I'm happy to be here today, not here at this pulpit so much, but here in Hawaii on a mission with my sweetheart and companion. Personally, I love being a teacher in the Religion Department, which is the main part of my mission responsibilities. I love being with the students.
At eighteen years of age, I received a patriarchal blessing which stated that I would choose a proper vocation in life. I did. My 38 years with the Church Educational experience was a literal fulfillment of my Patriarch's wisdom under Heaven, as well as the two Church Educational missions that have been added on after retirement. In fact, I'm going to quote one sentence from my blessing. "Inasmuch as you have come into the world at a time when there is much need for sound thinking, especially in a religious way, I bless you that you may be able to help people with respect to their religious ideals." In the judgment day, I suppose the Lord may line up all those who benefited me with such sound thinking in a religious way. And there are many. I hope in some small manner that I'll be standing there in line for some of the students that I've taught. I am staggered by the promises on your heads. You are the "Hope of Israel" at this time of the world's needs, and some of us have a small part to play in your continued development.
Now, to begin my topic on the Character of God, I want to say that I have always known there is a God. From the smallest "little me" in this life, I was taught that Heavenly Father existed, that he heard my prayers. My earliest memories were kneeling at my mother's knee, saying my prayers, and then giving her a good night kiss. That lasted for many years. This training filled my life with a desire to communicate often with God. I must say, because so much of my life was filled with educational experiences, that many of my prayers were offered in classrooms, seeking earnestly to have Heavenly Father's help not only in my preparation but also in the presentation of what I had learned. My increasing educational knowledge, leading to advanced degrees, did not destroy my faith in God, it only enforced it. However, I remember a story that Elder Bruce C. Hafen told of a fellow student's experience while they were together in law school.
One Sunday morning, the Elders Quorum in our ward held a special testimony meeting characterized by spiritual warmth and personal openness. During that meeting, a fellow law student related a boyhood experience that had occurred just after he had been ordained a deacon. He lived on a farm and had been promised that a calf about to be born would be his very own to raise. One summer morning when his parents were away, he was working in the barn when the expectant cow began to calve prematurely. He watched in great amazement as the little calf was born; and then, without warning, the mother suddenly rolled over the little calf. He could see that she was trying to kill it. In his heart he cried out to the Lord for help. Not thinking about how much more the cow weighed than he did, he pushed on her with all his strength and somehow moved her away. He picked up the lifeless body of the calf in his arms and, brokenhearted, the tears running down his cheeks, he looked at it, wondering what had happened and what he could do. Then he remembered, he told us, that he now held the Priesthood and had every right to pray for additional help. And so he prayed from the depths of his boyish, believing heart. Before long the little animal began breathing again, and he knew that his prayer had been heard.
After relating the story, the tears welled up in his eyes and he said to us, "Brethren, I tell you that story because I don't know that I would do now what I did then. I think I might not expect the Lord's help in that kind of situation. I am not sure that I would believe now, even if I relived that experience, that the calf's survival was anything more than a coincidence. I don't understand what has happened to me since that incident, but I sense that something has gone a little bit wrong."
In summary of that experience, you students need to be careful of what you allow in your knowledge bases, from the world. However, you who are getting your education, please know that you have plenty of examples of those who sought advanced degrees all the while deepening their faith in God in the process. I speak the likes of Elder Hafen, who told this story, or the likes of Elder Holland, Elder Nelson, Elder Oaks, and President Eyring --- and the President Wheelwright's of this University. The Lord cares about your educational pursuits. You'll need to stand in those future judgment lines for 100's of people you will affect in the course of your contributions.
Anyway, getting back to my subject of prayer, I love to speak with Heavenly Father. For many years a part of my early morning life has been walking as an exercise, but always walking and studying at the same time, studying the scriptures, and studying lessons I'm to give. I can't begin to comprehend the 1000's of early morning walks in which, in the middle of my studying and pondering, I've prayed for understanding concerning doctrines, concerning the Church, and my family. How would I have ever made it without this special connection with heaven, without a Father whose whole life and purpose is to help us? I have to admit that one of the special treats of being on a mission here in Hawaii, is to have so many of my early morning walks along its beaches, with the water, sun, and majestic scenery forming a back-drop for my heaven-sent help, or walking the sacred grounds of the Laie Temple, or walking the grounds of this precious University. I love this place.
As to my topic today, I am a person that has benefitted by the "Lectures on Faith." These lectures were once the "Preach my Gospel" for the School of the Prophets, which was the "MTC" of that day. After being given in that school to prepare missionaries, those lectures were then placed, by the First Presidency, in the beginning of the Doctrine and Covenants in 1835, along with the revelations the Prophet Joseph had received. The Lectures contain material that I wished I would have known myself when I went on my mission to England in 1962. They are, though, material I taught my children as they went on their missions to Chile, Fresno, and Guatemala, many years later.
If you have heard anything about the Lectures, probably this statement is the one most easily identifiable with them.
"Let us here observe, that three things are necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation. First, the idea that he actually exists. Secondly, a correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes. Thirdly, an actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is according to his will." (LF 3:2-5)
Let me give you a four and a half-minute overview of the seven Lectures on Faith.
First Lecture. There are two kinds of faith, one is the moving cause of all action in us. We can, in a very generic sense, be faithful to golf, basketball, farming, sewing, scrap-booking, and walking. But remember this, faith always has to have an object. We are faithful to something that is in our knowledge bases. The simplest graphic for faith and knowledge would be this.
Faith
Knowledge
Let's remind ourselves that faith is an action, an activity based on something in our knowledge base. The second faith mentioned in Lecture one is a principle of power. If faith is to be a power, then that knowledge base has to be filled with things about God. For instance, if faith were a power unto salvation, then three kinds of knowledge would have to be considered. We would have to know that :
Faith
God exists
Correct characteristics and attributes of God
Our Course in life agreeable to God
Now, the second Lecture. There is an order, a pattern, a manner by which we know there is a God. We have to rely on chosen vessels, like Joseph Smith, to be taken behind the veil, transfigured as it were, to experience God, and then back in our presence, by human testimony, fill our knowledge bases with the fact that God exists. You and I have relied on this kind of testimony for our knowledge about God. Listen to this human testimony given by Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in Section 76:
"And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father..." (D&C 76:22-23)
Now that we know God exists by the testimony of Joseph Smith, lectures three and four teach us the Characteristics and Attributes of God. God is a God of Creation, a God of Mercy, the Same, and No respecter of persons, a God of Truth, and Love. He also is a God of Knowledge, Power, Justice, and Judgment. While you view this graphic, let me read you a critical sentence from the fourth lecture: "The God of heaven, understanding most perfectly the constitution of human nature, and the weakness of men, knew what was necessary to be revealed, and what ideas must be planted in their minds in order that they might be enabled to exercise faith in him unto eternal life." These various characteristics are critical for us to know, and to hold onto, in order that we have faith in God.
Lecture five tells us that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one. They are one, in that they have the same nature. The invitation is then made that all of us can possess the same characteristics, and be transformed into the same likeness.
In fact, Lecture Seven has one of the most powerful inserts necessary for our knowledge bases . "These teachings of the Saviour most clearly show unto us the nature of salvation and what he proposed unto the human family when he proposed to save them: that he proposed to make them like unto himself, and he was like the Father, the great prototype of all saved beings; and for any portion of the human family to be assimilated into their likeness is to be saved; and to be unlike them is to be destroyed; and on this hinge turns the door of salvation."
Lecture Six is the great bugaboo, the great worry for us as Saints. It reminds us that we have a Father in Heaven who believes in our development through our challenges and trials. You've heard this before: "Let us here observe, that a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation... ." (LF 6:5) In other words, as Elder Hafen has also said, we are not here just to gather information, but to learn capacities and have skill development, and this requires that we participate in the process, that we practice those divine skills.
Now, having given you an overview, let me concentrate on the necessity we have to know the character of God. We all know He exists, but when the difficulties of life are enormous, when we are in need of help, the issues will not center on whether God exists or not, but whether we believe in his nature, and can depend upon Him, and trust in Him.
So, let me add something to your knowledge bases.
For every Religion class I teach, whether it is a Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, or Pearl of Great Price class, I require a project. Though there are different options concerning the projects, one of the choices always is to do a "characteristics and attributes of God" project. Though the students are at the beginning edge of learning this business of tracking the nature of God in their scriptures, I have a hope that it will change them somehow. I ask them to choose a color of a marking pencil that would always represent for them the nature of God. (Twenty years ago I chose a light green, Berol Prismacolor, number 920, for my marking pencil.) I ask them to use their chosen color for that subject only, so that every time they open their scriptures, they will be reminded of what the prophets are doing, and what the prophets are doing is teaching us that we can depend and trust in God, in the character of God.
When I was studying the Lectures on Faith many years ago, particularly lectures three and four which show twelve characteristics and attributes of God, I went to the computer, and to the scriptures on computer. I typed in the word "mercy" for just the Book of Mormon text. It immediately displayed every verse in which that word was used, with the "mercy" word highlighted. Reading through each verse carefully, and noting if the mercy word was teaching me about God, I then printed a list of all those words, which required several pages. I then carefully, and meticulously, shaded each of those words in my own personal scriptures. I subsequently repeated that task for the other characteristics of God, like creation, justice, judgment, knowledge, power, love, same, no respecter, and truth.
There was a little " ˜aha' experience with each one that I marked. And furthermore, every time I returned to my scriptures, I was taken by the evidence, splashing my pages in that precious light green color, that the prophets were teaching me about God. After I had gone through all twelve characteristics and attributes in the Book of Mormon, I didn't need to run any more lists for the rest of my scriptures. Something had happened to me, something had registered on my soul. As I began reading the other standard works, I recognized the nature of God on the pages, something to which I had not been sufficiently sensitive before. I even began to see the far more subtle offerings of what the prophets were teaching me.
For instance, if you were to read 2 Nephi 9, one of the most powerful chapters on the atonement, you would find quite easily, especially in the passages that start with the word, "O," a clear declaration of God's nature.
"O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!"
"O the greatness and the justice of our God!"
"O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel!"
This precious, light green coloring in my scriptures, now found on each of these words, spoke to me.
And furthermore, there were subtleties in these declarations by Jacob as well, words that went beyond the 12 characteristics and attributes found in the Lectures.
"O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape... ." Goodness is certainly the nature of God. But what does the word "prepareth" teach me about God? Why would I mark it in green? We'll treat this later in the talk. But, look at some others.
"Oh how great the plan of our God." Why would I mark "plan" in green? What is it about the God of a plan to which I must hold? Does it teach me that he is the same, a God of order, that all gospel dispensations, even all worlds without end, are given the same plan, by a God who is no respecter of persons? Let me address one more.
"O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it."
Surely one of the characteristics we must study is that God is Holy. But it is to this characteristic, "he knoweth all things" that I want to speak particularly. The Lectures state that, "without the knowledge of all things, God would not be able to save any portion of his creatures."
The scriptures indicate that past, present, and future things are "present" before God, or as Joseph Smith referred to it, "God lives in the eternal now." This God, living in the eternal now, with the past, present, and future before his sight, does not say things like, "Oops" as an apology for surprising events. He also doesn't exclaim, "Sorry, I didn't know that would happen," or, "That was a shocker, what in heaven was I thinking?"
One cannot go to the story of Martin Harris, for instance, without having an understanding of God's knowledge.
God is shown here, in this graphic, overseeing a three thousand year period of earth's time. Three individuals play a part in this intriguing story, Nephi, Mormon, and Martin Harris. Let's consider each one.
While Martin was serving as a scribe for Joseph Smith, and having intense pressure from his wife to insure her that he was not wasting his time or money on this fledgling prophet, he importuned Joseph three times to have the ability to show his wife, and a few others, the work in which he was involved. Joseph as a result importuned the Lord three times before this was allowed. A strict covenant was made by Martin to show the 116 pages to only five people, which covenant was broken, and the manuscript was lost. This brought terrible consequences to Martin and to Joseph. It was a time of discipline for both of them, and in the end the Lord counseled Joseph not to go back and re-translate the work of the 116 pages, that a small set of plates, prepared for just such an occasion, should be used.
God's knowledge of Martin's experience, moved upon Nephi, around 570 BC, encouraging him to go back over the large plates and extract and edit, bringing about a record with spiritual highlights. Nephi recorded this:
Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not. But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen" (1 Nephi 9:5-6)
The word "wherefore" in English is a potent word because it ties two ideas together with strong impact. Note this graphic:
The Lord knoweth all things---wherefore---he prepareth the way.
I say Amen to that, as did Nephi.
Now the Lord worked on Mormon, around 385 A.D., and encouraged him to include that small set of plates along with the work which he had been doing in editing and abridging the large plates. Listen to what Mormon recorded in the Words of Mormon."
"I found these plates, which contained this small account... and the things which are upon these plates pleasing me... I chose these things to finish my record..."
And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things, which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will." (Words of Mormon 1: 3-7)
Did you see this other "wherefore" statement of power,
"the Lord knoweth all things, wherefore, he worketh in me..."
I testify that the God of Heaven knoweth all things, wherefore, he prepareth the way, he worketh in us, not just in the global Martin Harris experiences, but in each of our lives, he prepares our way.
Let me interject a principle here, for just a moment, a principle from Elder Bruce R. McConkie, and add this to your knowledge base. He said,
"We have in the Church an untapped, almost unknown, treasury of inspiring and faith-promoting stories. They are the best of their kind and there are thousands of them... They are the ones (the Lord) had his prophets choose and place in the holy scriptures so that we would have samples before us of how to act and what to do in all the circumstances that confront us in life."
Then Elder McConkie said that we should also tell "modern faith-promoting stories," that have "happened in our dispensation" and that "occurred in the lives of living people whom we know." He said it was important to show that the same things were happening to the Saints today. In fact, as we tell such stories along with the scriptural stories, he said, we show that God is the same, that he is no respecter of persons.
And then this conclusion to Elder McConkie's statement.
Perhaps the perfect pattern in presenting faith-promoting stories is to teach what is found in the scriptures and then to put a seal of living reality upon it by telling a similar and equivalent thing that has happened in our dispensation and to our people and: most ideally: to us as individuals.
This graphic is simply an illustration of Elder McConkie's conclusion. The scriptural stories house great principles about God, and our own stories are intended to house similar principles from our day, also about God. Now, we have reviewed the story of Martin Harris that intertwines itself with the Book of Mormon stories, and helps us to know that God is the same, that his knowledge prepares the way. A further question might be, "Do we have our own experiences that confirm that God's knowledge is preparing our way?" For emphasis I repeat, "Do we have our own experiences?" I want to share a story from the Wilson family.
"For a number of years our family lived in Seattle, Washington- nine years, in fact, and we hoped that it would be 90. At the beginning of the ninth year, in September, there were some feelings granted to my wife that "something important" , some kind of change, was going to happen to us that year. Through the years of our marriage, we had both come to respect the gift she had for those quiet prompting's, and so we looked forward with some anticipation to this prompting's fulfillment, whatever it might be. In January, because my supervisor in the Church Educational System became ill, portions of his assignment were parceled out to a couple of us. This new, important, and weighty opportunity was viewed as a fulfillment of my wife's feelings, at least as far as I was concerned. Returning home after traveling and interviewing personnel in western Washington and Alaska, and thrilled at this opportunity for growth and service, I mentioned to my wife that her feelings were certainly right, that "something important" had indeed entered into our lives.
"She had thought much of this experience and simply stated, "This is not what I have been feeling, I believe there is something else which we are still to experience." Shortly thereafter, in just a matter of weeks, she received another impression that we should get our home ready to sell. This time her feelings were more than just expectations, they led to work. However, we acted on those sacred preparatory feelings and began a multitude of tasks to make our home more presentable and saleable.
"After weeks of labor, we wondered why the impression had come. We hadn't even considered that we might be moved by Church Education. However, there was an issue surrounding the school system in the city of Seattle that had caused many to move outside the city limits to adjoining communities. Considering that as a foundation for the impressions, we began looking for another home. We found a lovely house, in an area we liked, and in our price range. After praying about our decision, however, we felt confusion. Only after deciding not to make an offer did we feel we had made the right decision. In fact, we were impressed that we should not look for another home at all, and the peace that followed that decision was confirming.
"A few weeks later, in the second week of June, I received a telephone call from Salt Lake City, the central office of the Church Educational System. My boss asked me if I was sitting down, and when I assured him I was, he asked me to consider a move to the Midwest. Not only did the request shock my wife and me, for we had loved our experiences in Seattle, but it was coming to us four to five months later than most requests normally come, months that would give a family time to sell and buy a home and to make this kind of major transition.
"The next 24 hours given us to make our decision were as difficult as any I had ever lived. The feelings that came to me concerning our neighborhood, our friends, our Church positions, and our Church Education experience were so enormous, that until the decision was made and confirmed by the Lord, I did not once consider all the preparatory blessings the Lord had introduced into our lives to make the move more expeditious. We had been prompted and we had responded--our home was ready to sell. In only a couple of weeks, after making the final arrangements of our home to be shown, we drove to Utah and secured our children with grandparents, and then flew to Indiana to buy a home where we were to live for the next 10 years.
"Our experience in finding a home in Indiana was nothing short of providential. Not only did we feel the Lord's help in purchasing our home, but the only people to walk through our home in Seattle while we were gone made an acceptable offer, and we were able to move rather expeditiously. The Lord's omniscience had prepared the way.
"If someone had stuck a microphone in my face at different stages of our experience that year and asked, "Are you in the middle of a spiritual experience?" I could not have responded completely. I knew we were being directed by the impressions my wife was having, and we were acting on them faithfully. Yes, we were in the middle of a wonderful spiritual experience, and we were just beginning, as we returned from our Indiana house-buying travels to realize its full meaning in our lives. I bear testimony that God's knowledge, as it is indicated in the scriptures and in the Lectures on Faith, is a preparation for us. His knowledge saves us, temporally and spiritually."
Most of us have been affected by Elder David A. Bednar's talk on tender mercies, which really was an enlargement, with stories of our day, of the tender mercies of which Nephi spoke in the first chapter of the Book of Mormon. Said Elder Bednar: "I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord's timing of his tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them... to recognize and treasure these important blessings..."
Elder Gerald N. Lund wrote an entire book based on these passages from the Lectures on Faith which we have highlighted today, and called the book, "Divine Signatures." It is a book with a myriad of examples from people's lives in which the circumstances of the Lord's blessings were so unique that it became clear they were from the Lord. I quote one such story in conclusion today, a story told to Elder Lund by Elder Robert R. Steuer, a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Lund said:
"Some years ago, he (Elder Steuer) served as a mission president in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was his practice with newly arriving missionaries to give them real "missionary experiences" on their very first day as full-time proselyting missionaries. To do this, after their orientation and a dinner at the mission home, they would be sent out that evening with their assigned companions. The seasoned missionary would take the new missionaries out either tracting, street contacting, or giving discussions.
"In one of the groups of new missionaries, there was a Brazilian elder who came from far north of Brazil. It took this missionary about three days travel by bus just to reach the MTC in Sao Paulo for his initial training. On that first evening, after having a good meal, President Steuer announced that the new missionaries would then go out and do missionary work. This new missionary's companion decided they would go tracting, a frightening experience for this shy new elder. The senior companion said he would take the first door and told his companion to watch closely how it was done as the second door would be his.
"The young elder protested, saying he was too frightened, but his companion proceeded to the first door. When this young elder knocked on the second door, the senior companion stepped back and indicated for him to proceed. He shrank back. When the door opened, to the young elder's utter astonishment, the person standing there was his older sister. She had run away from home three or four years earlier. The family had not heard from her since and had no idea where she was, or even if she was still alive. One can imagine the sweetness of that reunion and the tears of joy that were shed that night.
"As he concluded this story, Elder Steuer said two things that deeply impressed me and made the point I'm trying to make. He said, "Not only was his sister one of the first nonmembers he contacted in the mission field, but she became his first convert baptism as well." Then he added,
"As you think about that... , remember, at that time there were between thirteen and fourteen million people in Sao Paulo!"
Now, my last point. I think we have a responsibility when God intervenes so wonderfully in our lives, to record these experiences. Remember Nephi's very first verse of the whole Book of Mormon, a brilliantly organized introduction, which in part goes something like this, "having had a great knowledge of the goodness of God, wherefore, I make a record." Such should be our charge, to record the goodness of God as a testimony that he exists, that he has a nature we can love and trust.
I testify that God exists. I testify that Heavenly Father is perfect in His characteristics and attributes. I know that a simple marking skill, can help us to see more clearly what the prophets having been testifying about God's nature. I believe in this God of Creation, this God of Justice and Mercy. I submit that we are here to become like He is, to be assimilated into His likeness, and to exercise faith in Him, unto Salvation. I testify of the Godhead, that the Father, and the Son, and Holy Ghost, are one, in their natures, which beckons us, by our covenants, to have that same oneness. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.