As
prophesied by Jesus (in Matthew 24:24), personal apostasy is a great tragedy
and sign of our times, the last days. The Salt
Lake Tribune and various bloggers dutifully keep readers posted on the
names of the latest publicity seeking malcontents/apostates to resign or be
excommunicated. (This is a curious development indeed. Many decades ago the Church News used to list the names of
those excommunicated as a way to warn members against evil and apostate
influences; now they don’t do that but the excommunicants and resigners themselves
do. After all what good is it to resign if you don’t do it noisily and with
fanfare in some protest or online?)
Yet
personal apostasy is a deeply serious matter with eternal consequences for the
deceived individual and whomever he or she deceives and convinces to follow
them. Their disbelief or anger changes nothing; they are still subject to the
buffetings of Satan in this life and in the next (see D&C 82:21; 104:9-10).
Elder Boyd K. Packer warned: “Remember: When you see the bitter apostate, you
do not see only an absence of light; you see also the presence of darkness” (as
quoted in Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,
115.) Personal apostasy is a serious and grave matter indeed. Not that long
ago, the First
Presidency issued a letter, likely directed toward extremists and
activists, in which they gave counsel and also defined personal apostasy. Because
of the negative, devilish demeanor exuded by many bitter apostates and also the
common mockery of the sacred, I have heard some very experienced and capable
church leaders say that they would rather work with ten adulterers than one angry
apostate.
From Determining Doctrine:
Mark E. Petersen:
From time
to time in the Church section of The Deseret News…that publication carries a list of names
of individuals who have been excommunicated from this Church. These
excommunicants at one time were all members of the kingdom of God.
One of the
reasons people apostatize from the Church is that they have failed to heed the
warning of the scriptures against listening to false teachers who raise their
voices in our midst. In spite of the fact that these warnings of the scriptures
are crystal clear, many of our people fail to heed them….
How do
these false teachers lead people astray? They do so by attacking the
fundamental doctrines of the Church. They attack the Authorities of the Church.
They attack the teachings of the Authorities. They seek to develop doctrinal
disputes among the people to undermine their faith, and they lead people into
apostasy when they do such things as that. Very often false teachers who have
come among us endeavor to justify their position by claiming to have received
some revelation or dream directing them, they say, in the paths which they
tread. (Conference Report, Oct. 1945, 88-89.)
Spencer W. Kimball:
Apostasy
usually begins with question and doubt and criticism. It is a retrograding and
devolutionary process. The seeds of doubt are planted by unscrupulous or
misguided people; and seldom directed against the doctrine at first, but more
often against the leaders….
Apply this
in modern times and you have the so-called reformers. Many budding apostates
follow the pattern progressively. They allege love for the gospel and the
Church but charge that leaders are a little “off the beam”! Soon they claim
that the leaders are making changes and not following the original programs. Next
they say that while the gospel and the Church are divine, the leaders are
fallen. Up to this time it may be a passive thing, but now it becomes an active
resistance and frequently the blooming apostate begins to air his views and to
crusade. He is likely now to join groups who are slipping away. He may become a
student of the Journal of Discourses
and is flattered by the evil one that he knows more about the scriptures and
doctrines than the Church leaders who, he says, are now persecuting him. He
generally wants all the blessings of the Church; membership, its Priesthood,
its temple privileges, and expects them from the leaders of the Church, though
at the same time claiming that those same leaders have departed from the path. He
now begins to expect persecution and adapts a martyr complex, and when finally
excommunication comes he associates himself with other apostates to develop or
strengthen cults. At this stage he is likely to claim revelation for himself;
revelations from the Lord directing him in his interpretation and his actions. These
manifestations are superior to anything from living leaders, he claims. He is
now becoming quite independent….
Some of
these people disappointed, perhaps ignored in their ambitions, hungry for leadership,
are deceivers of the first order. To them there is little help we can give. Others
are the deceived, the confused and frustrated, honest and sincere at least in
their first movements. (“That You May Not Be Deceived,” Address given to the
Brigham Young University Studentbody, November 11, 1959 , 5-7.)
J.
Reuben Clark:
I have come to feel that there is
none who can safely rationalize. And I am persuaded more to that by what
happened in the early Christian Church, which, lacking a head that was effective
during the early centuries, drifted away because they tried to make God's plan
accord with their reason, and with the reason of the pagan philosophies.
I am persuaded we must watch
carefully that we do not follow along those paths. Some of the greatest
heresies that have crept into the Christian religion came in through a very few
men who held no real official position, mostly, but who spent their time and
their talents, and they were great, in trying to rationalize the gospel of
Jesus Christ. There is some evidence—these were called "schoolmen,"
and the results of their work "scholasticism,"—and I am persuaded
that we have some tendency in that direction as among ourselves, and I hope
that the people will not listen to the rationalizing of men who undertake to
make God's plan conform to what they think it should be in their weak and
ineffective reasonings. (Conference Report, April 1952, 95.)
Mark E. Petersen:
So,
Latter-day Saints, beware of false teachers. When men come among you and begin
to preach doctrines unto you which tend to destroy your confidence in the holy
scriptures, when men come among you as they are now coming, declaring to you
that the appointment of George Albert Smith as President of this Church is not
valid, because they say this Church should only have seven presidents and no
more, when people come among you declaring that Christ is not divine, or when
they come among you advocating the so-called practice of plural marriage,
contrary to the teachings of this Church and contrary to the law of the land,
when they come among you declaring that you can enter into domestic relations
with another man or another woman without committing adultery, when you do not
have a marriage bond which is recognized as legal by the law of this land, or
when a man comes among you declaring that the Church is off the track and that
he is one mighty and strong sent to set the church in order, or when anyone
comes and tells you that temple marriage is just a fad and that it has no
relationship to your exaltation in the kingdom of God, or when someone comes to
you, as one group is now doing, preaching that reincarnation is a Christian
doctrine, or when men come to you declaring that predestination is one of the
doctrines of the gospel, declaring that one group of the Saints is predestined
to go to one degree of glory and another group of the Saints is predestined to
go to another degree of glory, or when they come among you declaring that they
have had dreams and visions about some get-rich-quick scheme by which they are
going to save the Church financially in some period of distress, or when they
come to you and declare that the method of administering the sacrament of the
Lord’s supper is to be changed, contrary to all the teachings of the
scriptures, or when they come to you and say you can serve two masters, that
you can serve the Church and also one of these wild-cat cults that are starting
up, when you hear thinking of this kind you remember that such doctrines cause
dissention among the people, that they cause disputes which lead to apostasy
and that the Lord condemned disputes of that kind….
Surely the
latter-day Saints, of all people, should be on their guard against false
doctrines. Have we forgotten the warning that was given to us by the Savior, as
he appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the sacred grove during that first
vision? Have we forgotten that there the Savior declared that man-made
religious doctrines are an abomination in his sight?
The Lord
has foreseen the fact that the Saints would need protection against false
teachers, and he foresaw the need of setting safeguards in the church to give
them that protection….
So if you
really desire to avoid deceptions, if you really desire to do that which is
right and proper, then you take advantage of the safeguard that the Lord has
given you in the organization of this Church. And you remember that if you will
follow the teachings of your inspired prophets, seers, and revelators, or your
apostles, or your pastors and teachers, your bishops and your stake presidents,
you won’t need to wonder whether or not such and such a doctrine is a
deception, whether it is false or whether it is true, because those authorized
servants of the Lord will lead you into paths of righteousness, and they will
keep you on the right track.
Salvation
comes not by being tossed about by every wind of doctrine but by learning the
truth as it is taught by the inspired, authorized servants whom he has set in
this Church. (Conference Report, October 1945, 90-92.)
Bruce R. McConkie:
This [false
doctrine] is a perfect illustration of how doctrinal misjudgment can lead
people away from the truth and eventually out of the Church. People begin to
believe something that is not taught by the Church, then they refuse to accept
the counsel of those whose right it is to interpret the doctrines, then they
feel the Church is out of line and they are right, and finally they begin to
criticize the Brethren. The spirit of the devil takes over in their lives, and
unless they repent they go out of the Church to destruction. (Quoted in Joseph
Fielding McConkie, The Bruce R. McConkie
Story: Reflections of a Son [Salt
Lake City : Deseret
Book, 2003], 355.)
Hugh
Nibley:
It is
perfectly natural for the young who discover the world of scholarship for the
first time to strike in their sophomoric zeal an intellectual pose, rail in
high terms against the Church that has kept them in darkness all these years,
and catalogue the defects and miscalculations of the Prophets in the light of
their own scholarly elevation. (“Educating the Saints—a Brigham Young Mosaic,” BYU
Studies, vol. 11 [1970-71], Number 1-Autumn, 1970, 87.)
Gordon B. Hinckley :
Every
individual in the Church is free to think as he pleases, but when an individual
speaks openly and actively and takes measures to enlist others in opposition to
the Church and its programs and doctrines, then we feel there is cause for
action. (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley
[Salt Lake City :
Deseret Book, 1997], 95.)
Mark E. Petersen:
I have had
members of apostate cults come to me and bear their testimonies. They say that
they have read and studied the revelations of self-styled prophets and have
prayed about them and have received testimonies from the Holy Spirit that these
so-called revelations were true. They have told me that they have even felt a
burning in their bosoms as a sign of the truth of these things.
Yet the men
who reportedly get these revelations were out of harmony with the Church, out
of harmony with the Spirit of God, and their “revelations” were not of God.
But how
could people get these alleged testimonies of the truth of these obviously
erroneous revelations? They got them from Lucifer, who can appear as an angel
of light, who can give false and lying revelations, and who can so mislead
people that they are duped into believing that these alleged revelations and
testimonies are true; so they turn their backs upon the actual truth to accept
these falsehoods. (“Revelation,” Address to religious educators, 24 August 1954 . Cited in Charge to Religious Educators, 2nd
ed. [Salt Lake City :
Church Educational System and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
1982], 134.)
Joseph
F. Smith:
You find the spirit of contention
only among apostates and those who have denied the faith, those who have turned
away from the truth and have become enemies to God and his work. There you will
find the spirit of contention, the spirit of strife. There you will find them
wanting to "argue the question," and to dispute with you all the time.
Their food, their meat, and their drink is contention which is abominable in
the sight of the Lord. We do not contend. We are not contentious, for if we
were we would grieve the Spirit of the Lord from us, just as apostates do and
have always done.—Apr. C. R., 1908, p. 7. (Gospel Doctrine, comp.
John A. Widtsoe [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1939], 372.)
The
First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, Anthon H. Lund, 1905):
In conclusion we would say that the
Latter-day Saints by this time should be so well settled in the conviction that
God has established his Church in the earth for the last time, to remain, and
no more to be thrown down or destroyed; and that God's house is a house of
order, of law, of regularity, that erratic disturbers of that order of men of
restless temperament, who, through ignorance and egotism, become vain babblers,
yet make great pretensions to prophetic powers and other spiritual graces and
gifts, ought not to have any influence with them, nor ought the Saints to be
disturbed in their spirit by such characters and their theories. The Church of Christ
JOSEPH
F. SMITH,
JOHN
R. WINDER,
ANTHON
H. LUND,
First
Presidency.
(Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine: Selections from the Sermons
and Writings of Joseph F. Smith, comp. John A. Widtsoe [Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book, 1939], 381.)
George
Albert Smith:
The adversary is not asleep. He is
deceiving many and leading them to sin. Reference has been made to the fact
that in our own community there are those who fail to appreciate their
privileges. There are some who are teaching false doctrine; and some who are
seeking to persuade men and women to violate the commandments of our Heavenly
Father. There are those who pretend to be inspired and who would take the
leadership of the people, if they were so permitted. Of course they are not
capable to lead and in their own lives are living improperly, and the adversary
is using them as tools by which others may be deceived.
There is
only one pathway of safety for me in this day and that is to follow those whom
the Lord has appointed to lead. I may have my own ideas and opinions, I may set
up my own judgment with reference to things, but I know that when my judgment
conflicts with the teachings of those that the Lord has given to us to point
the way, I should change my course. (Conference Report, April 1937, 32-33.)
From the Book of Mormon:
And again I speak unto you who deny
the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no
revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues,
and the interpretation of tongues;
Behold
I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ;
yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them.
For
do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him
there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
And
now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom
there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who
is not a God of miracles. (Mormon 9:7-10.)
Gordon B. Hinckley :
It is a
fact that we lose some—far too many. Every organization of which I am aware
does so. But I am satisfied that we retain and keep active a higher percentage
of our members than does any other major church of which I know. (“The Church
Grows Stronger,” Ensign, May 2004,
4.)
Really enjoyed your sharing these quotes. Elder Packer's statement hit the nail on the head:
ReplyDelete“Remember: When you see the bitter apostate, you do not see only an absence of light; you see also the presence of darkness”