Spencer W.
Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship,” Tambuli, Aug. 1977, 1
I have heard that the physical sense most closely associated with memory is the
sense of smell. If this is true, then perhaps it explains the many pleasing
feelings that overtake me these mornings when I am able to step outdoors for a
few moments and breathe in the warm and comfortable aromas that I have come to
associate over the years with the soil and vegetation of this good earth.
Now and then, when the moment is right, some particular scent—perhaps only
the green grass, or the smell of sage brought from a distance by a breeze—will
cause me to recall the days of my youth in
We worked
with the land and the cattle in all kinds of weather, and when we traveled, it was on horseback or in open
wagons or carriages, mostly. I used to run like the wind with my brothers and
sisters through the orchards, down the dusty lanes, past rows of corn, red
tomatoes, onions, squash. Because of this, I suppose it is natural to think
that in those days, we
were closer to elemental life.
Some time ago, I chanced to walk outdoors when the dark and massive clouds
of an early afternoon thunderstorm were gathering; and as the large raindrops
began to drum the dusty soil with increasing rapidity, I recalled the
occasional summer afternoons when I was a boy when the tremendous thunderheads
would gather over the hills and bring welcome rain to the thirsty soil of the
valley floor. We
children would run for the shed, and while the lightning danced about, we would sit and
watch, transfixed, marveling at the ever-increasing power of the pounding
rainfall. Afterward, the air would be clean and cool and filled with the sweet
smells of the soil, the trees, and the plants of the garden.
There were evenings those many years ago, at about sunset, when I would walk
in leading the cows. Stopping by a tired old fence post, I would sometimes just
stand silently in the mellow light and the fragrance of sunflowers and ask
myself, “If you were going to create a world, what would it be like?” Now with
a little thought, the answer seems so natural: “Just like this one.”
So on this day, while I stood watching the thunderstorm, I felt—and I feel
now—that this is a marvelous earth on which we find ourselves.
Nevertheless, on this occasion of so many pleasant memories, another
impression entered my thoughts. The dark and threatening clouds that hung so
low over the valley seemed to force my mind back to a topic that the Brethren
have concerned themselves with for many years now—indeed a theme that has often
occupied the attention of the Lord’s chosen prophets since the world began. I
am speaking of the general state of wickedness in which we seem to find the world in these perilous
yet crucially momentous days; and thinking of this, I am reminded of the
general principle that where much is given, much is expected. (See Luke 12:48.)
The Lord gave us a choice world and expects righteousness and obedience to
his commandments in return. But when I review the performance of this earth
people in comparison with what is expected, I am appalled and frightened.
Iniquity seems to abound. The Destroyer seems to be taking full advantage of
the time remaining to him in this, the great day of his power. Evil seems about
to engulf us like a great wave, and we feel that truly, we are living in conditions similar to
those in the days of Noah before the Flood.
I have traveled much in various assignments over the years, and when I pass
through the lovely countryside or fly over the vast and beautiful expanses of
our globe, I compare these beauties with many of the dark and miserable
practices of men, and I have the feeling that the good earth can hardly bear
our presence upon it. I recall the occasion when Enoch heard the earth mourn,
saying, “Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of
the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the
filthiness which is gone forth out of me?” (Moses
7:48.)
The Brethren constantly cry out against that which is intolerable in the
sight of the Lord: against pollution of mind, body, and our surroundings;
against vulgarity, stealing, lying, pride, and blasphemy; against fornication,
adultery, homosexuality, and all other abuses of the sacred power to create;
against murder and all that is like unto it; against all manner of desecration.
That such a cry should be necessary among a people so blessed is amazing to
me. And that such things should be found even among the Saints to some degree
is scarcely believable, for these are a people who are in possession of many
gifts of the Spirit, who have knowledge that lets them put the eternities into
perspective, who have been shown the way to eternal life.
Sadly, however, we
find that to be shown the way is not necessarily to walk in it, and many have
not been able to continue in faith. These have submitted themselves in one
degree or another, to the enticings of Satan and his servants, and joined with
those of “the world” in lives of ever-deepening idolatry.
I use the word idolatry intentionally. As I study ancient scripture,
I am more and more convinced that there is significance in the fact that the
commandment “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” is the first of the Ten
Commandments.
Few men have ever knowingly and deliberately chosen to reject God and his
blessings. Rather, we
learn from the scriptures that because the exercise of faith has always
appeared to be more difficult than relying on things more immediately at hand,
carnal man has tended to transfer his trust in God to material things. Therefore, in all
ages when men have fallen under the power of Satan and lost the faith, they
have put in its place a hope in the “arm of flesh” (D&C
1:19) and in “gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone,
which see not, nor hear, nor know” (Dan.
5:23)—that is, in idols. This I find to be a dominant theme
in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most
is his god;
and if his god
doesn’t also happen to be the true and living God of Israel, that man is laboring in
idolatry.
It is my firm belief that when we read these scriptures and try to “liken
them unto [our]selves,” as Nephi suggested (1
Ne. 19:24), we will see many parallels between the ancient worship of graven
images and behavioral patterns in our very own experience.
The Lord has blessed us as a people with a prosperity unequaled in times
past. The resources that have been placed in our power are good, and necessary
to do our work here on the earth. But I am afraid that many of us have been
surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun
to worship
them as false gods, and they
have power over us. Do we
have more of these good things than our faith can stand? Many people spend most
of their time working in the service of a self-image that includes sufficient
money, stocks, bonds, investment portfolios, property, credit cards,
furnishings, automobiles, and the like to guarantee carnal security
throughout, they hope a long and happy life. Forgotten is the fact that our
assignment is to use these many resources in our families and quorums to build
up the kingdom of God—to
further the missionary effort and the genealogical and temple work; to raise
our children up as fruitful servants unto the Lord; to bless others in every
way, that they may also be fruitful. Instead, we expend these blessings on our own
desires, and as Moroni said, “Ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life,
and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the
afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not.” (Morm.
8:39.)
As the Lord himself said in our day, “They seek not the Lord to establish
his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of
his own God,
whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of
an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon, the
great, which shall fall.” (D&C
1:16; italics added.)
One man I know of was called to a position of service in the Church, but he
felt that he couldn’t accept because his investments required more attention
and more of his time than he could spare for the Lord’s work. He left the
service of the Lord in search of Mammon, and he is a millionaire today.
But I recently learned an interesting fact: If a man owns a million dollars
worth of gold at today’s prices, he possesses approximately one 27-billionth of
all the gold that is present in the earth’s thin crust alone. This is an amount
so small in proportion as to be inconceivable to the mind of man. But there is
more to this: The Lord who created and has power over all the earth created
many other earths as well, even “worlds without number” (Moses 1:33); and when this man
received the oath and covenant of the priesthood (D&C
84:33-44), he received a promise from the Lord of “all that
my Father hath” (D&C
84:38). To set aside all these great promises in favor of a
chest of gold and a sense of carnal security is a mistake in judgement of
colossal proportions. To think that a person has settled for so little is a
saddening and pitiful prospect indeed; the souls of men are far more precious
than this.
One young man, when called on a mission, replied that he didn’t have much
talent for that kind of thing. What he was good at was keeping his powerful new
automobile in top condition. He enjoyed the sense of power and acceleration,
and when he was driving, the continual motion gave him the illusion that he was
really getting somewhere.
All along, his father had been content with saying, “He likes to do things
with his hands. That’s good enough for him.”
Good enough for a son of God? This young man didn’t realize that the power of his
automobile is infinitesimally small in comparison with the power of the sea, or
of the sun; and there are many suns, all controlled by law and by priesthood,
ultimately—a priesthood power that he could have been developing in the service
of the Lord. He settled for a pitiful god, a composite of steel and rubber and
shiny chrome.
An older couple retired from the world of work and also, in effect, from the
Church. They purchased a pickup truck and camper and, separating themselves
from all obligations, set out to see the world and simply enjoy what little
they had accumulated the rest of their days. They had no time for the temple,
were too busy for genealogical research and for missionary service. He lost
contact with his high priests quorum and was not home enough to work on his
personal history. Their experience and leadership were sorely needed in their
branch, but, unable to “endure to the end,” they were not available.
I am reminded of an article I read some years ago about a group of men who
had gone to the jungles to capture monkeys. They tried a number of different
things to catch the monkeys, including nets. But finding that the nets could
injure such small creatures, they finally came upon an ingenious solution. They
built a large number of small boxes, and in the top of each, they bored a hole
just large enough for a monkey to get his hand into. They then set these boxes
out under the trees and in each one they put a nut that the monkeys were
particularly fond of.
When the men left, the monkeys began to come down from the trees and examine
the boxes. Finding that there were nuts to be had, they reached into the boxes
to get them. But when a monkey would try to withdraw his hand with the nut, he
could not get his hand out of the box because his little fist, with the nut
inside, was now too large.
At about this time, the men would come out of the underbrush and converge on
the monkeys. And here is the curious thing: When the monkeys saw the men
coming, they would shriek and scramble about with the thought of escaping; but
as easy as it would have been, they would not let go of the nut so that they
could withdraw their hands from the boxes and thus escape. The men captured
them easily.
And so it often seems to be with people, having such a firm grasp on things
of the world—that which is telestial—that no amount of urging and no degree of
emergency can persuade them to let go in favor of that which is celestial.
Satan gets them in his grip easily. If we insist on spending all our time and
resources building up for ourselves a worldly kingdom, that is exactly what we will inherit.
In spite of our delight in regarding ourselves as modern, and our tendency
to think we
possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had—in spite of these
things, we
are, on the whole, an idolatrous people—a condition most repugnant to the Lord.
We are a
warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the
coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication
of gods of
stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for
protection and deliverance. When threatened, we align ourselves against the enemy
instead of aligning ourselves with the kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call
him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism,
perverting the Savior’s teaching:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:44-45.)
We forget
that if we are
righteous, the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us—and this
is the special promise to the inhabitants of the land of the Americas (see 2 Ne. 1:7)—or he will fight our
battles for us (Ex.
14:14; D&C
98:37, to name only two references of many). This he is able
to do, for as he said at the time of his betrayal, “Thinkest thou that I cannot
now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions
of angels?” (Matt.
26:53.) We
can imagine what fearsome soldiers they would be. King Jehoshaphat and his
people were delivered by such a troop (see 2 Chr.
20), and when Elisha’s life was threatened, he comforted his
servant by saying, “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that
be with them” (2
Kgs. 6:16). The Lord then opened the eyes of the servant,
“And he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha.” (2
Kgs. 6:17.)
Enoch, too, was a man of great faith who would not be distracted from his
duties by the enemy: “And so great was the faith of Enoch, that he led the
people of God,
and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the
Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his
command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar
of the lions were heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly,
so powerful was the word of Enoch.” (Moses
7:13.)
What are we
to fear when the Lord is with us? Can we not take the Lord at his word and
exercise a particle of faith in him? Our assignment is positive: to forsake the
things of the world as goals in themselves; to desist from idolatry and press
forward in faith; to carry the gospel to our enemies, that they might no longer
be our enemies.
We must
leave off the worship
of modern-day idols and a reliance on the “arm of flesh,” for the Lord has said
to all the world in our day, “I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.” (D&C 64:24.)
When Peter preached such a message as this to the people on the day of
Pentecost, many of them “were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts
2:37.)
And Peter answered: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and … receive the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 2:38.)
As we near
the year 2,000, our message is the same as that which Peter gave. And further,
that which the Lord himself gave “unto the ends of the earth, that all that
will hear may hear:
“Prepare ye, prepare ye for that which is to come, for the Lord is nigh.” (D&C 1:11-12.)
We believe
that the way for each person and each family to prepare as the Lord has
directed is to begin to exercise greater faith, to repent, and to enter into
the work of his kingdom on earth, which is The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. It may seem a little difficult at first, but when a person
begins to catch a vision of the true work, when he begins to see something of
eternity in its true perspective, the blessings begin to far outweigh the cost
of leaving “the world” behind.
Herein lies the only true happiness, and therefore, we invite and welcome all men, everywhere,
to join in this work. For those who are determined to serve the Lord at all
costs, this is the way to eternal life. All else is but a means to that end.
Gospel topics: faith, worldliness
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