Fiction and The Word of God

“As Enoch spoke forth the words of God, the people trembled, and could not stand in his presence. And he said unto them: Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe. Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth them to worship him; and they have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are shut out from the presence of God. But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent—and by his own voice said to Adam: turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice…”  (Moses 6:47-50).

These words of God define our present condition. And our response to this condition is what I want to talk about today.

Oliver Cowdrey said:  “…the children of the wicked one may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current, the giddy to the grave…” (Oliver Cowdrey, Footnote to Joseph Smith History, Pearl of Great Price).

Fiction in the gospel is created by perverting and/or neglecting the word of God—failing to hearken unto His voice.  

…as land neglected produces thorns and thistles, so your mind, by long neglect will produce noxious opinions, false dogmas and fictions—fictions masquerading as the gospel. 

It should not surprise us that many of the things we know, are taught, and teach to others, are, in Oliver’s words, fictions. As Nephi said we “…preach false doctrines…and pervert the right way of the Lord”  (2 Nephi 28:14-25).  

Do we respond to our condition as a result of the fall using fiction or the word of God? One places a burden on us, the other places the burden on our Savior. One is a heavy burden the other is light.

Repentance means a change, not of our behavior, but of our hearts. It is because of our sins and not our goodness that brings us to Christ. The gospel is about redemption not improvement. Niceness has nothing to do with the price of our redemption.

It is a fiction to think that by further, better and more aggressive living we can have life. The truth is we cannot live our way to eternal life. We can only die our way there. We should understand better than most that baptism (by proper authority) is a symbol of death and resurrection. 

The old must die before it can become new. We cannot be saved by living. Why? We don’t live well enough to do the job, and our goodness is flawed goodness. We cannot be saved by our efforts at living well. Overcoming the effects of the fall cannot be by human efforts and sacrifice, by self discipline and moral living. It requires an infinite and eternal sacrifice. There is not any man that can sacrifice his own blood for the sins of another—even his own (Alma 34:10-11).  

If the world could be saved by providing good examples to which we could respond with appropriately good works, it would have been saved an hour after Moses came down from Mt. Sinai. 

“For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe” (Gal. 3:21-22).  

Do you see the problem? Redemption is not some state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after the contemplation of sufficiently good examples. It does not come from test passing or by winning, but only by losing. Satan is content to see us chaste and well behaved, with proper dress standards, as long as we take the credit. He cures our cold and gives us cancer. He wants to place the burden on us, and make us believe that we must earn our way.

To show you how our love for justification by works is so profound, look at the Parable of the Pharisee & the Publican. After the Publican goes to his house justified (for simply recognizing that he was a sinner), what is it you would want him to do during the next week or month?Don’t you want to see a little reform, some changes in behavior? 

We all long to establish our identity by seeing ourselves as approved in other people’s eyes. We spend our days preening ourselves before the mirror of their opinion so we will not have to think about the nightmare of appearing before them as naked and uncombed. We fear the Publican’s acceptance because we know precisely what it means. It means that we will never be free until we are dead to the whole business of justifying ourselves.

Repentance is the main message of the Book of Mormon, which also tells us that the essence of repentance is knowing exactly what we are—“O how great is the nothingness of … men” (Helaman 12:17). Godly sorrow, “sorrowing unto repentance, because of the goodness of God” (Mormon 2:13) ---lead both Paul and Nephi to exclaim “What a wretched man that I am!” (2 Nephi 4:17; Romans 7:24).  And for Paul to say:  “…Christ…came to save sinners, of which I am chief” (I Tim 1:15).

“…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance" (Luke 15:7)  --Those who think that through their performance and good works they will be saved. 

The Lord and everyone in heaven rejoices over the sinner who repents, but again Satan wants you to think that you must earn your way back, when Christ only asks us to come unto Him and recognize our nothingness and His greatness. Then He can do his work.

My younger brother and I were eating at our friends across the street one evening. As we were eating our friends’ father was asking how a hole the size of a softball got in his newly plastered wall in the kitchen. No one responded so he kept asking and said it didn’t get there by itself. The pressure was great, and finally my friend said, “I think I know how it could have gotten there? How was that?” asked his father. My friend said that maybe someone put a toilet plunger on the wall and pulled it off. And then said, “but I didn’t do it!” We all looked at his father waiting for the response. And do you know what? He laughed. I think that sometimes our Father laughs at us when we come and admit, even grudgingly, that we did something wrong.

The narrow door spoken of by Christ in Luke 13:22-30, or the narrow way spoken of in other scripture, is faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord does not set up 1000 rules and admit to heaven only those who live all of them. Its narrowness lies not in the fact that it is small or hard to find, but rather lies in the fact that it is so hard to accept. 

The idea of losing our life is repugnant to us. The idea of being shown our weakness frightens us. Those who would not look at Moses’ staff and be healed called those who did fools, because they thought it was too easy.  “…if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly… (Alma 33:21)? It is our lack of faith in the healing process, our lack of faith in Christ. We have been so conditioned that we must do it with our strivings, our efforts, our doing, our goodness, our successes, our virtues, and our activity. 

The result is that we worship the creature rather than the creator. The Father’s command is to look (have faith in my Son), bury the old in the waters of baptism and come forth anew, receive a new spirit, and “…feast upon the words of Christ, for the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye must do” (2 Ne 32:3).  

“The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God is not impressed by display, and he does not need publicity. The world will always turn its attention to the highly placed, to the well known, to the visibly important. But God loves humility. He honors those who desire His righteousness, rather than those who are known by others for being righteous. The world will always ask, “Is not this the carpenter’s son” (Mathew 13:55)?

I first learned this from my mother. I was a problem child for my mother from the very beginning. She spent many hours in the principal’s office with me. She put up with me when I threw a tantrum on the floor of the bus because I had to give up my seat to an old woman. She loved me even when I didn’t play well with others, took things, got mad, or….don’t have time to list because so many.   

No one that I’ve known was more aware of her weaknesses and imperfections. She was always my example of humility. And the greatest blessing a boy like me could have was a mother like her. Her gift to me was more than bringing me into this life, nurturing and raising me. Her gift to me was her humility and patience. She was a window to my soul, and through her I learned to see myself: how can someone so gentle and patient have a son so selfish and impatient? The Lord knew that only my Mother could have a son like me.

When my mother saw goodness, she thought of her own weaknesses. 

When an evil person sees goodness, she thinks of herself and the evil of others.

As both my Mother and I grew older and my weaknesses became ever more apparent, I started to see myself through her. Then one day I read:

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me…” (Ether 12:27).  

I had read this many times before, but this time I realized that what my Mother was doing for me was much more than just being an example. She was bringing me to my Father in Heaven and it was through my weaknesses that I would find Him. She showed me the way! I love you Mom.

I think we find it easier to sell spiritual and moral achievement; salvation for the successfully well-behaved and pie in the sky for all the winners who think they can walk into the final judgment and flash their passing report cards.

It may be foolishness to some, as Alma said, to just be able to look and live. This requires faith and repentance. Self justification requires performance. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of repentance, not a gospel of performance. None but the truly penitent are saved (Alma 42).

We corrupt the vineyard by taking strength unto ourselves (Jacob 5:47). We confuse righteousness with actively congregating and religiously performing ecclesiastical duties, and call those who perform those duties “righteous” thereby worshipping the creature rather than the creator. 

“Is our faith so little that we cling to the deeds that we do, calling them good, because we are afraid to see the evil in ourselves? Yet it is only through seeing the evil in ourselves that we can exercise the faith to see the good in Him.”  (George MacDonald)

We seem to believe that “…every man fares in this life according to the management of the creature; that every man prospers according to his genius, and that every man conquers according to his strength…”  (Alma 30:17). This is the doctrine of Satan – humanism –taught by Korihor, and almost everyone else in the world

Unfortunately we spend more time teaching each other (and our children) how to win our way to salvation, than we do in teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto Salvation. 

Be not deceived. Satan would come to you in a nice suit, white shirt and tie. He would be the perfect gentleman, and then He would teach you the words of the wisest men and women who have negotiated their way through this life by following the examples of others, by self discipline and their own ingenuity, and by faring in this life according to their ability to manage themselves. We must recognize this contrast between the word of God and the word of the devil.  

There is a reason why we are commanded to live by every word which proceeds forth from the mouth of God and not to rely on the teachings of men. Cut down the thorns and dig out the thistles from the fields of your mind. Replace them with the word of God—the truth, the light and the spirit, and continue to receive the word of God, until it is found in you. There is need now of much care in cultivating the field of your mind, that the word of truth, which is the true husbandman of the heart, must cultivate it with continual instructions. His words will teach you all things what you must do.  

The Lord said unto Alma: “Marvel not that all mankind, … must be born again; yea born of God; changed from their carnal and fallen state to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 27:25-27).

When we are born again and become new creatures, relying wholly on the merits of Christ:

The works that we do will then be His works done by the power and gifts of God according to our faith in Him, the fruits of our repentance. 

If we do not work through the power and gifts of God, “…there shall be none that doeth good, no not one…”  (Moroni 10:24). 

We will learn through our experience that He is the vine and we are the branches, and that the branches cannot bring forth fruit of themselves. 

We will love because we have been filled with His love, and desire that all partake of His love. 

His love will be expressed through us and it will be His light that we hold up. 

We will look to Him and live, and desire all to look and live and will do everything we can to serve Him by serving others, and bring them to Him. 

He will take away our disposition to do evil. We will switch from worshipping ourselves and each other to worshiping our God and King.  

And what awakens us? “Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold they were in the mist of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the everlasting word...”  (Alma 5:7) – awakened from a deep sleep by the light of the word of God!  I say to you—turn on the light!

To complete Oliver Cowdrey’s statement in the footnote to the Joseph Smith History in the Pearl of Great Price, and to contrast it with the fiction that feeds the many:

…but one touch with the finger of his love, yes one ray, from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the mind.”