I miss Elder Maxwell…

There are other things we can do daily to bolster the faith of others as well as our own. Peter prescribed: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

The word answer here means a verbal defense or a reason statement. The very act of so giving our witness will help not only others but also ourselves. As Brigham Young said, we will grow in the knowledge of the truth as we “impart knowledge to others,” by means of which we “will also grow and increase.” Hence, President Young continued, “Wherever you see an opportunity to do good, do it, for that is the way to increase and grow in the knowledge of the truth.” If, instead, we are reluctant to do good, we “will become contracted” in our views and feelings.

-Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Lord, Increase Our Faith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1994), 113-114.

Elder Maxwell, I think, knew that the word was Gr. apologia, whence we get “apology.” But instead of “being sorry,” it meant “the defense of a position, answer back, reply.” I might paraphras as “Be prepared to explain the reasons for your faith,” which for me lies in the same ballpark as the idea kicked around the Naccle of inoculation (see here by DMI Dave, or here by me) or put more scripturally, “preparing [our] minds to be faithful to the Lord their God.” (Alma 48:7)

In context of rumors, random stories, space doctrine, and basically the kind of thing missionaries pass around without any kind of substantiated provenance, President Lee said,
“…it never ceases to amaze me how gullible some of our Church members are…”

— President Harold B. Lee, “Admonitions for the Priesthood of God”, Ensign, Jan 1973

I’ll admit upfront that there’s more than one way to read this.

Dogmatic assertions do not take the place of revelation, and we should be satisfied with that which is accepted as doctrine, and not discuss matters that, after all disputes, are merely matters of theory. Your brethren, (Signed) JOSEPH F. SMITH, ANTHON H. LUND, CHARLES W. PENROSE.

-James R. Clark, comp., Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-75], 4:264-65.

At first read, I take it to mean that in absence of clear revelation, doctrine cannot be established through dogmatic repetition or assertion, regardless of who is doing it. However logical the assertion may seem, one must wait for revelation. In that light, a letter (apparently never sent) from President Reuben J. Clark to Elder Joseph Fielding Smith seems relevant. They had a bit of an argument over things like the creation and age of the earth. Clark responded to Smith thus.

You [Smith] seem to think I [Clark] reject the scriptures, or some of them. I do not intend to do so, but obviously I am no more bound by your interpretation of them than you are by mine….Now, as to what the earlier brethren have said–where they have declared themselves as speaking under inspiration and by the authority of the Lord, I bow to what they say. But where they express views based on their own understanding and interpretation, then none of us are foreclosed from exercising our own reasoning powers, inadequate though they may be; but the earlier views do not foreclose us from thinking. This is particularly true, where we come to interpreting their interpretations.

-D. Michael Quinn, J. Reuben Clark- the Church Years (BYU Press, 1983):167-168. That whole chapter of the bio, on Clark’s views on faith, reason and intellect is fascinating, worth reading, and available online.

Discuss.

“We set up assumptions, based upon our best knowledge, but can go no further.”- Elder John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, 126.

Widtsoe was a European, a Harvard grad, a scientist, and an Apostle, a unique combination I don’t believe has been duplicated since. (President Eyring comes close, although New Jersey, a foreign country to many of us, isn’t technically in Europe.)

Widtsoe makes this statement in context of thinking about the Flood. What I find striking about it is how rarely we find recognition in Apostolic or official LDS discourse about the limits of our revealed knowledge and the assumptions that we all make.

President Hugh B. Brown made this statement to the BYU student body in 1969 (emphasis added)- [Read more...]