This
is a talk given by President Spencer W. Kimball in Oct. 1974! It is long – but maybe
one of the most important you’ll ever read or listen too. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1974/10/god-will-not-be-mocked?lang=eng
God
Will Not Be Mocked
Spencer
W. Kimball
My
brothers and sisters and friends, how happy we are to see you here at this
conference, the leaders and the members. We hope that you will be inspired by
proceedings of this conference.
In press conferences which we attend, we are frequently asked:
“Well, what is the condition of the Church?” We answer, “The Church is well and
growing and is strong and healthy. Thank you.”
As we
approach the conference, we have 661 stakes. There were but 148 when I came to
the headquarters of the Church in 1943. There were no stakes abroad, and we
were to wait for many years before the Church began to cross the oceans and the
great land masses. Already, since President Romney organized the Auckland, New
Zealand, Stake in May 1958—there are 86 stakes overseas. We now have 112
missions, plus the 661 stake missions, and we now have approximately 18,000
missionaries, whereas in 1943 there was a very small group, relatively. We are
happy with the growth, which is consistent and continues to be stable.
And
when we are asked why we are such a happy people, our answer is: “Because we
have everything—life with all its opportunities, death without fear, eternal
life with endless growth and development.”
With
3.3 million members of many races and numerous lands in the north, the south,
east, and west, we will soon close another year of development and growth.
The
people are attending their meetings and looking after their personal
responsibilities. The temples are increasing in numbers, and the work at the
temples indicates great spirituality. The educational program is pleasing, with
the university and the colleges, the institutes and seminaries, and the
ecclesiastical organizations of the Church all teaching. And knowledge is
expanding and testimonies are deepening.
The
construction program continues to expand throughout the land so that whereas
many church buildings throughout the world are turned into bars or are boarded
up and abandoned, we are building almost daily new chapels throughout the
world, and they are filled with happy, faithful people.
We
are not satisfied or boastful, but keep in mind constantly what the Savior has
said to us:
“If
ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
“And
ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31–32.)
We
must remember the Lord’s great prayer:
“I
pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou
shouldest keep them from the evil.
“They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:15–17.)
Now,
brothers and sisters, we have launched a cleanup campaign. We are a throw-away
people. Trash piles grow faster than population by far. Now we ask you to clean
up your homes and your farms. “Man is the keeper of the land, and not its
possessor.”
Broken
fences should be mended or removed. Unused barns should be repaired, roofed,
painted, or removed. Sheds and corrals should be repaired and painted, or
removed. Weedy ditch banks should be cleared. Abandoned homes could probably be
razed. We look forward to the day when, in all of our communities, urban and
rural, there would be a universal, continued movement to clean and repair and
paint barns and sheds, build sidewalks, clean ditch banks, and make our
properties a thing of beauty to behold.
We
have asked leaders of youth groups, auxiliary organizations, and priesthood
quorums to give power to this concentrated action for beautification.
The
Lord said:
“The
earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” (Ps. 24:1.)
“And
I the Lord God, took the man [Adam], and put him into the Garden of Eden, to
dress it, and to keep it.” (Moses 3:15.)
Therefore,
we urge each of you to dress and keep in a beautiful state the property that is
in your hands.
Again
we are approaching an election. This is most important to us. We urge you to
study the platforms and acquaint yourself with the candidates. Then pray to the
Lord for guidance, and go to the polls and vote.
We
warn you against the so-called polygamy cults which would lead you astray.
Remember the Lord brought an end to this program many decades ago through a
prophet who proclaimed the revelation to the world. People are abroad who will
deceive you and bring you much sorrow and remorse. Have nothing to do with
those who would lead you astray. It is wrong and sinful to ignore the Lord when
he speaks. He has spoken—strongly and conclusively.
We
urge you to teach your children honor and integrity and honesty. Is it possible
that some of our children do not know how sinful it is to steal? It is
unbelievable—the extent of vandalism, thievery, robbery, stealing. Protect your
family against it by proper teaching.
Brothers
and sisters, we teach all of our people to be loyal. “We believe in being
subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring,
and sustaining the law.” (A of F 1:12.) Be loyal and true.
Perhaps
one of the most distinguishing features of the Church is the fact that its
people abstain from liquor, tea, coffee, and tobacco. Of course, there are some
who apparently have not the courage nor the testimony to follow this program,
but numerous thousands observe it strictly.
One
of the many revelations of God through a living prophet was the 89th
section of the Doctrine and Covenants, giving what is known as the Word of
Wisdom. For 141 years now we have been practicing this great truth embodied in
that revelation that we would abstain from wine and strong drinks, that tea and
coffee are not for the body, and that we should not use tobacco in any form,
that it is good only for bruises and all sick cattle. (See D&C 89:8.)
We
noted recently of a community in Minnesota which set up a “D-Day” in which,
through all their agencies, they persuaded people to give up smoking. In their
January 7 “D-Day,” they reported 271 smokers who gave up that habit. We commend
such an awake community and its leaders.
Now
after all these years, we find that many of the medical profession and others
agree that numerous diseases are the result of the use of these things. I
remember standing by a hospital bed of a good friend of mine, and I watched him
die of cancer. His physicians said it was caused by the use of tobacco. I have
helped bury people who have been killed by the demon alcohol, and many other
innocent people died because someone was driving who had been drinking.
The
use of liquor has brought much sorrow, pain, suffering, death to innocent
bystanders. Some social drinkers claim they will never become alcoholic, but
how sure can they be?
Those
who break the Word of Wisdom have strange and spurious excuses for the using of
these obnoxious things. How can anyone ignore the revelations given through a
living prophet? The Lord reiterated it through another prophet and made it a
definite commandment.
We
deplore the practice of many business and professional firms and others who
serve liquor as a part of the entertainment in their special parties. We are
especially concerned that at Christmas time many celebrate this holy birth of
Jesus Christ our Lord with a so-called social hour which surely must be an
affront to him. Is it not a sad reflection upon people to have to drink to have
a good time, or to take a stimulant to give them energy or self-assurance?
We
hope our people will eliminate from their lives all kinds of drugs so far as
possible. Too many depend upon drugs as tranquilizers and sleep helps, which is
not always necessary.
Certainly
numerous young people have been damaged or destroyed by the use of marijuana
and other deadly drugs. We deplore such.
We
call attention also to the habit in which many buy their commodities on the
Sabbath. Many employed people would be released for rest and worship on the
Sabbath if we did not shop on that day. Numerous excuses and rationalizations
are presented to justify the Sunday buying. We call upon all of you to keep the
Sabbath holy and make no Sunday purchases.
We
hope faithful Latter-day Saints will not use the playing cards which are used
for gambling, either with or without the gambling. As for the gambling, in
connection with horse racing or games or sports, we firmly discourage such
things.
In
the welfare meeting tomorrow morning much will be said regarding that program.
We regret that there are so many people who are shifting the responsibilities
of parents to institutions.
Some
have become casual about keeping up their year’s supply of commodities. We hope
that there may be sufficient funds and commodities in the Church program to
take care of the people for their emergency necessities, and we urge the people
to do something constructive by way of reciprocating for that which they
receive. We urge our bishops to be wise in their providing help, neither stingy
nor overgenerous, and that the people who need the temporary assistance will be
honest and fair and wise.
Should
evil times come, many might wish they had filled all their fruit bottles and
cultivated a garden in their backyards and planted a few fruit trees and berry
bushes and provided for their own commodity needs.
The
Lord planned that we would be independent of every creature, but we note even
many farmers buy their milk from dairies and home owners buy their garden
vegetables from the store. And should the trucks fail to fill the shelves of
the stores, many would go hungry.
We
believe in work. We remember the fourth of the Ten Commandments says, “Six days
shalt thou labour, and do all thy work” (Ex. 20:9), and we are not sure that the rapidly
decreasing work week is beneficial to mankind. We think the Lord knew what he
was talking about. It would seem that we are play-conscious, travel-conscious,
and our economy seems to be providing for the traveling public and the gaming
public and the drinking public.
We
are also concerned with the great waste from our homes and stores and
restaurants and otherwise. After the usual banquet, enough is carried out in
the garbage to feed numerous mouths that have been drooling for a bite to eat
in less-favored countries. Many are starving, and we throw away much and waste
much.
We
have always encouraged the members to own their own homes. We seem to see a
different brand of stability among those who own their homes. Analysts claim
that hard times could come again. And we wonder what our people will do who
have been spending their all and more. If employment and income should reduce,
what then? Are you living beyond your means? Do you owe what you cannot pay if
times became perilous? Are your shock absorbers in condition to take a shock?
Food
costs are high, we know, but how much better off you are than if your
employment were to terminate or incomes be greatly reduced.
When
we go to places of entertainment and mingle among people, we are shocked at the
blasphemy that seems to be acceptable among them. The commandment says, “Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” (Ex. 20:7.) Except in prayers and proper
sermons, we must not use the name of the Lord. Blasphemy used to be a crime
punishable by heavy fines. Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express
itself forcibly.
We
hope that our parents and leaders will not tolerate pornography. It is really
garbage, but today is peddled as normal and satisfactory food. Many writers
seem to take delight in polluting the atmosphere with it. Seemingly, it cannot
be stopped by legislation. There is a link between pornography and the low,
sexual drives and perversions. We live in a culture which venerates the orgasm,
streaking, trading wives, and similar crazes. How low can humans plunge! We
pray with our Lord that we may be kept from being in the world. It is sad that
decent people are thrown into a filthy area of mental and spiritual pollution.
We call upon all of our people to do all in their power to offset this ugly
revolution.
It is
ridiculous to imply that pornography has no effect. There is a definite
relationship to crime. Murder, robbery, rape, prostitution, and commercialized
vice are fed on this immorality. Sex statistics seem to reflect a relationship
between crime and pornography.
It is
utterly without redeeming social value. We urge our families to protect their
children in every way possible. We live in a permissive world, but we must make
certain we do not become a part of that permissive world, that degenerate
world. We are shocked at the depths to which many people of this world go to
assert their freedom. We fear that the trends of permissiveness toward
immorality are destroying the moral fabric of our generation.
Governor
Reagan of California stated: “In our humanitarian society we have safeguarded
the rights of the accused. Nothing horrifies us so much as the possibility of
punishing the nonguilty. But now we have carried this to an excessive concern
for the guilty. We do not call him a criminal. He is a patient. He may be ill,
but a failure of society; and since society cannot be tried for its crime, why
should he take the blame?”
We
seem to shrink away from punishing of criminals or the disciplining even of
children. Crime in the United States is said to be increasing nearly nine times
as fast as the population. One-third of our firstborn children in the United
States in two tabulated years were said to be conceived out of wedlock. In one
year there were an estimated 400,000 illegitimate births in the United States;
and many other countries have like records. About half of the female dropouts
from high school were pregnant. The ugly estimates continue: More than a
million American women each year resort to illegitimate abortions. This is one
of the most despicable of all sins—to destroy an unborn child to save one from embarrassment
or to save one’s face or comfort. An estimated 8,000 women die every year from
such consequences. It is reported that suicide is said to be the number one
cause of death among the U.S. college students.
One
popular writer said: “Jesus Christ is not making a universal appeal today
because of His moral austerity. Right down the line Christ gives offense by His
moral austerity.” He rebukes our acquisitive society. He rebukes our
comfort-loving, take-it-easy philosophy. He rebukes our moral laxity. He
rebukes our reliance on force and our rejection of love and of the royal way of
life. Ours is a comfort-loving society. We equate comfort with civilization.
Thanks to our Heavenly Father and his Son that the program is austere.
Paul
identified it:
“Unto
the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
“They
profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:15–16.)
The
home is the teaching situation. Every father should talk to his son, every
mother to her daughter. Then it would leave them totally without excuse should
they ignore the counsel they have received.
The
number of parents who go astray astounds us. The numbers of divorces that were
the result, in whole or part, of the infidelity bring us back to our basic
theme as quoted in the Doctrine and Covenants:
“Thou
shalt not … commit adultery, … nor do anything like unto it.” (D&C 59:6.)
We
say to all: Stay clean in mind and body, and let nothing lead you into the
bypaths which will bring ruin and great distress to you. As the Lord said:
“Ye
have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit
adultery:
“But
I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matt. 5:27–28.)
Now
the lust of the heart and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the body bring
us to the major sin. Let every man remain at home with his affections. Let
every woman sustain her husband and keep her heart where it belongs—at home
with her family. Let every youth keep himself from the compromising approaches
and then with great control save himself from the degrading and life-damaging
experience of sexual impurity. There must be an early and total and continuing
repentance.
Every
form of homosexuality is sin. Pornography is one of the approaches to that
transgression. There is no halfway.
Some
people are ignorant or vicious and apparently attempting to destroy the concept
of masculinity and femininity. More and more girls dress, groom, and act like
men. More and more men dress, groom, and act like women. The high purposes of
life are damaged and destroyed by the growing unisex theory. God made man in
his own image, male and female made he them. With relatively few accidents of
nature, we are born male or female. The Lord knew best. Certainly, men and
women who would change their sex status will answer to their Maker.
We
hope this is another trumpet call. President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., said: “Our
very civilization itself is based upon chastity, the sanctity of marriage, and
the holiness of the home. Destroy these and Christian man becomes a brute.” (Conference
Report,Oct. 1938, p. 137.)
Beloved
brothers and sisters, you are facing a trial of your faith. Will you listen to
your leaders?
Not
all sins of this permissive world are with the youth. I was shocked recently
when I read a movie magazine. The man spoke of marriage as a legalistic,
paper-signing institution, and said: “It should be abolished. Without the
social pressures in the state, it could be utopia.” He asked the woman. She
said: “Marriage should be done away with. I already know people who are living
quietly together without marriage, but I haven’t yet seen the effect of this on
children as they grow up in such a society.”
These
are not the only ones who are advocating living together without marriage. We
call this to the attention of our people with all the strength we possess.
We
say again: We members of the Church marry. All normal people should marry.
(There could be a few exceptions.) All normal married couples should become
parents. We remember the scripture which says:
“Whoso
forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God
unto man.
“Wherefore,
it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh,
and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.” (D&C 49:15–16.)
The
earth cannot justify nor continue its life without marriage and the family. Sex
without marriage, for all people, young or older, is an abomination to the
Lord, and it is most unfortunate that many people have blinded their eyes to
these great truths.
We
have discoursed many times about these worldly and pernicious things. May we quickly
and firmly mention other things which we must avoid if we hope for the Lord to
bless us.
Husbands
and wives should love and cherish their spouses. They must not break up their
homes with divorce, and especially through infidelity and immorality.
A
higher and higher percentage of children grow up with only one parent. This is
certainly not the way of the Lord. He expected for a father and a mother to
rear their children. Certainly any who deprive their children of a parent will
have some very stiff questions to answer. The Lord used parents in the plural
and said if children were not properly trained “the sin be upon the heads of
the parents.” (D&C 68:25.) That makes it a bit hard to
justify broken homes. Numerous of the divorces are the result of selfishness. The
day of judgment is approaching, and parents who abandon their families will
find that excuses and rationalizations will hardly satisfy the Great Judge.
May
we repeat: Sex perversions of men and women can never replenish the earth and
are definitely sin without excuse, and rationalizations are very weak; God will
not tolerate it.
As to
abortions, we deplore the reported million unborn children who will lose their
lives in this country this year. Certainly the women who yield to this ugly sin
and the sin which often generated it, and those who assist them, should
remember that retribution is sure. It is sure.
We
marry for eternity. We are serious about this. We become parents and bring
wanted children into the world and rear and train them to righteousness.
We
are aghast at the reports of young people going to surgery to limit their
families and the reputed number of parents who encourage this vasectomy.
Remember that the coming of the Lord approaches, and some difficult-to-answer
questions will be asked by a divine Judge who will be hard to satisfy with
silly explanations and rationalizations. He will judge justly, you may be sure.
Why
do we take our destiny in our own hands? From the building of the first
colonial cabin, the home and family have been the center of true civilization.
Any distortion of the God-given program will bring dire consequences. The
families worked together, played together, and worshiped God together.
Could
it be possible that many of us, like a cork in a stream, have been swept off our
destiny line by false concepts, perilous ways, and doctrines of devils? By whom
are we enticed? Have we accepted the easy way and veered off from the “strait
and narrow” way to the easy and comfortable way and the broad way which leads
to sorrowful ends? (See Matt. 7:13–14.) We know better than we do.
Will you listen? Will you follow the advice and counsel of your leaders, local
and general? Or will you choose your own paths though they lead you into the
dark wilderness?
God
bless you, our beloved people. Listen to the words of heaven. God is true. He
is just. He is a righteous judge, but justice must come before sympathy and
forgiveness and mercy.
Remember,
God is in his heavens. He knew what he was doing when he organized the earth.
He knows what he is doing now. Those of us who break his commandments will
regret and suffer in remorse and pain. God will not be mocked. Man has his free
agency, it is sure, but remember, GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED. (See D&C 63:58.)
Our
counsel then to you is to live strictly the laws of your Heavenly Father. In
the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Timely Advice”
cji
12/9/18
Given long ago or today
God’s Prophets timeless
may we each awaken
obedience is commanded
it is not an option
really
we’ve our agency
to obey or to not obey
but once chosen to not
we gradually lose all
God will not be Mocked!
Copyright © 2018 – cji
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