experiences.  How would God explain to an ancient people some of the most common of daily happenings in our technological world?  And certainly we are as far removed from the realities of heavenly experience as the ancients were from our daily 21^st century experience.  That is to say that God’s prophecies can be fulfilled in ways far beyond human expectation or even imaginings prior to their fulfillment. 

When I was a missionary in 1979, I knew of the prophecy that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be preached to all nations, and I firmly believed it.  Yet I did not have the slightest clue as to how missionaries would ever be allowed beyond the Iron Curtain.  Little did I know that in less than a decade those barriers would come down peacefully and that the Soviet Union itself would cease to exist.  Knowing of the prophecy allowed many to prepare.  That preparation did not require knowledge of how God would work upon the nations to bring about His purposes.

I thank God for His ancient and modern prophets, and for the prophecies He has shared and continues to reveal, great and small, glorious and helpful.  As the prophecies unfold, my plan is to adjust my expectations to the unfolding reality of God’s work and take comfort in knowing that all will be fulfilled as God continues to reveal to those who will listen everything that they will need to know.

Of What I Believed and What I Found

Until the day that I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ I had not affirmatively adhered to any of the various creeds of the denominations of Christendom, none of them in particular, but I have always had faith in God and Christ.  My parents, acting upon the best knowledge and light that they possessed at the time, had me baptized when but a few days old into the Lutheran church (I think that it was the Missouri Synod, but I am not sure of that).  I was quite short of sin at the time of my infant baptism, a claim that I confess I could not make when I approached the waters of baptism on my own volition later in my youth. 

Also upon the initiative of my parents, and without any resistance on my part, I was a regular and active attendee at the protestant churches my parents attended.  I sang in youth choirs, and I tried to pay attention to the weekly sermons.  Often I would sit by myself on the front row, right in front of the minister’s podium, and watch him go page by page through his text.  I regularly attended Sunday School and was involved in the lessons.  It was at one such Sunday School where as a little lad I was taught by the Sunday School teacher, my mother, to build my house upon a rock.

In my childhood I grew up in suburban communities, richly endowed with a wide variety of Christian churches and sects, and when as a youth we moved to western New York I became acquainted with still others.  My experience was that people chose their protestant church in accordance with what suited them as to location, music, oratorical powers of the minister, the fellowship of the members, the physical facilities of the local building, worship customs and practices, meeting hours, and a variety of other factors.  Whether one denomination was “true” in comparison with another was not a question that I recall ever being raised.  The general attitude that I could discern was that each and all of the denominations were recognized as possessing no more or less truth of consequence as any other.

I do not remember a beginning to my faith in Christ or my assurance of the presence of God.  I recall them as much as I can recall anything from my earliest memories of my earliest thoughts.  What I was taught in my childhood reinforced that faith.  Indeed, if the churches taught anything, it was to have faith in God and in Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, I thought of more.  More than occasionally I pondered why the churches of the day were so different from the Church of Christ as described in the New Testament.  None of them was even close in resemblance.  I imagined that it would have been marvelous to live in the days when Apostles of Jesus Christ walked among men and when the gifts of the Spirit were abundant.  I also pondered, even as a child, the situation of people in China and elsewhere who had little knowledge of Christ and no access to His saving ordinances.  The churches offered no solution to the problem of these people other than to try to reach them by missionaries as much as possible.  But what was the fate of those who missed out in the meantime?  I never heard the question asked or an answer offered.

I was also taught by my mother to pray.  Prayer was a part of my daily routine.  I had a deep reverence for the Holy Bible, a copy being one of the first books I ever “bought” (by redeeming a book of green stamps).  The churches I attended taught from the Bible, particularly recounting the stories.  As I got older, I sensed, however, a hint of embarrassment on the part of minister and teacher about relying upon the Bible too literally.  We were not encouraged to bring a copy with us to church or class.

All of that changed after my mother invited the Latter-day Saint missionaries to come by and tell us something about their church.  She really had my brother in mind, since at the time he was wrestling with all of the distractions of young manhood.  She felt that they might do him some good.  When the missionaries arrived, I was home and he was not.  I listened and learned.

What the Latter-day Saint missionaries unfolded to me was the ancient Church of Christ in its fullness, all restored on earth today.  Once more living Apostles walked among men, with all the same gifts and powers of the Spirit manifested as they were nearly 2,000 years before.  The scriptures came alive, the Holy Bible resumed its place as a standard reference for daily living and communion with God, its messages and miracles embraced into real life rather than mere moral tales of antique lore.  As they did anciently, the living prophets and Apostles were revealing more from God, guidance directly relevant to our current and modern conditions, all fully in harmony with what God had always said.

One example I learned and had until then never been taught was news of the work to spread the message and redemption of Christ to all people, wherever and whenever they lived.  As the Bible taught and as modern prophets taught, those who left this life without access to the gospel of Christ would hear that message in the world of spirits, where they lived and waited for the day of resurrection to come when the Savior returned to the earth, as He promised.  None were to be left out, all to have as full a chance to receive God and Christ as would any other.

Echoing what I had always believed, the Latter-day Saints proclaimed that Jesus Christ was the Savior of all the world and of all mankind, His religion not just a faith for a segment of the population in one part of the world.  Together with the Holy Bible of the ancient east The Book of Mormon was a testimony from the ancient west that salvation is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone, proclaimed by two societies of antiquity separated by an ocean but united in the same witness from God of the divinity of His Son.

To these ancient testimonies of Christ were added the modern testimonies of men and women who knew.  The Latter-day Saints gained through their faith personal knowledge born of personal revelation of the Savior Jesus Christ.  Through prayer and many personal unimpeachable experiences their faith had grown to solid assurance.

To their witness I add my own, gained in the same way.  Building upon my own faith in Christ, exercising the familiarity with personal prayer taught me by my mother, I acquired just as the saints of old days and modern times a deep personal knowledge and assurance that God is real, that Jesus Christ is resurrected and the Savior of all, and that His Church is on the earth again possessing and manifesting all that it had anciently.

I found the true and living Church of the true and living God.  The interaction has made my life richer and better, deeper and full of value.  Since and from that discovery I have been gaining every good thing.

Of Life and the Church of Christ

This past Sunday I was reminded, as I am often reminded, of one of the distinguishing features of the church of Jesus Christ:  it is alive.  That characteristic powerfully impressed me from my first attendance at a meeting of the church, when I was thirteen.  No more than 100 members, gathered in the rented second floor of a Grange Hall in a western New York village, hymns sung accompanied by a volunteer pianist on a beat up honky-tonk piano, sermons provided from the rank and file of the membership, Sunday School taught in a kitchen and class members sitting on a few folding chairs arranged around the cooking stove—all was alive and vibrant.  That same spiritual life was present when as a missionary in Spain we met with fewer than a dozen people in a swept-out garage.  And it was present when I joined thousands in a meeting at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City for the church’s annual June youth conference.  I have found it wherever I have gathered with the members of Christ’s church. 

In each and every case, the building contributed more or less to comfort but had little to do with the sense of the church being alive.  In my childhood I had been a frequent attendee at the meetings of Protestant churches in pleasant and neat but not ostentatious surroundings, and I have since visited some of the most magnificent cathedrals of the world.  But I sensed something palpably different and alive, noticeable even to a young teenager, when I first set foot in Christ’s church, and each time since. 

I conclude that the life comes from Jesus Christ, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, flowing through those gathered in His name at His call.  It is as the Savior promised to His saints, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)  The Savior explained to the Sadducees anciently, who had the form of worship without its life, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32)  The things I had been taught from the scriptures, revered as dead relics in an old museum in the other churches I had known, came to life in the church of Christ.

Unable to articulate precisely what he was seeking—other than the truth—the fourteen-year old Joseph Smith learned from God Himself in 1820 what was missing in the churches of his day, what held Joseph back from joining with any of them even after persistent earnest inquiries.  Said the Lord to Joseph, in answer to his simple prayer, “they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” (Joseph Smith History, verse 19)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, just as the church of Christ of the saints in ancient days, is full of life, it is all about life and the overcoming of death.  Its victory over death is not just a promise for the future, beyond this world of mortality.  It brings life from the eternal worlds and extends it among men and women today, in this world where temporary things would otherwise seem to prevail. 

The Church reveres the prophets and apostles of antiquity and treasures their testimony, but it is led—as Christ’s living church always has been—by living apostles and prophets who receive direct revelation pertinent to conditions and needs in our day.  Along with the prophets come scriptures, as we write down the inspired words of the apostles and prophets.  With roots firmly planted in the ancient scriptures of the Holy Bible and The Book of Mormon, the tree of revelation has not withered or died but continues growing in Christ’s modern church, providing divine guidance to a world that never needed it more.

There are no crucifixes to be found in the modern church of Christ, not because the Church does not recognize the infinite atonement of the Savior, but because that atonement was fulfilled by the resurrection, the rising of the living Christ from the tomb, conquering mortality.  It is toward the living Christ that the saints of God focus their attention, not to the instrument of His torture and very real but very temporary death.

All of the ordinances and sacraments of Christ’s church are founded on Christ’s promise, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (Matthew 10:10)  In baptism, the new Christian rises up out of the water to newness of life, and the gift of the Holy Ghost is bestowed by the laying on of hands to bring about a spiritual rebirth, in both cases death overcome.   The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, celebrated each Sunday in the church, points to Christ’s defeat of sin and death, and His victory over mortality.  Christ emphasized this when as the risen Messiah He presented the sacramental bread to the ancient Americans with the commandment to partake of the bread, “in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you” (3 Nephi 18:7), his very real and immortal, resurrected body as much as His body that was torn and killed on the cross. 

The highest ordinance that God offers to His children is marriage for time and eternity, whereby man and woman are united in a family to last forever, without end.  In those families, children are welcome and encouraged and seen as the glory of their parents. Genealogical records are sought out and preserved, as the promise of life and family connections extends forever back and continues forever onward.  No one is to be forgotten, because the promise of eternal life extends to all. 

Death is very real, but in the church of Jesus Christ death is no mystery, through Christ it has lost its sting.   After all, mortality is the exception in a universe where the eternity of life prevails. 

Of Resolutions and Getting Past Frustration

Not to discourage you from making New Year’s resolutions, but how are your 2012 resolutions coming?  Are you still on track?  Given up on them?  Thinking about it?  They can drive you nuts.

The problem is not so much with making resolutions at the start of the year.  Psychologically, a new beginning that is tied to a new beginning of the calendar can be a good motivator, particularly to get started.  Neither is there a problem with choosing to change something or do something for the better.  Given a minute or less, every honest person can identify a habit in need of change or a practice in need of adoption.  The problem is usually not even that the aim is too high, the goal too unrealistic, the resolution too ambitious. 

If anything, the real problem is that the resolution is too narrow, too small, too unimportant, particularly if taken without a greater context.  Each of us should be self aware enough to recognize plenty of material to work with to create a depressingly long “needs improvement” list.  The question of where to begin—if we persist—may soon be overwhelmed by the question, where does it end?  There are too many for any one to hold our attention.  We need to look beyond the individual sin or foible, on to why we are willing to sin.

Martin Luther was in large measure driven away from the Catholic Church because of its emphasis on specifically repenting of each and every sin, correcting every personal flaw, large and small, with particularity.  There was no apparent end in this life to the correcting, no bottom to the list of sins, especially with a list being added to each day.  Repenting of each and every sin, he never made enough progress on his own list.

Fortunately for Luther and for everyone else, the God of Heaven has never called upon us to repent of each of our sins seriatim.  Neither have His prophets.   That is a man-made idea, and one that is sure to lead to deep moral frustration.

To be sure, God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance (Doctrine and Covenants 1:31).  Heaven is the ultimate “white room;” not a speck of evil can be tolerated there, no room for anything unclean in the least degree (see 3 Nephi 27:19).

God does not require us to repent of each sin.  He requires that we repent of all sins.  There is a difference, all of the difference in the world.  The first suggests that we can repent of sins in some kind of order, working on some sins while still playing with some of our favorites, even if only temporarily.  The true doctrine is more demanding and more liberating:  God wants us to give up sinning, the willingness to do evil.  The focus on individual sins is misplaced, as if the source of the problem is in the act itself, what we do, whereas the real source is found in why we do what we do.  God wants us to change our hearts (and will help us to do so), knowing that with the change in their nature of our actions will then take care of themselves.

Carefully search all Christian scriptures, ancient and modern, and you will find God consistently calling upon His children to repent of all of their sins.  He does not ask for or condone a selective repentance that focuses on this or that individual sin or ever ask us to work down our personal list of evil.  He asks us to give it up, all of it.  What the Lord requires of His children to be acceptable to live with Him again is a change of life.  The ancient American prophet Alma described this repentance, this change of heart, as a man who has “desired righteousness until the end of his days” (Alma 41:6).  John, the Apostle of ancient times, referred to this change as walking “in the light” (see 1 John 1:5-10).

This change of heart comes from belief in Christ, a powerful wholehearted belief that manifests itself in our actions.  Another ancient American prophet, Samuel, declared it with these words:

And if ye believe on his [Christ’s] name ye will repent of all your sins, that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits.  (Helaman 14:13)

Notice that it is true, vitalizing belief that brings about the change of action.  A modern prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, explained true repentance in this way:

In connection with repentance, the scriptures use the phrase, ‘with all his heart’ . . . Obviously, this rules out any reservations.  Repentance must involve an all-out, total surrender to the program of the Lord. (Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.203)

One last point:  note that perfection is not required to enter into the light.  As the Apostle John taught, those who enter into the light are in the process of making themselves pure (1 John 3:3), Christ giving them the power to do so through the soul-enriching influence of the Holy Spirit.

Make your resolutions and do them now, but put them in the context of changing your heart and thereby your whole life.  Aim for the highest of all.  Then we know where to begin and where it all ends.  And keep in mind, Christ allows you to start over when you slip up.

Of the Advent of the Savior and the Second Coming of Christ

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  The signs of the advent of Christmas are all around and growing in number and urgency.  Red and green appear with greater frequency and intensity on people’s clothes.  Each day yet one more house sports Christmas lights.  Our door is growing crowded with Christmas cards.  The calendar is filling with concerts, festivals, and celebrations.  Appeals to buy, sell, and contribute are becoming incessant.  Carols have taken priority for church congregations and choirs, and Christmas themes predominate in addresses from the pulpit.  The anticipation in children’s talk and faces is plainly growing.  You cannot miss it, and it all makes me feel happy, a perfect tonic to the growing darkness of the meteorological season.  Christmas day is imminent. 

And so it was prior to the actual birth of Jesus Christ.  Unlike for anyone ever born to the family of Adam, the birth of the Savior was foretold again and again for thousands of years prior to the event, with signs to encourage the believers of the marvelous day when the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would come to live among men.  As Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Eve was promised that while the serpent (Satan) would bruise the heal of her seed (the Savior), He would bruise the serpent’s (Satan’s) head.  During the exodus of Israel from Egypt to the promised land the advent of the Savior was linked to the appearance of a star as a sign to Jacob (see Numbers 24:17).  Isaiah comforted King Ahaz by reminding him of the birth of Christ, giving him as a sign that “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)  Micah foretold that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, a prophecy so well known that King Herod directed the wise men from the east to go there to find the Christ child (see Micah 5:2 and Matthew 2:1-8).

Across the oceans, on another continent, the Americas, ancient prophets similarly foretold of the birth of Christ.  The prophet Alma declared,

For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people.  (Alma 7:7)

Another ancient American prophet, Nephi, had lived in the Old World before he and his family were led by God to the New World.  He was given a vision in which he saw “A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins . . . bearing a child in her arms.”  An angel told Nephi that this child was “the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!” (see 1 Nephi 11:14-21)

More than 400 years later yet another American prophet, a righteous king named Benjamin, reported to his people the testimony from an angel of the coming birth of the Redeemer:

And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. (Mosiah 3:8)

These and many other signs of the advent of Jesus Christ to the earth, announced for the encouragement of all who through many ages looked with hope and joy to the birth of the Savior, were predicted and fulfilled as prophesied.  The scriptural record could confirm, “it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.” (3 Nephi 1:20)

Today we stand thousands of years after that event.  Looking back, the signs and their completion are clear to see.  But we need not only look back, for we also can look forward to the return of Christ, not as a humble little baby but as the resurrected and glorified Messiah. 

We too are living in the midst of a season of advent, expectantly looking to the promised arrival of Christ to rule and reign on earth.  As with the Savior’s birth there are many predicted signs of the second coming of Christ, signs that are appearing in greater number and urgency.  For those who watch and are ready, it is a time of joy and happiness, even in a darkening season of the world.  Just as surely as all of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were fulfilled, so can we look with confidence to all that God’s prophets have foretold of His return.  For there will come a day, and not far off, when we, too, can declare, “it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.”

May our Christmas celebration of Christ be enriched by looking to His arrival in the past as the Babe of Bethlehem and forward to His return as King of kings and Lord of Lords.

Of the Divine Traits of Humans and the Fatherhood of God

The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the History of the Peloponnesian Wars are among the Greek classics that are part of the classics-based education that my son receives at his school, a school that embraces our rich western heritage.  You may suspect and correctly so that he does not attend a government school (though we still get to pay—in many ways—for the bad education that other children receive in the government schools).

It is worthy of note that a common theme in many ancient western texts as well as in most cultures around that world is the descent of some person or group of people directly from God.  Why is that theme found so commonly among the ancients all around the world, east, west, north, and south?  A reading of Homer, Thucydides, and many other writers of millennia ago does not permit the conclusion that the ancients were dumber or less enlightened than more modern writers who would scoff at the idea.  The ancients seemed to have had their share of the dull, the average, and the brilliant as can be found in all ages, ours too.

Could it be that there is something to it, that there is a relationship between God and man that is close enough to be properly called familial, even of Father to son and daughter?  Is this a theme of the ages that will not die because it is based on reality? 

As the Lord prepared Moses for his mission to redeem the House of Israel from bondage in Egypt and restore them to their land of promise, He gave to Moses a vision of His dealings with mankind from its earliest days.  In the vision Moses was shown a prophet named Enoch.  Enoch was also taught by the Lord by vision, a vision in which he saw the panorama of the world only as God Himself could reveal.  When the mighty God wept because of the evil so prevalent among so many, the prophet was astonished and asked how the God of creation could weep.  Part of the Lord’s answer to Enoch included these words:

And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood. . .  (Moses 7:33)

Notice the relationship of Father to children, which also meant that in a real and not figurative way Enoch and all of the race of humans were “brethren”.  It was as a father in a very real sense that God wept for the misdeeds of His children and their cruelty toward their brethren, His sons and daughters.  This is a warm and authentic relationship with deity that men and women throughout the ages have craved and have instinctively felt.  

This is not to deny that there is a lot of mythology intertwined with the truth of man’s divine parentage.  There are powerful truths at the core of all enduring myths, the story in the myth often highlighting or demonstrating some fundamental verity.  While the scriptures can present truths in clarity and purity, even the myths of men preserve and transmit fundamental realities of existence.

Thus, throughout the ages and into modern days themes of divine attributes of humanity persist, that raise man above the rest of creation.  Men make and use tools, increasingly complex tools.  In a parody of the words of Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins, I often say to my children,

In every job that must be done there is a tool.
You find that tool, and, snap, your job’s a game.
Without that tool your job’s a hassle.

So men have found since creation, and so tools have enhanced men’s ability to be creators, a divine trait of the great Creator.

Recently I noticed what to you may be a commonplace.  As far as I can tell, only humans have pets.  Other animals may develop symbiotic relationships with other creatures, but only humans seem to develop those special relationships with other species, a relationship founded upon love and affection, of master to pet.  I perceive divinity in it.  If you have ever had a beloved pet, you may sense what I mean.

Perhaps the case of man’s divinity, his innate heritage from God, his Father, can be opened and closed by this one evidence:  man’s ability to make music.  Yes, yes, yes, birds whistle and wolves howl, and so forth.  But they have been singing the same songs since the beginning.  Man’s ability to create music is apparently infinite in extent and variety, because it comes from the Infinite.  It is divine in origin and the clearest example to which I can point of man’s direct familial relationship to God.

The facile retort to this is that men are so evil, how can they be related to the divine?  I respond much as Fyodor Dostoevsky did to this old and thin objection:  the existence of evil does not deny the influence of God, but rather the good that thrives in spite of the evil is proof positive of the presence and influence of God.

My final point would be that none of this is new.  It is the oldest truth of all, understood by the first man and woman.  Paul taught it 2,000 years ago to some of the most sophisticated people of his day, the saints in Rome:

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  (Romans 8:16-18)

Of the Authority of God and the Witness of Christ’s Resurrection

In May 1829, Jesus Christ sent John the Baptist—slain by command of Herod but resurrected by the will and power of Christ—to bestow on a new prophet, Joseph Smith, the same authority to baptize in the name of God that John the Baptist held during his own mortal ministry. Shortly afterward Christ similarly sent Peter, James, and John to confer on Joseph Smith the same authority from God that had been bestowed upon them under the Savior’s hands. When the Apostles of Christ were gone, their authority also was lost. In 1829 they returned that authority to the earth.

Every week, in congregations all around the world, that authority is exercised to channel the blessings of God to the modern day disciples of Jesus Christ. One of these priesthood blessings is the privilege of renewing promises made at baptism by remembering the suffering and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acting under the direction and authority of Christ His authorized servants bless and administer the emblems of the body of Christ—broken and then resurrected—and of the blood of Christ shed for the sins of many. All who receive these emblems with sincerity of heart in remembrance of Jesus Christ receive forgiveness of sins and direct spiritual communion with God, and they exercise the same spiritual gifts that the faithful followers of Christ exercised in ancient days.

The thousands of men who administer those emblems to thousands of congregations did not take it upon themselves to act in the holy place of Jesus Christ, made sacred when He offered the bread and cup to His Apostles the night before His death. They had hands placed upon their heads and received authority from others, who in their turn had hands placed upon their heads by those who in turn in the same way received the authority of God, all the way back to those who received that authority under the hands of the Savior Himself. For us in these latter days, one pair of those hands belonged to Joseph Smith, who received the authority of Christ from the hands of those upon whose heads hands were placed shortly before they were nailed to the cross on Calvary.

Just as anciently, eye witnesses today are proclaiming once again to the world the living Christ who was slain and who was resurrected and lives to guide and bless all who will be guided by Him. These are not learned men preaching from their study of the scriptures—though they have made in depth study of the scriptures a daily practice of a lifetime. These are men who know the Christ, who speak from personal knowledge and association with the Savior, Jesus Christ, and who proclaim what they know as well as what they believe.

I will give two examples of many. Keep in mind that these examples are not theories or learned dissertations by the doctors of religion. These are direct, personal, and tangible revelations of God, the way that God has throughout the ages revealed Himself.

The first is from The Book of Mormon, a record written in an ancient era but revealed anew in modern times. Some time after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven, a large group of ancient Americans were gathered near their Temple in a place that in their language they called Bountiful.

. . . and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; . . . and he came down and stood in the midst of them. . . .
And . . . he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
. . . I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world . . . .
Arise and come forth unto me, that you may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.
And . . . the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails . . .; going forth one by one . . . , and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety . . . , that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.
. . . And they were in number about two thousand and five hundred souls; and they did consist of men, women, and children. (3 Nephi 11:8-11, 14, 15; 17:25)

The second example of many was a modern event, in fulfillment of ancient prophecy. Near the very end of the Old Testament, this prophecy is recorded, from the Prophet Malachi:

Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple. . . (Malachi 3:1)

Who would build this latter-day Temple, and when would the Savior come to it? In their deepest poverty the modern-day followers of Christ, who had received baptism by those authorized by Christ Himself, were commanded by the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith to build a Temple in Kirtland, Ohio. One week after the Kirtland Temple was dedicated, Joseph Smith and his colleague, Oliver Cowdery, were praying in the Temple, on April 3, 1836. This is the second example I offer you of the Savior, Jesus Christ, revealing Himself to us in these latter days that we might know Him. This is from the personal testimony of Joseph and Oliver:

The veil was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened.
We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; . . .
His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shown above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:
I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father. (Doctrine & Covenants 110:1-4)

I have been to the Garden Tomb, in Jerusalem. I have looked in. It is empty. Jesus is not there. He is risen, as He said.

I have not seen Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith did, and he proclaimed the living Christ to the world. I have heard and received the testimony of Joseph Smith. By the gift of the Holy Ghost, bestowed upon me by the priesthood authority of Christ, I know that his testimony is true, by the same way that people anciently knew that the testimony of Paul, or Peter, or John was true. I too know, for myself, that Jesus Christ lives, that He suffered for me in my place, as He did for all who will receive Him. I know that Jesus Christ was resurrected.

Because of the resurrection of Christ, I will be resurrected, too, and so will you.

Of the Mortal Ministry of Christ and the Return of the King

No two events in the history of mankind have been the subject of more divine prophecy than the earthly ministry and atonement of the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the return of Jesus Christ and His subsequent millennial reign. Both were so frequently major themes of so many of the Old Testament prophets that their messages were confused and confounded in the teachings of the scholars at Jerusalem in the time of the Savior’s mortal ministry.

For that reason—or at least in part for that reason—most of these scholars and many of the people in Judea and Galilee were blind to the Savior and the fulfillment of prophecy before their very eyes. That did not make the fulfillment any less real, it just meant that those people found themselves to the side or even hostile to its fulfillment.

All of us can be blind to the unfolding of great occurrences that happen in our own time and location, appreciating their significance, if at all, only from the distance and perspective of time. Then, our longing to have been a part cannot make up for the lost opportunity, often caused by our lack of sensitivity or distraction by things that mattered much less.

Some of these lost opportunities are painful to have missed, like the comet not seen, the speech by the great leader not heard, the perfect performance not witnessed. Others are more than painful, they are life changing: the love lost, the job that went to another, the child not born. These last may not meet mankind’s list of great moments, but they would rank high on a list of personal great events, events that poignantly matter.

The events involved with the ministry of Jesus Christ are a combination of both. They affect all of mankind as much as they powerfully change individual lives. The greatest episode of history—the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ—is also the most important for each of us personally. Surely for that reason, among others, the mortal ministry of the Christ and His return again to the earth have been foretold by prophets from the beginning of time. It was important to God and to us that we not miss them.

Consider first the many prophecies about the birth of the Savior, so that His advent to the earth should not be doubted beforehand and the fulfillment of those prophecies would help build faith in Him during His brief mortal ministry. As surely and completely as the prophecies of the birth were fulfilled so would be the prophecies of the Savior’s sacrifice and resurrection.

Next consider—just one rich example among many—the words of Isaiah found in Isaiah chapter 53. Here the prophet foretold, seven centuries before the happening, that the Messiah would be despised and rejected, acquainted with grief, that He would bear our griefs and sorrows—wounded and whipped for our transgressions, providing healing to us—that he would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, that He would speak not a word in reply to the mocking of the tormentors, that He would be judged and condemned without proper trial, executed among the wicked and buried in the tomb of the wealthy, that He would bear the iniquities and provide forgiveness to many.

As richly detailed as are Isaiah’s prophecies of the mortal and atoning ministry of Jesus Christ, they are matched by his predictions of the latter days and second coming of the Savior. Just as sure as the first happened—as completely as foretold—we can be confident that all prophesied about the second coming will evolve as foretold. If we heed the words of the prophets of God and prepare we will not miss them. Rather, we will rejoice in the richness of the unfolding and be waiting and glad when Christ returns, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus as Savior and King.

Break forth into singing, and cry aloud. . . . In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. (Isaiah 54:1, 14)

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)

Of Holy Writings and Universal Messages

Throughout the ages a prominent expression of the living church of Christ has been the emergence of new revelation and new scripture. The Bible, progressively produced over the ancient centuries, is a powerful testimony to the pattern of continuous and new revelation from God. Each era in the history of the Bible witnessed new and living prophets pronouncing the word of God, and their words were written down for the people in their day as well as for those who would come afterward.

Not only have we been blessed through successive generations of prophecy and revelation preserved in holy scripture, but we have been blessed by the harmony of the message of God, the testimonies of holy witnesses building upon and reinforcing each other. Through a variety of mouths and in a great variety of conditions, the message of God—particularly the message of redemption through Jesus the Messiah—as recorded in the scriptures has been consistent and congruous.

There have been times when the authority of God had departed from among men, and in each case revelation ceased and the accretion of new scripture paused. Indeed, not only did new scripture cease but too often some of the past scripture was lost. Thus the Bible makes reference to such sacred writings as the Book of the Wars of the Lord, the Book of Jasher, the Book of Nathan the Prophet, the Visions of Iddo the Seer, the Sayings of the Seers, and several others. All of these books are mentioned but none of them are contained in the Bible of today nor currently found anywhere else. At least for now, they are missing, but they were once well known.

A careful reading of the Books of Moses, especially the Book of Genesis, can lead to the conclusion that much of what Moses wrote by inspiration was restoring what had been known of God and His doings in previous times but which had been lost during the captivity in Egypt. Moses restored much of what was then gone and provided new revelation, which was written down and passed down.

Joshua took up where Moses left off, Elisha followed Elijah, Jeremiah prophesied not long after Isaiah, and Daniel and the prophets of the Babylonian captivity came after Jeremiah. All pointed to the Savior, Jesus Christ, in their testimonies. Their words were written and later quoted by the Savior Himself during His mortal ministry. The Savior’s words were preserved by His apostles, who in turn received revelation from God and added to the canon of scriptures—until there were no more apostles and no more revelation and no new scripture as the church founded by Christ fell into decay.

Today, with the church of Jesus Christ once again established on the earth, with all of the authority of God once given to apostles and prophets of antiquity again bestowed by God on living apostles and prophets, new scripture again is flourishing. As was done for thousands of years in the past, in our day the inspired words of modern prophets are written down for our benefit and the benefit of our posterity. Moreover, ancient scriptural testimony of the visit of Jesus Christ to yet another continent has been recovered and published as The Book of Mormon.

A key difference of these latter days—as prophesied by many ancients—is that these fountains of divine revelation will never cease until the Savior Himself returns to the earth. The disciples of Christ today declare—

We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
(The Articles of Faith 9)

Very importantly, as with all scripture, the words of the modern prophets harmoniously blend with those of the ancient prophets. They give united and universal witness of the central mission of Jesus Christ as the Savior of all men, in all places, and in all ages.