Chapter 1

The Sifting Has Begun

At this stage of my life, I frequently forget to take my wallet or mobile phone when I leave home. I’m delighted to see old and beloved friends, but for some reason their names sometimes escape me. Nevertheless, my memories of the year 1961, when our family began attending meetings in the newly organized branch of the Church in Baker, Louisiana, remain vivid. It was a small gathering of Latter-day Saints who met in those formative years in the girls’ gymnasium of the high school. Those wonderful brothers and sisters were people of faith, men and women who had paid a dear price to know what they knew.

Even then, as a young and restless teenager, I felt something deep down as I listened to simple but heartfelt talks in sacrament meeting, participated in Sunday School lessons, and heard tender expressions of conviction in fast and testimony meetings. I will go to my grave recalling the sweet testimonies of members of the branch, especially the older and more seasoned ones. Over the years, as I attended carefully to the testimonies of these persons, I longed for the day when I could know as they knew, when I would be strong enough and convinced enough to stand and bear my own testimony, when I would not need to lean on the witness of others.

Even though the testimonies borne from month to month were not what one could describe as original—the Saints basically said much the same each time—they were unique in that each of those people had come to faith in a distinctive manner, and so each one’s particular expressions moved and motivated me in different ways. One phrase was used quite often by several of the older members of the congregation. They would often end their remarks by encouraging us to “endure to the end,” for, they would add, a “day of sifting is coming.” It sounded to me like some kind of warning. Being a city boy myself, I had no idea what sifting meant or how something or someone could be sifted. I just knew it sounded bad, something I probably didn’t want to happen to me.

A Test Is Coming

When I returned home from the Eastern States Mission and transferred to Brigham Young University, I dived headlong into my religion classes feeling much like a giddy child in a candy store. I also began to collect important Church books to build my library. I started with the teachings and biographies of the Presidents of the Church and then worked my way through the early apostles. I had read The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt while on my mission. I came eventually to Orson F. Whitney’s Life of Heber C. Kimball, and as I read that marvelous volume, I was moved by Heber’s unflinching devotion to the Prophet Joseph Smith and the cause of the Restoration.

When I came to the year 1856 in Heber’s story, I encountered a prophetic warning uttered by Brother Kimball. “We think we are secure here in the chambers of the everlasting hills,” he observed, “where we can close those few doors of the canyons against mobs and persecutors, the wicked and the vile, who have always beset us . . . , but I want to say to you, my brethren, the time is coming when we will be mixed up in these now peaceful valleys to that extent that it will be difficult to tell the face of a Saint from the face of an enemy to the people of God.” Then came this chilling remark: “Then, brethren, look out for the great sieve, for there will be a great sifting time, and many will fall; so I say unto you there is a test, a test, a TEST coming, and who will be able to stand?”1

In 1867, not long before Heber’s death, he sounded a similar warning: “Let me say to you, that many of you will see the time when you will have all the trouble, trial and persecution that you can stand, and plenty of opportunities to show that you are true to God and his work. This Church has before it many close places through which it will have to pass before the work of God is crowned with victory. To meet the difficulties that are coming, it will be necessary for you to have a knowledge of the truth of this work for yourselves. The difficulties will be of such a character that the man or woman who does not possess this personal knowledge or witness will fall. If you have not got the testimony, live right and call upon the Lord and cease not until you obtain it. If you do not you will not stand.

“Remember these sayings. . . . The time will come when no man or woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself. If you do not have it, how can you stand?”2

The Sifting of Souls

In the nearly half a century since I first read those haunting words, I have come to appreciate that the word sift may be used in many related ways. Each definition points toward a different way one may be sifted. Some synonyms for sift are separate, distinguish, scatter, screen, strain, filter, or eliminate. To sift is also to put a person to a test or trial.3 We know, for example, of moments in ancient history when the children of Israel were sifted. Moses ascended Mount Sinai to commune with Jehovah, receive the Ten Commandments, and be instructed. The scriptural account indicates that he was gone for forty days. Now forty days is a long time for a people prone to mischief to be left alone.

And so it was that when the Lawgiver descended from Sinai, he discovered that the children of Israel had “corrupted themselves” and broken their covenant with God. The Old Testament account euphemistically states that the Israelites “rose up to play.” In addition, they persuaded Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship. Seeing this debauchery among a people the Lord hoped to make a peculiar people, a kingdom of priests and priestesses, Moses was pained and filled with righteous indignation. “Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me.” Sadly, only the sons of Levi gathered to his side (Exodus 32:6–8, 19, 26; emphasis added). This tragic event was a sifting.

Half a millennium later, the prophet Elijah confronted king Ahab and Jezebel, his wife, and challenged the prophets of Baal to a kind of spiritual duel, intended to manifest plainly the omnipotence of Jehovah and the impotence of Baal. Elijah inquired of the people of Israel: “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord [Jehovah] be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings 18:21, 38–40; emphasis added). The word halt is a rather fascinating word to use in connection with Israel at that time. It means to walk lamely, to limp.4 It also means to falter, to be hesitant, to be in doubt, to waver. This was for Israel a significant time of decision: would they cast their lot with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or would they turn instead to Baal? Once again, many of the Israelite chose unwisely. It was another time of sifting.

In the meridian of time, a rather dramatic time of sifting came after the Master’s Bread of Life sermon, in which he taught in plain language: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” This was clearly a message intended to draw a line in the sand, to sift out those whose interest in Jesus Christ was shallow, perhaps no more than idle curiosity. Then the Master waxed even more direct: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”

Those not in tune with the Spirit of God could neither discern the meaning nor perceive the profundity of the Savior’s remarks. “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? . . . From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” Then follows what for me is a poignant and even painful moment when the Promised Messiah turned to his beloved apostles and inquired: “Will ye also go away?” Peter responded powerfully: “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:51, 53, 60, 66–69; emphasis added). In this case, hard doctrine sifted out many who had a fascination with Jesus but had not discovered, by the power of the Spirit of God, who he was and what he had come to earth to do.

In referring to the latter days, Elder Bruce R. McConkie pointed out that a “testing and sifting process has ever been part of the Lord’s system.”5

The Waning of Faith

During my more than thirty years of teaching at Brigham Young University, I met with a number of young Latter-day Saint students who were spiritually troubled, who were wrestling with their faith. In my last five years at BYU, however, I listened to and counseled with more students who were angry, who felt “betrayed,” and even a few who planned to leave the Church after graduation, than in the previous twenty-five years combined. I found that some very real cultural and ideological factors are pressing upon the minds and hearts of the people of our day and time, distinctive and unusual factors that have contributed to a great deal of distress, soul searching, doubt, dejection, and even apostasy. How and in what manner are Latter-day Saints being sifted today?

Some of us seem to have forgotten (or perhaps overlooked) what it means to truly exercise faith in God our Heavenly Father and in his plan of salvation, in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his restored gospel. Further, some fail to have faith in the Lord’s divine timetable, faith coupled with patience, trusting that the answers and assurances will eventually come. So many times when I have listened to acquaintances and even lifelong friends who now express disillusionment with Mormonism, treasured associates who are on the verge of leaving the faith of their fathers and mothers, I have respectfully held my tongue, when what I wanted most to do was cry out, “Whatever happened to faith? You once had faith. I know you did. I know that you once knew. Where did it go?”

Jesus spoke tenderly to Peter at the Last Supper: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31–32; emphasis added). It should come as no great surprise to anyone that Satan, the father of lies, the master of deceit, the “accuser of our brethren” (Revelation 12:10), wants our souls; his desire is to sift us—to separate us, to scatter us, to filter us out, and, of course, to eliminate us spiritually. He is consummately miserable, and he is only too eager to share his misery (see 2 Nephi 2:18, 27). But would it be too much of a stretch to suggest that just as the Savior prayed for Peter, so the Savior is also praying for you and me, praying for our well-being, importuning and pleading to his Father and ours that our faith doesn’t fail us?

The truth is, loved ones here on earth and loved ones in the postmortal spirit world are also praying that we will remain faithful, particularly at a time when so many are being lured away from faith. President George Albert Smith taught: “Think of the devotion and the faithfulness of those who day after day go into these temples and officiate for those who have passed to the other side; and know this, that those who are on the other side are just as anxious about us. They are praying for us and for our success. They are pleading, in their own way, for their descendants, for their posterity who live upon the earth, many of whom, because they have been unwise, have been betrayed into fighting the Church and kingdom of God and opposing those who are its leaders.”6

The words of Jesus to his chief apostle suggest to us that when a man or woman is truly converted, wholly yielded to the Lord, His gospel, and His Church and kingdom, his or her faith will not fail. Such persons are truly built upon the Rock, and they are then in a position to lift and encourage others toward that real growth we know as deep conversion.

There is simply too much at stake to relinquish our hold on the iron rod. Too many people have given their lives, sacrificed their reputation in the world, forsaken all they have and all they are for the kingdom of God; too many tears have been shed on our behalf, too many pleading petitions have been sent heavenward, for any one of us to lose hope, to lose faith, to give up.

Conclusion

The older I get, the more I treasure the beloved hymns of Zion and stirring anthems of the Restoration. One hymn in particular, “Carry On,” moves me to the core.7 The chorus begins:

And we hear the desert singing:

Carry on, carry on, carry on!

Hills and vales and mountains ringing:

Carry on, carry on, carry on!

Almost always I stop singing at that point, not because I want to listen to the congregation, but because I am overcome with emotion. I see in my mind’s eye Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and Emma Smith and Eliza R. Snow and Emmeline B. Wells and hosts of other early members of the Church; I see David O. McKay and Harold B. Lee and Belle S. Spafford and Barbara B. Smith laying it all on the altar, holding back nothing for the kingdom of God, even their own lives.

With the eye of faith, I see my grandfather Anatole, my own father, Albert, my aunt Gladys and uncle Joseph earnestly beckoning to me to carry on, to stay on track, to remain faithful, to maintain my place on the good ship Zion.8 Our charge and our challenge are not to bury our heads in the sand as though there were no problems—no issues, no hard questions—but rather be willing to move forward in faith, knowing that if we can be patient, be a bit more trusting, and persist in our quest for truth, in the Lord’s time and in his own way answers and resolutions will come to us. We will then be ever so grateful that we stayed with it and finished the course honorably.

Notes

1. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 446; emphasis added.

2. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 449–50; emphasis added.

3. New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “sift.”

4. Random House College Dictionary, s.v. “halt.”

5. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:361–62.

6. Teachings of George Albert Smith, 27; emphasis added.

7. Hymns, no. 255.

8. Brigham Young, 82–83.