Gospel automatons

We were very strictly brought up. When I was a little kid, we would sooner be dead than go to a movie on Sunday. That was absolutely unthinkable; we were petrified. But once a year, my mother would take my brother and me, and we would go to a show on Sunday. Well, I thought the lightning would strike us. I would go in tears. It was to [make this point] perfectly clear. If we didn't, we'd be perfectly helpless. We'd be automatons; we'd get no merit for not going. Of course, the lightning didn't strike or anything like that. But it was to show us that we were free to act. We could go if we wanted; therefore, if we didn't go, we got credit for that. Otherwise, we were just paralyzed; we were just automatons. We were just acting automatically. ("Lecture 49: Alma 12-14", Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 2)

Science without religion

Science without religion, like philosophy without religion, has nothing to feed on. . . It is my contention that any branch of human thought without religion soon withers and dies of anemia. ("Science Fiction and the Gospel", Temple and Cosmos)

Right to revelation for all

In recent years, one frequently hears (especially in testimony meetings) such things as, "We are thankful for having a Prophet who can tell us exactly what we have to do and think every moment of the day." The Prophet is a convenient time and trouble saver. Actually, people pester him to death for these things (they always have), as someone ready to bail us out no matter what silly things we've done or what a fool you've made of yourself. We're not going learn anything that way. Let us recall Joseph's warning the people who "were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, [and] . . . neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves" as much as the prophet; but he was not to be called on for every emergency. "It is a great thing to inquire at the hands of God, or to come into His presence; and we feel fearful to approach him, . . . especially about things [which] . . . men ought to obtain in all sincerity . . . for themselves, in humility by the prayer of faith." Don't ask me for revelation in your own affairs, says the leader. You have just as much right to it as I have. ("Criticizing the Brethren", Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints)

The stable societies

What do the other civilizations leave behind, the ones I call the stable ones? The ones after the manner of the old people. They leave themselves behind. Their next generation takes over and carries on. Time means nothing to them. It's an eternal order of the law. The law of consecration is an eternal order. We will just leave ourselves, the culture, behind, without any loss of product. People will have plenty to do and plenty to think of. ("Law of Consecration", Approaching Zion)

That which is of the most importance

There is no free lunch, we say; you get yourself financially fixed, and then you might consider some of the other things. Of course acquisition soon becomes the measure of existence; we become hooked on the idea of "success" and everything goes into it. Yet once you have "succeeded," what else is there? Only retirement. I know of a number of men who looked forward to retirement, only to find when they had reached it that it was too late for the things they knew in their heart all along were the most important. Like the young man with a fine singing voice who worked in a boiler factory to get enough money for music lessons. By the time he had enough, he was stone deaf. ("Goods of First and Second Intent", Approaching Zion)

Does our knowledge equal our zeal?

To keep the Saints always reaching for the highest and best, the utmost of their capacity, requires enormous motivation—and the gospel supplies it. Nothing can excite men to action like the contemplation of the eternities. The quality in which the Saints have always excelled is zeal. Zeal is the engine that drives the whole vehicle: without it we would get nowhere. But without clutch, throttle, brakes, and steering wheel, our mighty engine becomes an instrument of destruction, and the more powerful the motor, the more disastrous the inevitable crack-up if the proper knowledge is lacking. There is a natural tendency to let the mighty motor carry us along, to give it its head, to open it up and see what it can do. We see this in our society today. Scientists tell us that the advancement of a civilization depends on two things: (1) the amount of energy at its disposal, and (2) the amount of information at its disposal. Today we have unlimited energy—nuclear power; but we still lack the necessary information to control and utilize it. We have the zeal but not the knowledge, so to speak. And this the Prophet Joseph considered a very dangerous situation in the Church. Speaking to the new Relief Society, "[he] commended them for their zeal, but said sometimes their zeal was not according to knowledge." What good is the power, he asks, without real intelligence and solid knowledge? ("Zeal Without Knowledge", Approaching Zion)

The Book of Mormon a momentous achievement

A century and a quarter ago, a young man shocked and angered the world by bringing out a large book that he set up beside the Bible, not as a commentary or a key to the scriptures, but as original scripture-- the revealed word of God to men of old--and as genuine history. The book itself declares that it is an authentic product of the Near East. It gives a full and circumstantial account of its own origin. It declares that it is but one of many, many such books that have been produced in the course of history and may be hidden in sundry places at this day. It places itself in about the middle of a long list of sacred writings, beginning with the patriarchs and continuing down to the end of human history. It cites now-lost prophetic writings of prime importance, giving the names of their authors. It traces its own cultural roots in all directions, emphasizing the immense breadth and complexity of such connections in the world. It belongs to the same class of literature as the Bible, but, along with a sharper and clearer statement of biblical teachings, contains a formidable mass of historical material unknown to biblical writers but well within the range of modern comparative study since it insists on deriving its whole cultural tradition, even in details, directly from a specific time and place in the Old World. The Book of Mormon is God's challenge to the world. It was given to the world not as a sign to convert it but as a testimony to convict it. In every dispensation the world must be left without excuse. It is given without reservation or qualification as a true history and the word of God. ("Historicity of the Bible", Old Testament and Related Studies)