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Show THE PESERET NEWS, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER Church Edition 28, 1942 Church Edition Diimed: 'More On The Restoration Of All Things' "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn, .the people, and it become (This is the fourth of a series eth every man "Who hath been warn-of six ed to warn his neighbor. Smith undef the auspices of the are left without "Therefore, they Lion House Social, Center. This and their sins are upon their lecture was given, Wednesday, excuse, own heads. Nov. 4, 1942). RESPONSIBILITY PLACED To So some the Lord not only sends out his take up TONIGHT I intend of restoration. the , First, messengers to preach the Gospel, but . phases the necessity for the preaching of the he has placed the responsibility upon every soul who hears that testimony, Gospel before judgments can be poured out upon the world, and hen to not only to believe it and receive it but to go with that message and warn consider some of the predicted judgus in the his neighbor. It would not take very ments as they are given to long if the people of the world would revelations of the Lord. do that before every soul upon the When the Savior met with li& disface of the earth would hear the GosHis crucifixon ciples shortly before and when they refuse to a pel Him message; asked quesmany great they tions about His second coming and hear the Gospel and they refuse to the destruction of Jerusalem; and take it to their neighbors, they stand condemned before the judgment seat after explaining to them that Jeruof God, according to that which I have salem would be destroyed, the temread to you, one torn not stone be t would, down, ple The Lord says in this very same And left upon another, He said. Section, verse 73, "Behold, I will hasagain this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for ten My work in its time. a witness unto all nations, and then Again in another revelation, Section 52, verse 11, "For thus saith the shall the end come, or the destruction Lord, I will cut My work short in of the wicked. (P. of G. P. p. 44.) One of the ancient prophets statrighteousness for the days come that I will send forth a judgment unto vicnothwill do God Lord the ed, "Surely ing until He revealeth His secret unto tory. Maybe I have a wrong idea and His servants the prophets. Now, this is not the way it reads in the King maybe other members of the Church James version, but it is the way it have incorrect ideas in regard to the ought to read, and it is the way the preaching of the Gospel. The Lord said it should be declared to. every prophet has given it. It would not be reasonable for the creature. In the passage that I have already quoted to you, the Lord said Lord, according to His justice and this Gospel should again be preached His wisdom, to bring destruction upin all the world as a witness. How is on the people of the earth without ofthat means some of Gospel being preached? Are we them escape, fering and that escape is through the Gosdepending solely upon the missionarpel of Jesus Christ. If the people of ies of this Church to carry this message of salvation to the people of the earth had listened to the testimony of the Elders of' the Church, the world? If so, it would take us two these calamities today would noC be or three thousand years at the rate our missionaries are going from door upon the earth. to door, delivering their literature and A PROCLAMATION In the preface to the Doctrine and doing as they have been doing for a hundred years, for them to reach Covenants we have a proclamation all the people. given by our Lord, first to the Church SMALL IN NUMBERS and then to the world. He says: O as numbers are concerned of Insofar ye people My church, "Hearken, saith the voice of Him who dwells on we are insignificant. We have kept high, and whose eyes are upon all out now in the mission field about men; yea, verily I say: Hearken ye 2,000 missionaries. What are 2,000 missionaries' among the billions of hupeople from afarf and ye that are upon the islands of the sea, listen together. manity? Not very much. So, if the "For verily the voice of the Lord Lord was dependent solely upon the is unto all men, and there is none to missionaries, it would take a long escape; and there is no eye that shall time to get this message to all the not see, neither ear that shall not world; but I think the Lord is using hear, neither heart that shall not be other means and has been using other means in order to help carry this penetrated. And the rebellious shall be piercmessage to the world. Some of us ed with much sorrow; for their iniquimight have to modify what we have ties shall be spoken upon the housethought about the Gospel being tops, and their secret acts shall be preached. I remember here some years revealed. back in what we are pleased to call 4jd the voice of warning shall the Reed Smoot case. Reed Smoot was be unto all people, by the mouths of not on trial it was the Church iand My disciples, whom I have chosen in our brethren were called to Washingthese last days. (D. & C. ton and had to testify, the Doctrine WORLD CONDEMNED and Covenants and Book of Mormon In rejecting the testimony of the were placed in evidence and the docElders of Israel condemnation has trines of the Church were telegraphed come upon the world. In Section 84, to every part of the world and many verses 74 and 75, the Lord says: Verthings were said in regard to the orily, verily, I say unto you, they who ganization of the Church, Joseph Smith, his claim that angels came to . believe not on your words, and are not baptized in water in My name, him, that he saw the Father and the for the remission of their sins, that Son, and that he organized this they may receive the Holy Ghost, Church by command of holy messenshall be damned, and shall not come gers that came-frothe presence of into My Fathers kingdom where My God, and all of that was put in the Father and I am. official record. And this; revelation unto you, and Dont you think the Lord was commandment, is in force from this something to get this message beVery hour upon all the world, and fore the world in fulfillment of that the gospel is unto all who have not prediction that the Gospel should be received it. preached? I think so. People come to In Section 88, verses 80 to 82, I me sometimes and say, Have we ever find this: That ye may be prepared had missionaries in Russia? Yes, but In all things when' I shall send you they did not do very much. Have we ever had missionaries in China? Yes, again to magnify the calling where-untI have called you, and the misbut they did not accomplish very much. sion with which I have commissioned "Have we ever had any In Spain? I v do not know, but everywhere in these you. countries people have heard of the It is true a lot of things went out in the press in those days that; were evil. The enemies of the Church got their words in, too, but nevertheless the attention of the world was called to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-daSaints, and its claim as having been established ' by the opening of the heavens and the coming of angels. PRESS AND RADIO Then, again, we have the privilege occasionally of using the press. We have had the telephone. We have had. the telegraph, and in more recent years we have had the radio and twice a year we get a chance to give our message to the world on the Church LESSON FOUR Mormons. y st -- 1:1-4- ) m " o do-in- g - the Air. Every week our Taber- nacle Choir is broadcasting. Dont you think it is preaching the Gospel? I think it is. Just what the Lord is going to ex- pect in regard to the fulfilling of this prediction that the Gospel must be preached in all the world for a witness I am not prepared to say, but I do know that He is using many agencies to bring to pass his prophecies, so this will suffice so far as the messages of the missionaries are concerned. Here we have in this building tonight people who have come you or your parents from all parts of the earth where you or they heard the gospel message. Many have come into this Church because of things they have seen and heard that have been published when there was no Elder within a thousand miles. POWER OF MISSIONARIES Here is another thing, something that perhaps wre ourselves have overlooked, and I am sure our missionaries who go out to preach the Gospel in large measure have overlooked it. We have not realized the extent of the power which these missionaries possess, and that is the power to seal that testimony against the world, that it may stand against them in the judgment. I want to read one or two passages of Scripture in regard to that, first from the Doctrine and Covenants. "Wherefore, fear and tremble, O ye people, for what I the Lord have decreed in them shall be fulfilled. "And verily I say unto you, that they who go forth, bearing these tidings unto the inhabitasts of the earth, to them is power given to seal both on earth and in heaven, the unbeliev) ing and rebellious. (D. & C. Yes, sir, they have that 'power; and when they go before the people and ' bear witness of the restoration of the Gospel, to the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the people refuse to hear them, their testimony is sealed in the Heavens against the rebel1:7-8- lious. Here is another passage in the 75th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, verses 19 to 21. And in whatsoever house ye enter, and they receive you, leave your blessing upon that house. And in whatsoever house ye enter, and they receive you not, ye shall depart speedily from that house, and shake off the dust of your feet as a testimony against them. And you shall be filled with joy and gladness; and know this, that in the day of judgment you shall be judges of that house, and condemn them. . TWO PURPOSES Whenever I go in the mission field I try to Impress this truth upon the missionaries. They are sent for two definite purposes: to gather out the scattered people of the House of Israel who are willing to repent and receive the Gospel, and to leave all others without excuse; but it Is a mighty hard thing to get Into the heads of some missionaries. ' into-the-wor- ld By Elder Joseph Fielding Smith Mor-on- (of The Council of The Twelve) Just keep that in mind a minute. I read to you a little while ago from Section 88, verses 80 to 82, and The Lord said He would dothat. You I should have read this also; read in Genesis, the 18th and lyth "Therefore, tarrjT ye, and labor chapters,- the storyf the conversadiligently, that you may be perfected tion between the Lord and Abraham in your ministry to go forth among over two very wicked cities, Sodom the Gentiles for the last time, as many and Gomorrah; and the Lord said to as the mouth of the Lord shall name, Abraham, "I am going to destroy them and Abraham to bind up the law and seal up the for their wickedness, testimony, and to prepare the saints plead with the Lord, If we can find for the hour of judgment which is to .fifty righteous there, will you 'spare the city? "Yes. "Well, now, If we come. (D. & C. 88:84) can find forty righteous, will you FOR THE LAST TIME Yes. And he The Lord in several of the revela- spare the city? to ten, and he could it down brought tions speaks of sending the missionnot find ten righteous in the city, aries out for the last time meaning, and so the Lord said, Get Lot out of . of course, that tfiis is the dispensation that city and his family. His family of the Fulness of Times. The Gospel was composed of Lot, his wife, and s ere the last time. It is never so they did not have two going to be taken away again, and even daughters, five in these cities. So righteous for the last time they are sent out to Lot and his family left the city, and preach this Gospel to the world.. The the Lord rained down fire upon thos world has rejected the message, and cities and them. , destroyed in Section 133 of the Doctrine and TO PROMISE ABRAHAM Covenants the" Lord says something more of importance. And upon Ahem Remember, the Scriptures say the that hearken not to the voice of the , Lord did.it. Then let .me read this . Lord shall be fulfilled that which was also. This is in the 15th chapter of written by the prophet Moses, that Genesis, and I shall begin with the they should be cut off from among 13th verse. And He said unto Abram, know the people. And also that which was written of a surety that thy seed shall be a by the prophet Malachi: For, behold, stranger- in a land that is not theirs, the day cometh that shall burn as an and shall serve them; and they shall oven, and all the proud, yea, and all afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they that do wickedly-- , shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn shall serve, will I judge: and afterthem up, saith the Lord of hosts, that ward shall they come out with great it shall leave them neither root nor substance. branch. And thou shalt go to thy fathers . Wherefore, this shall be the an- in peace; thou shalt be buried in a swer of the Lord unto them; good old age. But in the fourth generation they In that day when I came unto Mine own, no man among you reshall edme hither again: for the iniceived Me, and you were driven out. quity of the Amorites is not yet full. When I called again there was (Genesis none of you to answer; yet My arm When Israel did come out of Egypt was not shortened at all that I could the Lord gave Moses, and after him not redeem, neither my power to de- Joshua, a commandment to destroy liver. some of these people sweep them off Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the face of the earth. The Scriptures the sea. I make the rivers a wildertell us the Lord did that. You know ness; their fish stink, and die for we have some very, very .wise men thirst. among us, very devout, very mercI. clothe the heavens with black- iful very kind men, filled with all the ness, and make sackcloth their cov- mercy in the world; and so they cannot believe that God ever commanded ering. And this shall ye have of My any of these things. So they mainhand ye shall lie down in sorrow. tain that the belief in God. is a pro"Behold, and lo, there are none to gressive idea. I am going to read you deliver you; for ye obeyed not My something on that in a minute. Yes, to voice when I called to you out of the believe in God is a progressive idea, heavens; ye believed not My servants, and these wise men teach that the God and when they were sent unto you of the old Scriptures was and therefore the God of our day is ye received them not. We are most intelligent to"Wherefore, they sealed up the testimony and bound up the law, and day so we have a higher concept of ye were delivered over unto darkDeity than men had anciently. We have ness. men in the Clmrch and men who These shall go away into outer are teaching in this Church who hold darkness;where there- - is weeping, to those contemptible views and they and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. say they do not accept the God of the (D. & C. 133:04-73old Scriptures. TESTIMONY OF DESTRUCTION , JESUS DESTROYED CITIES I read these to you to show the In the Book of Mormon we find, authority the Lord has bestowed upon if you will turn to the 9th chapter His missionaries when He sent them of the Third Book of Nephi, where forth to preach the Gospel to the Jesus Himself, speaking from the world. Then following their testimony Heavens, declares that He destroyed was to come the testimony of destruccities let me read one or two of tion. I will have more to say about these: the destructions a little later, and this And it came to pass that there brings me down to number two on was a voice heard among all the inthis outline that you have in your habitants of the earth, upon all the hands, Why Destruction Comes Upon face of this land, crying: the Wicked. The Scriptures say: Woe, woe, woe unto this people; And God looked upon the eartl, woe unto the inhabitants of the whole and, behold, it wap corrupt; for all earth except they shall repent; for the flesh had corrupted his way upon the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, earth. because of the slain of the fair sons And God said unto Noah, The end and daughters of My people; and it is of all flesh is come before Me; for the because of their Iniquity and abom-earth is filled with .violence through inations that are fallen! they them; and, behold, 1 will destroy then; Behold, that great city Zarahemla ) with the earth. (Genesis have I burned with fire, and the in-- fr ' -- . 15:13-16- ) man-mad- e man-mad- ) - " 6:12-13- habitants thereof. And behold, that great city i have I caused to be sunk in the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof to be drowned. And behold, that great city of Moronihah have I covered with earth, and theinhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that, the., blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto Me against them. And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, and the thereof to be buried up in the depths of lheearth. (Ill Nephi 0:1-6- ) THE LORDS CRITICS And so it goes on, and it was Jesus Christ speaking! These good, wise men. of our day cannorstomach 'the God of Israel, and so they have got an idea of a progressive God because they say we have progressed and as we get a little more intelligent naturally our God becomes more intelligent and more merciful. I will come to this point, The Lord's Critics Answered. I am answering them right now, and the time is going too fast. I have here a book, and I am not going to give you the name of i(. because I dont want you to buy it. I am not going to advertise it by name, but it is written by a professor in one of the great colleges of our country, and I think in the school of divinity. I will not be positive as to that however. I do not know whether I dare tell you the title of the chapter from which I am going to quote, for fear you will find out what book it is. in and get it, and I think it is a disreputable thing. Well, here goes, the chapter, is How the Gods Change. This author is telling how the gods change in character, and how the idea of God developed down through the ages until today people have a god who is merciful and kind. The last chapter in this book I fear I am revealing too much has to do with the death of the gods. We have become so intelligent now, and we know so much that we have outgrown the need of guidance by the gods. Such is the Substance of this book.- Here is a quotation, borrowed from a poem, wrhich heads this chapter. The poem i3 .Dreams and Dust. I will not give you the name of the author of this either, but th is what he says: As the forehead of man grows broader, so do his creeds; And his gods they are shaped in his image, and mirror his deeds; And he clothes them with thunders and beauty, clothes them with music and fire; Seeing not, as he bows by their altars, that he worships his own desire. CHANGING GODS Do you grasp that? So man makes his own god, and I believe it is written in the same book, if not I have read it in other places this very smart saying which portrays the philosophy of the present day Man has created God in his own image.7 I want to tell you that the world today is teachIt is ing this kind of philosophy. found in our schools. This author says, The vitality of the gods is most clearly manifest in their ability to change.7 In section 20 of the Doctrine and - . Covenants and elsewhere in the scriptures, the Lord declares that He is' unchangeable, the same from everlasting to everlasting, but these wise men will not have it so. Now to continue the quotation: They (the gods) draw their qualities from Toots stuck deep into the social lives of their peoples. As the most exalted members of the community, higher than chief or kind, they bear heavy responsibility for the welfare of the folk. So intimately are gods bound to the men they serve, that each group puts its own .individual stamp of cultural Coloring upon its gods. Line after line, their characters are etched in as they share the joys and sorrows, triumphs and defeats, dreams and frustrations of those who trust them. All significant changes in the restless human sc,ene are reflected in the lives of the gods. As long as they are alive they take on new forms, with this advantage over their mortal devotees that they belong to the unseen world and are able to develop without restraint in the forcing soil of human need . . . The great personal gods have grown in moral character through the centuries following the development of the social ideal of thir ever-noble- So we take . -- r peoples. No god could hold his place for long if he were less moral than the ethical standard of his worshipers. Rarely do deities die, however, because men outgrow them in morality. They adjust themselves to the ideals of each new age. There is often a striking transformation in the character of a god at different periods of his history. All the supreme, personal deities must grow to perfection in justice and moral goodness . . . Successful prophets are the great artists in the transformation of their gods. They come in times of social disorder, when the old securities are crumbling and the well-worways of thought and behavior become useless in the presence of new problems. Then these great sages point out the path to salvation, and the gods, accustomed to bear the burden of their devotees, take on the character necessary for the new task. SPEAKS PLAINLY I neiijhiot read more. This fiives you a good idea of the spirit of the times. This man ridicules the idea of God. God is man-madand therefore we do not need Him any more in this enlightened age. We have such a wonderful advanced civilization which is today being shot all to pieces. I wish to speak to you plainly. I am going to quote to you something that was written and delivered by a man who belongs to the Church, an educator, Perhaps it is good that I do not have authority to do what I would like to do. This is part of what he said: Take the idea of God Have we not all felt the impossibility of reconciling a number of Old Testament situations, in which Jahweh figures, with Jesus conception of God the Father? Consider tlje reports of the conquest of West Jordan in the early chapters of Joshua. In the tent chapter, seven times repeated in various forms, is the dire refrain: He (Joshua) sacked the place and massacred all within it, leaving not a single soul alive. One may by a certain kind of rationalizing justify wholesale massacre, I suppose, but when the old writer summarized it all (Joshua 10:40) and makes God responsible for the pitiless business, the reader need not be a sentimental fool if he feels a thrill' of horror at the imputation. Neither should he be thought a heretic if he deliberately jiidges that the Jahweh of the Book of Joshua is not the Father-Goof Jesus. THE SAME SPIRIT ' Does this not smack of the" same spirit as that expressed by the I have not named? Now to continue n e d this mans writing: What criteria of interpretation are available here? Clearly one Is the conception referred to, that of God as Father, in the Intimate way in which Jesus thought of Him. A father, even a normal, earthly father, could not command such wholesale slaughter. How much less the Heavenly Father! the God of Jesus as our norm, not the God of Joshua. But some bright student might intprpsa, Is not God the same in all ages? Without raising the theological point of a developing deity, we might to get on agree that he is. But the answer by no means carries with it the admission that mans ideas of God are the same in all ages. These have undergone change, even within the. Old Testament period, from God as a tribal deity, with all that this conception involves, to the New Testament representation of Humus a Universal-Fath- er. So with this tremendous problem . of the God of the Old Testament, the development view of human society supplies us with the help we heed. And why should wje not use it? A man holding these views certainly does not accept the inspiration of the ancient prophets. He frankly states that the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New. Do you want such a person teaching youtr children and destroying their faith in the revelations of the Lord? If the Testament is not true; if these ancient seers were misled and the conception of God which they held was man-madthen we must likewise discard what is written in the New for Our Lord accepted Testament, what was written and recommended it, e en to these points in dispute. Do ou believe that the God of the Old Testament was merely a tribal God and therefore merely the creation of the imaginations of the prophets of those times? WICKEDNESS OF WORLD When I came home from Europe I was asked to speak before the Sons of the Pioneers about my experiences. In my remarks I said that the present trouble had come upon the world because of its wickedness and that we in the United States were just as wicked as the people of Europe, and, therefore, we could not escape. That was in January 1940. One of our wise men who knows far more than I ever expect to know, took me to task. I hope he is here I do not know who he is, and it seems I cannot find out. He wrote to another brother condemning what I said and the other brother sent me a copy of the letter all but the name I wish to read you a part of this letter: It seems to me . that the time has come when all L. D. S. teachers and preachers should teach that our Savior was a Man of peace, and His Father a loving God, and that surely there was enough bloodletting in the World War to satisfy the most exacting .scriptural literali.st who insists that wars and bloodshed are inescapable in these last days. I shall always teach students that prophecy is conditional (as taught by Jeremiah and theBook of Jonah), that we are free agents, and that human beings have the capacity to bring into existence a just and peaceful social order. I try to teach my students that the Gospel was good news in the days of Jesus and is good news today. But I find that while all of our teachers have thrown off the old theological pessimism of Calvin regarding fatalism, and pre destination of the individual man, at the same time some hold to these doctrines of devils so far as- they can be applied to nations. I not only detest such teaching and try to keep my students from it but so far as I am personally concerned, I keep God out of the present conflict, and all past wars. I do not believe that God has anything to do with the dropping of bombs on women and children in Finland, Poland, Germany or China. The God I worship "does not decree death upon farmers or factory hands from Finland, Russia, or . . (Continued On Page 7) J |