Home

My Purpose

Topics
   The Constitution
   Education
   Secret Combinations
   Our Decline
   Money
   Only a Virtuous People
   War
   Most Recently Added
   More...

Founding Documents
   The Declaration of Independence
   The Constitution
   The Bill of Rights
   The Articles of Confederation
   The Magna Carta

Other
   Other Resources
   Recommended Reading
   Authors
   What Others Are Saying
   How You Can Help


Jesus Christ—Gifts and Expectations

(Ezra Taft Benson, New Era, May 1975.)

The following is an extract from President Benson's talk.

If you see some individuals in the Church doing things that disturb you, or you feel the Church is not doing things the way you think they could or should be done, the following principles might be helpful:

God has to work through mortals of varying degrees of spiritual progress. Sometimes he temporarily grants to men their unwise requests in order that they might learn from their own sad experiences. Some refer to this as the “Samuel principle.” The children of Israel wanted a king like all the other nations. The prophet Samuel was displeased and prayed to the Lord about it. The Lord responded by saying, Samuel, “they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” The Lord told Samuel to warn the people of the consequences if they had a king. Samuel gave them the warning. But they still insisted on their king. So God gave them a king and let them suffer. They learned the hard way. God wanted it to be otherwise, but within certain bounds he grants unto men according to their desires. Bad experiences are an expensive school that only fools keep going to.

Sometimes in our attempts to mimic the world, and contrary to the prophet’s counsel, we run after the world’s false educational, political, musical, and dress ideas. New worldly standards take over, a gradual breakdown occurs, and finally, after much suffering, a humble people are ready to be taught once again a higher law.

Now during all this gradual lowering of standards, the righteous should be living up to the highest personal standards they can, not forcing those standards on others, but preparing for and awaiting a better day, which surely must come.

This leads me to another principle, and that is that a leader cannot lead without followers. If better standards are to be observed, there must be a better people to do it.

The Book of Mormon talks about clearing away the branches “which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish.”

“… wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad.” (Jacob 5:65–66.)

Only a Zion people can bring in a Zion society. And as the Zion people increase, so we will be able to incorporate more of the principles of Zion until we have a people prepared to receive the Lord.

This means that in due time there will be an increasing number of textbooks written by inspired men of the Church. There will be less and less of a tendency to subscribe to the false teachings of men. There will be more and more a tendency to first lay the groundwork of the gospel truth in every subject and then, if necessary, show where the world may fall short of that standard.

In due time there will be increased teaching by the Spirit of God, but that can only take place if there is a decreased promotion of the precepts of men.

We seek that which is praiseworthy, lovely, virtuous, and of good report, and we salute Beethoven, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, and Michelangelo. In due time we will also have more of our own giants—particularly great father-patriarchs and noble companions and mothers of men. Certain music heard and art seen and clothes worn must pass away—not because the styles change, but because our standards will be improved.

When individual actions of some Church members disturb you, here’s another principle to consider. And this is the principle of stewardship. As the kingdom grows larger, more and more responsibilities have to be delegated and stewardships handed out. Men respond in different degrees of valiancy to their stewardships. God is very patient and long-suffering as he waits for some of us to rise to our responsibilities. He usually gives a man a long enough rope and a long enough time to either pull himself up to the presence of God or drop off somewhere below. But while God is patient, no puny arm of man in his stewardship can long impede or pervert the work of the Lord. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind ever so finely.

Because God has given men their agency, there will always be those who will misuse it. The gospel net draws in the good and the bad, the best and the worst. The worst because the devil, before the final cleansing, put some of his followers within the kingdom in order to try and destroy it. We have some of them within the kingdom today, and in due course their number shall be known. Time has a way of taking care of all things, of elevating the good and bringing down the bad. If we see things going on within the kingdom that disturb us, we might first resolve, if the matter falls within our stewardship, to go to the person or people involved. If it is of such a nature that we think it should be called to the attention of higher authority, then we can, in a kindly and quiet manner, take the necessary steps at the proper level.

To publish differences we may think we have with the leaders of the Church, to create strife and division, is a sure road to apostasy. Our task is to stick with the kingdom, to not let anything or anybody disaffect or sour us toward that great gift that Christ has given us—his church.