Posted on 1/22/2002 at 11:57:54 AM
Values Produce Predictable Behaviour
Prior to 1993, I was an active duty Army Chaplain. During that season in my life, I taught leadership skills to officers and non-commissioned officers in leadership retreats as a part of my ministry. I often used management games to teach these leaders about leadership. In one management game called “Powerplay”, a scenario is created where these leaders were arbitrarily divided into groups by virtue of winning in a trading scenario. The winning group is then given authority over the other groups. The winning group is given the right to make the rules for future trading and to dictate these rules to the other groups. Without exception, the group that has the authority always begins to make rules to keep its authority and to benefit it as a group in trading. Given enough time the winning group will begin to clearly abuse the other groups. This group will justify its behaviour on the basis of winning the earlier portion of the game and by virtue of having the authority. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on 1/1/2002 at 8:49:16 PM
It requires striving - intellectual and spiritual - to comprehend the things of God - even the revealed things of God. In no department of human endeavour is the aphorism "no excellence without labour" - more in force than in acquiring knowledge of the things of God. The Lord has placed no premium upon idleness or indifference here - "seek and ye shall find;" … THE PLEA OF "THUS FAR, BUT NO FARTHER" Mental laziness is the vice of men, especially with reference to divine things. Men seem to think that because inspiration and revelation are factors in connection with the things of God, therefore the pain and stress of mental effort are not required; that by some means these elements act somewhat as Elijah’s ravens and feed us without effort on our part. To escape this effort, this mental stress to know the things that are, men raise all too readily the ancient bar - "Thus far shalt thou come, but no further." Man cannot hope to understand the things of God, they plead, or penetrate those things which he has left shrouded in mystery. "Be thou content with the simple faith that accepts without question. To believe, and accept the ordinances, and then live the moral law will doubtless bring men unto salvation; why then should man strive and trouble himself to understand? Much study is still a weariness of the flesh." So men reason; and just now it is in fashion to laud "the simple faith;" which is content to believe without understanding, or even without much effort to understand. And doubtless many good people regard this course as indicative of reverence - this plea in bar of effort - "thus far and no farther." … This sort of "reverence" is easily simulated, and is of such flattering unction, and is so pleasant to follow - "soul take thine ease" - that without question it is very often simulated; and falls into the same category as the simulated humility couched in "I don’t know," which so often really means "I don’t care, and do not intend to trouble myself to find out." THE PRAISE OF SIMPLE FAITHI maintain that the "simple faith" - which is so often ignorant and simpering acquiescence, and not faith at all - but simple faith taken at its highest value, which is faith without understanding of the thing believed, is not equal to intelligent faith, the faith that is the gift of God, supplemented by earnest endeavour to find through prayerful thought and research a rational ground for faith - for acceptance of truth; and hence the duty of striving for a rational faith in which the intellect as well as the heart - the feeling - has a place and is a factor. But, to resume: This plea in bar of effort to find out the things that are, is as convenient for the priest as it is for the people. The people of "simple faith," who never question, are so much easier led, and so much more pleasant every way - they give their teachers so little trouble. People who question because they want to know, and who ask adult questions that call for adult answers, disturb the ease of the priests. The people who question are usually the people who think - barring chronic questioners and cranks, of course - and thinkers are troublesome, unless the instructors who lead them are thinkers also; and thought, eternal, restless thought, that keeps out upon the frontiers of discovery, is as much a weariness to the slothful, as it is a joy to the alert and active and noble minded. Therefore one must not be surprised if now and again he finds those among religious teachers who give encouragement to mental laziness under the pretence of "reverence"; praise "simple faith"; because they themselves, forsooth, would avoid the stress of thought and investigation that would be necessary in order to hold their place as leaders of a thinking people. NECESSARY ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH IN THE MATTER OF MENTAL ACTIVITY AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTSurely, in the presence of this array of incentives, instructions and commandments to seek for knowledge, taken from the revelations and other forms of instructions by the Prophet of the New Dispensation - taking into account also the scope of the field of knowledge we are both persuaded and commanded to enter - whatever position other churches and their religious teachers may take, the Church of Jesus Christ in the New Dispensation can do no other than stand for mental activity, and earnest effort to come to a knowledge of truth up to the very limit of man’s capacity to find it, and the goodness and wisdom of God to reveal it. The New Dispensation having opened with such a wonderful revelation respecting God, making known as the very first step in that revealed knowledge not only the being of God but the kind of beings both the Father and the Son are - its representatives may not now attempt to arrest the march of inquiry and plead "mystery" or "humility" or "reverence" as a bar to entrance into those very fields of knowledge God has commanded us to enter, and reap in, and of which he gives us assurance that our harvest shall be abundant. THE LIMITS OF OUR INQUIRIESLet me not be misunderstood. Again I say, I am aware that there are limits to man’s capacity to understand things that are. That God also in his wisdom has not yet revealed all things, especially respecting the Godhead: and that where his revelations have not yet cast their rays of light on such subjects, it is becoming in man to wait upon the Lord, for that "line upon line, and precept upon precept" method by which he, in great wisdom, unfolds in the procession of the ages the otherwise hidden treasures of his truths. All this I agree to; but all this does not prevent us from close perusal and careful study of what God has revealed upon any subject, especially when that subject is perused reverently, with constant remembrance of human limitations, and with an open mind, which ever stands ready to correct the tentative conclusions of today by the increased light that may be shed upon the subject on the morrow. Which holds as greater than all theories and computations the facts - the truth. … But some would protest against investigation lest it threaten the integrity of accepted formulas of truth - which too often they confound with the truth itself, regarding the scaffolding and the building as one in the same thing. … This holds good in theology as in science. Not that the universal and fundamental truths in theology which God has revealed change, but that man’s method of viewing them, and expounding them changes, and let us hope, changes for the better, for the more clear and perfect understanding and development of them - else there would be no progress in theology - while in all things else there is progress. … The Seventies Course in Theology (Third Year) The Doctrine of Deity Compiled and Edited by B.H. Roberts of the First Council of Seventy Pages iv - ix, Sections III - VIII
Posted on 1/1/2002 at 1:34:47 PM
The Latter-day Saints have often been ridiculed on account of their belief in the pre-existence of spirits, and for marrying for time and all eternity, both being Bible doctrines. We have often been requested to give our views in relation to these principles, but considered the things of the kingdom belonged to the children of the kingdom, therefore not meet to give them to those without. But being very politely requested by a lady a few days since (a member of the Church) to answer the following questions, we could not consistently refuse, viz.: …
“Where did I come from? What am I doing here? Whither am I going? And what is my destiny after having obeyed the truth, if faithful to the end?”
For her benefit and all others concerned, we will endeavor to answer the questions in brief, as we understand them. The reason will be apparent for our belief in the pre-existence of spirits, and in marrying for time and all eternity.
Lady, whence comest thou? Thine origin? What art thou doing here? Whither art thou going, and what is thy destiny? Declare unto me if thou hast understanding. Knowest thou not that thou art a spark of Deity, struck from the fire of His eternal blaze, and brought forth in the midst of eternal burning?
Knowest thou not that eternities ago thy spirit, pure and holy, dwelt in thy Heavenly Father’s bosom, and in His presence, and with thy mother, one of the queens of heaven, surrounded by thy brother and sister spirits in the spirit world, among the Gods? That as thy spirit beheld the scenes transpiring there, and thou grewest in intelligence, thou sawest worlds upon worlds organized and peopled with thy kindred spirits who took upon them tabernacles, died, were resurrected, and received their exaltation on the redeemed worlds they once dwelt upon.
Thou being willing and anxious to imitate them, waiting and desirous to obtain a body, a resurrection and exaltation also, and having obtained permission, madest a covenant with one of thy kindred spirits to be thy guardian angel while in mortality, also with two others, male and female spirits, that thou wouldst come and take a tabernacle through their lineage, and become one of their offspring. You also chose a kindred spirit whom you loved in the spirit world (and who had permission to come to this planet and take a tabernacle), to be your head, stay, husband and protector on the earth and to exalt you in eternal worlds. All these were arranged, likewise the spirits that should tabernacle through your lineage.
Thou longed, thou sighed and thou prayed to thy Father in heaven for the time to arrive when thou couldst come to this earth, which had fled and fallen from where it was first organised, near the planet Kolob. Leaving thy father and mother’s bosom and all thy kindred spirits thou camest to earth, took a tabernacle, and imitated the deeds of those who had been exalted before you.
At length the time arrived, and thou heard the voice of thy Father saying, go daughter to yonder lower world, and take upon thee a tabernacle, and work out thy probation with fear and trembling and rise to exaltation. But daughter, remember you go on this condition, that is, you are to forget all things you ever saw, or knew to be transacted in the spirit world; you are not to know or remember anything concerning the same that you have beheld transpire here; but you must go and become one of the most helpless of all beings that I have created, while in your infancy, subject to sickness, pain, tears, mourning, sorrow and death. But when truth shall touch the chords of your heart they will vibrate; then intelligence shall illuminate your mind, and shed its lustre in your soul, and you shall begin to understand the things you once knew, but which had gone from you; you shall then begin to understand and know the object of your creation. Daughter, go, and be faithful as thou hast been in thy first estate.
Thy spirit, filled with joy and thanksgiving, rejoiced in thy Father, and rendered praise to His holy name, the spirit world resounded in anthems of praise to the Father of spirits. Thou bade father, mother and all farewell, and along with thy guardian angel, thou came on this terraqueous globe. The spirits thou hadst chosen to come and tabernacle through their lineage, and your head having left the spirit world some years previous, thou came a spirit pure and holy. Thou hast obeyed the truth, and thy guardian angel ministers unto thee and watches over thee. Thou hast chosen him you loved in the spirit world to be thy companion. Now crowns, thrones, exaltations and dominions are in reserve for thee in the eternal worlds, and the way is opened for thee to return back into the presence of thy Heavenly Father, if thou wilt only abide by and walk in a celestial law, fulfil the designs of thy Creator and hold out to the end that when mortality is laid in the tomb, you may go down to your grave in peace, arise in glory, and receive your everlasting reward in the resurrection of the just, along with thy head and husband. Thou wilt be permitted to pass by the Gods and angels who guard the gates, on onward, upward to thy exaltation in a celestial world among the Gods. To be a priestess queen upon thy Heavenly Father’s throne, and a glory to thy husband and offspring, to bear the souls of men, to people other worlds (as thou didst bear their tabernacles in mortality) while eternity goes and eternity comes; and if you will receive it, lady, this is eternal life. And herein is the saying of the Apostle Paul fulfilled, “That the man is not without the woman, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord.” “That the man is the head of the woman, and the glory of the man is the woman.” Hence, thine origin, the object of thy ultimate destiny. If faithful, lady, the cup is within thy reach; drink then the heavenly draught and live.
The Mormon, August 29, 1857, New York City
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