The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about "Have a nice day!" These vapid, shallow memes, and the sermons which produce them seem to be the only thing we are capable of enduring.1 Searching the scriptures is laborious.2 Searching the prophets is laborious and it requires discernment. The gospel net of our minds catches the good and the bad, and the bad must be cast away.3

When we talk about "rulers in heaven"4 it is not as the Gentiles think about "rulers" as a "benefactor"5 or someone who rules them with a strong hand and supposedly keeps them from danger.6 A ruler in heaven is someone that teaches, it is a yardstick, something to measure against. When we stand up to the Ruler of Heaven, our shallow sermons that are considered by some as so abidingly deep and meaningful, that we have used as our support will melt away as the hoar frost in that day. In that day we will not be able to lean upon the broken reed of our "benefactors".

The scriptures, the prophets were given to us as a way to voluntarily associate ourselves with them. They came as servants to gather us, even beyond the grave.7 When we give up that association such that we don't even know what they've said, we don't even know the vocabulary or what the teachings are that we should be receiving. Instead of voluntarily associating, we have voluntarily disassociated ourselves from their measure. We reject the labor that is required. We have disassociated ourselves with them by our indifference to what has been given and instead substituted something else.

We hold up a rotten slimy fish to the world and proclaim we will sit on a throne with Abraham. Do those who claim to be able to sit on his throne, when they thoughtfully and honestly consider it, really think they do or have done the works of Abraham?

It might be summed up in this way:

"And they who remain shall also be quickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received. For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift. And again, verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law and perfected and sanctified by the same. That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice, nor judgment." (D&C 88:32-35)

 

Notes

1. "...the things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! if thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity—thou must commune with God. How much more dignified and noble are the thoughts of God, than the vain imaginations of the human heart! None but fools will trifle with the souls of men. How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God..." (Joseph Smith, HC 3:20)

2. In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (JSH 1:10-11)

3. "Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass. And again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, and many other things connected with the Church, and this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation. Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid open to our understandings, and the true meaning and intention of their more mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of." (JSH 1:73-74)

4. "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever." (Abraham 3:23-26)

5. "And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth." (Luke 22:24-27)

6. Our Republic: Trading Freedom for Security. These quotes which once typified the strength of character of the original founders belie what our society has become. Christ accurately pinpointed the Gentile defect, and it is the admiration of and looking to a great strongman who will save us either in national or religious security.

7. "And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come. And you that will not partake of the goodness of God, and respect the words of the Jews, and also my words, and the words which shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the Lamb of God, behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day. For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen." (2 Nephi 33:13-15)