Chapter 2

Examine Yourselves

In his marvelous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned that “if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29–30).

That is fairly graphic, emphatic counsel by the Savior. It is a chilling warning. In his inspired translation of the Gospel of Mark, the Prophet Joseph Smith rendered Mark’s version of these remarks as follows: “Therefore, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; or if thy brother offend thee and confess not and forsake not, he shall be cut off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands, to go into hell. For it is better for thee to enter into life without thy brother, than for thee and thy brother to be cast into hell; . . . and again, if thy foot offend thee, cut it off; for he that is thy standard, by whom thou walkest, if he become a transgressor, he shall be cut off.” Note the poignant summary of the matter: “Therefore, let every man stand or fall, by himself, and not for another; or not trusting another” (JST, Mark 9:40–42, 44; emphasis added).

Christ’s message here is timely and timeless: while each of us can point to remarkable men and women whose examples, teachings, and way of life have powerfully influenced our own lives, persons whose faithfulness contributed markedly to the formation of our own faith, in the end every man and woman must know for themselves, must have a witness that is independent of others’ convictions. In the end, we each rise or fall on our own. I cannot be saved on the basis of my parents’ or grandparents’ deep-seated faith. Just as the Lord’s Church as an institution must “stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world” (D&C 78:14), so the disciples of that Lord must receive their own spiritual confirmation of this work that enables them to stand tall in defense of the gospel, particularly if others should stumble or falter.

A Close Examination

One has only to do a casual reading of Paul’s letters to his beloved Saints in the various branches of the Church to appreciate the challenges he and they faced. His letters were really regulatory correspondence, wise counsel from a loving apostle to his treasured converts to the Christian faith. One branch wrestled with the temptation to retain allegiance to the law of Moses; another struggled with Greek philosophy and culture. The Corinthian branch had a number of challenges, especially morality. Toward the end of his second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul assures the Saints that “though [Christ] was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.” Then comes this sobering directive: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves” (2 Corinthians 13:4–5; emphasis added).

What are some ways that you and I might examine ourselves to determine if we are “in the faith,” in harmony with the teachings and beliefs, the practices and daily life that accompany membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? How would we prove ourselves? Mortality, life in this second estate, is an ongoing exercise of self-assessment, a regular, at least weekly (in our sacrament service), analysis of our thoughts, our feelings, and our behavior. Through this means we see things, especially about ourselves, as they really are. So very often we see things as we are and thus perceive only an approximation of what is, rather than seeing things through God’s eyes, through the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), the lens of the Lord. This lens is placed on our eyes, hearts, and minds as we cultivate the gift of the Holy Ghost in our lives. As I have reflected on this matter of examining myself to see if I am “in the faith,” I have come up with a few points of assessment that I have found helpful:

1. Do I hold—and do I use regularly—a current temple recommend? I begin here because in so many ways my worthiness to attend the temple and participate in the covenants and ordinances there is a sure sign of the extent to which I am “in the faith.” It is also a very effective indication of my readiness, my preparedness, to enter the celestial kingdom.

President Howard W. Hunter served as President of the Church for only a short time, but in those months he delivered to the Latter-day Saints penetrating words relative to the temple. “Let us truly be a temple-attending and a temple-loving people,” he counseled us. “We should hasten to the temple as frequently, yet prudently, as our personal circumstances allow. We should go not only for our kindred dead but also for the personal blessing of temple worship, for the sanctity and safety that are within those hallowed and consecrated walls. As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.”1

President Hunter also said: “I invite the Latter-day Saints to look to the temple of the Lord as the great symbol of your membership. . . . The things that we must do and not do to be worthy of a temple recommend are the very things that insure we will be happy as individuals and as families.”2 And, I would add, they are the very things that qualify us for entrance into the highest heaven hereafter. The temple represents God’s earthly counterpart to paradise, the abode of the righteous in the postmortal spirit world. When someone is worthy to enter the House of the Lord, they are worthy to enter paradise at the time of death; they have been, as the revelation describes it, “quickened by a portion of the celestial glory” here and will, in the resurrection, “receive of the same, even a fulness” (D&C 88:29).

2. Am I finding satisfaction and fulfillment in my Church membership? Is belonging to the Church and participating in its programs enjoyable and uplifting to me? President Dieter F. Uchtdorf reflected: “I wonder if we as Church members might also benefit from asking ourselves from time to time: ‘Is my experience in the Church working for me? Is it bringing me closer to Christ? Is it blessing me and my family with peace and joy as promised in the gospel?’ . . .

“Many members will answer with great warmth that their experience as a member of the Church is working exceptionally well for them. . . . Every day I meet Church members who are filled with a radiant joy and who demonstrate in word and deed that their lives are immeasurably enriched by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

“But I also recognize that there are some who have a less-than-fulfilling experience. . . . This saddens me because I know firsthand how the gospel can invigorate and renew one’s spirit—how it can fill our hearts with hope and our minds with light. I know for myself how the fruits of the gospel of Jesus Christ can transform lives from the ordinary and dreary to the extraordinary and sublime.”3

I have heard it said that in some cases falling away from the Church is a lot like falling out of bed. One usually falls out of bed when one is not fully in the bed, close to the center. One who falls asleep on the edge of the mattress should not be surprised to wake up on the floor. When individuals express concern to me that they really do not enjoy going to Church meetings or participating in its auxiliaries or programs, I often ask about the level and depth to which they have previously been involved.

Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Seventy explained that “we shouldn’t be surprised when we suffer a failure of faith if we walk on the margins of the strait and narrow path. What we do and don’t do really matters because actions have consequences, as does inaction. When we become inattentive to the small, daily, repetitive but essential actions of belief, we weaken our roots. Over time we slowly draw away from God.

“Thus, the way we speak to each other, the books and articles we read, the television shows and movies we watch, the things we don’t read and would never watch, and the jokes we choose not to listen to or repeat all reflect where we are on the strait and narrow path—in the center or on the edges. We can’t claim to be nourishing our roots if the things we do and don’t do aren’t calculated to make us better Saints. Safety is found only in the center of the strait and narrow path.”4

Some years ago President Boyd K. Packer spoke at the funeral services for Sister Belle Spafford, General President of the Relief Society. He said that when the National Council of Women was organized in the 1870s, the Relief Society was one of the charter members. While serving on the general board of the Relief Society, Sister Spafford was assigned as the Church’s delegate to their conventions in New York City. The Church in general and Sister Spafford in particular received little recognition or even acknowledgment, from the other members of that assembly. After one painful and difficult occasion during which she was basically ignored, if not shunned, by the women there, she returned home and scheduled an appointment with the prophet, President George Albert Smith. She firmly recommended to him that the Relief Society withdraw its membership from the National Council of Women, mentioning in particular the time and costs involved in participating. She added that, more than anything, “We don’t get anything out of it.”

Kindly, President Smith repeated her request to be sure he was hearing her correctly. She acknowledged that he did in fact understand her. President Smith then asked, “Tell me, please, Sister Spafford, what is it that you are putting into it?” The President instructed her to maintain Relief Society’s membership in the National Council and charged her to make their influence felt.

Belle Spafford left the Prophet’s office and went back to work with a new resolve. The Relief Society and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints continued to be represented in the National Council of Women for many years. The time came when Sister Spafford became General President of the Relief Society as well as president of the National Council. She also served as a delegate and officer in the International Councils.5

If a close and earnest examination of how much I am putting into my membership and involvement in the Church reveals that I am really, figuratively speaking, on the edge of the mattress, then perhaps I need to move closer to the center, evaluate whether my private devotions (personal scripture study, prayers, fasting, Church involvement, temple worship) are what they need to be. Superficial spiritual engagement seldom results in meaningful or even measurable spiritual growth. “Mormonism lite” generally produces a weak and shallow faith.

President Howard W. Hunter pointed out that “it is the general rule that we do not get things of value unless we are willing to pay a price. The scholar does not become learned unless he puts forth the work and effort to succeed. If he is not willing to do so, can he say there is no such thing as scholarship [or that there is no God]? . . . It is just as foolish for man to say there is no God simply because he has not had the inclination to seek him.”6 And so it is with gaining or reacquiring a testimony of the Restoration. Life as a social or cultural Latter-day Saint (much like that of a “nominal Christian” in the larger religious world) seldom brings a settled conviction, spiritual reassurance, or deep satisfaction that a steady and consistent gospel effort could produce.

3. Am I in harmony with the leadership of the Church? This item of personal assessment is especially important today. Practically every member of the Church who is active and involved has opportunity to raise their right arm to the square and manifest their sustaining vote of the apostles and prophets. That is easy enough to do when all is well, when there is no controversial social issue in the news. Most sing with gusto “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” until the leaders are bold enough to state that what a culture considers to be right and wrong is actually at cross-­purposes with the mind of God.7 We are supremely grateful to have seers and revelators at the head of the restored Church, as long, some members propose, as what they see and what they reveal is in complete harmony with what current society decrees.

It has been deeply disappointing, for example, to hear of members who are troubled, even angry when a Church authority announces that a recent decision by the Church on a sensitive social and family issue had come by revelation. What do prophets do? What do seers and revelators see and reveal, if they do not speak and act under the spirit of revelation? Elder Ronald A. Rasband, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, taught: “We have sustained leaders today who, by divine inspiration, have been called to teach and guide us and who are calling out to us to beware of the dangers we face each day—from casual Sabbath-day observance, to threats to the family, to assaults on religious freedom, and even to disputing latter-day revelation. Brothers and sisters, are we listening to their counsel?”8

I am reminded of the words of Samuel the Lamanite, who spoke fearlessly atop the walls of Zarahemla: “If a man shall come among you and shall say: Do this, and there is no iniquity; do that and ye shall not suffer; yea, he will say: Walk after the pride of your own hearts; . . . and do whatsoever your heart desireth—and if a man shall come among you and say this, ye will receive him, and say that he is a prophet” (Helaman 13:27). Isn’t that condemnation consistent with the apostle Paul’s warnings that “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, [the people] having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3–4). People have “itching ears” when they hear only what they want to hear.

Tragically, what too many want the prophets to do is either remain silent or see to it that they are in complete accord with the shifting sands of secular society. “The holy prophets have not only refused to follow erroneous human trends, but have pointed out these errors,” President Spencer W. Kimball declared. “So often the prophets have been rejected because they first rejected the wrong ways of their own society.” He continued: “Prophets have a way of jarring the carnal mind. . . . It is because of their love and integrity that they cannot modify the Lord’s message merely to make people feel comfortable. They are too kind to be so cruel. I am grateful that prophets do not crave popularity.”9

Early in this dispensation the Savior cautioned the Saints: “And all they who receive the oracles of God, let them beware how they hold them lest they are accounted as a light thing, and are brought under condemnation thereby” (D&C 90:5). Whether we cast our lot with the living prophets or take our cues from the loud and boisterous voices of the world will largely determine our spiritual standing in the kingdom of God—whether we are “in the faith.” That choice will obviously determine, as well, how much we enjoy our Church membership.

4. Am I in any way undermining the faith of other persons by what I say or do?

President Henry B. Eyring spoke to religious educators about the need to exercise caution in how to teach and especially in what to teach. He referred to an instance in which a young woman named Kathy, who would eventually become his wife, had attended a religion class. The teacher often took a “devil’s advocate” approach to the class to be sure that the students understood all sides of an issue. When Kathy confronted the instructor about his unusual manner of teaching, the teacher replied: “Well, I want to strengthen the students, and they will be stronger if they have to resolve these things themselves.”

One student in particular who heard what was said in class spent much time trying to resolve the problems. A few years later President Spencer W. Kimball asked about that young man. President Eyring recalled: “Then he asked if I knew the teacher. Then he asked if I knew what was happening in the classroom. I answered yes to all of those questions. He said, ‘Do you know where the student is now?’ I answered, ‘No.’ He said, ‘He’s left the Church.’ . . . President Kimball didn’t say anything reproachful to me. . . . He just said these words that still are in my mind as clearly as if they were just spoken to me. They were not in anger, not even in rebuke. He just named the teacher and said, ‘Oh! Oh, I’d hate to be him in the Judgment.’”10

We could continue on with this list at some length. We could discuss, for example, such questions as, Am I a builder or a murmurer, a sustaining influence or a naysayer? When the character or reputation of a Church leader is questioned, do I assume the best or the worst? When I am confronted by sensitive Church historical or doctrinal matters, do I approach them through the eyes of faith or the lenses of doubt? Is my faith and commitment to the restored gospel growing stronger and are my roots of faith going deeper? Is my approach to the Church and its doctrines intellectual only? Am I more concerned with having a stimulating conversation on a theological matter than I am in developing an abiding personal faith? Am I actively striving to follow the example of Jesus of Nazareth in my practice of pure religion? Because a testimony is like a muscle that needs to be exercised regularly, how often do I bear my testimony in public, particularly to my family and the ones I love? If I were arrested as a faithful and upstanding member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would there be enough evidence to convict me?

An episode in the history of the Church teaches a valuable lesson about remaining in the faith. Elder B. H. Roberts wrote that in March 1837 Elder John Taylor visited Kirtland “and there met the Prophet Joseph Smith, who entertained him in his house and gave him many items of information pertaining to the work of the Lord in this dispensation. At that time there was a bitter spirit of apostasy rife in Kirtland. A number in the quorum of the Twelve were disaffected towards the Prophet, and the Church seemed on the point of disintegration. Among others, Parley P. Pratt was floundering in darkness, and coming to Elder Taylor told him of some things wherein he considered the Prophet Joseph in error. To his remarks Elder Taylor replied:

“‘I am surprised to hear you speak so, Brother Parley. Before you left Canada [where Parley had taught the gospel to Brother Taylor] you bore a strong testimony to Joseph Smith being a Prophet of God, and to the truth of the work he has inaugurated; and you said you knew these things by revelation, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. You gave me a strict charge to the effect that though you or an angel from heaven was to declare anything else I was not to believe it.’” Note the gentle but direct chastisement by John Taylor: “Now Brother Parley, it is not man that I am following, but the Lord. The principles you taught me led me to Him, and I now have the same testimony that you then rejoiced in. If the work was true six months ago, it is true today; if Joseph Smith was then a prophet, he is now a prophet.” The account of this episode concludes with the comment that Parley and others of the brethren “were passing under a dark cloud; he soon made all right with the Prophet Joseph, and was restored to full fellowship.”11

Conclusion

Joseph Smith summarized the need for introspective analysis with this charge: “Search your hearts, and see if you are like God. I have searched mine, and feel to repent of all my sins.”12 On another occasion he taught: “We ought to be willing to repent of and confess all of our own sins and keep nothing back.”13 It is always a good idea periodically to do some soul searching, to inquire as to one’s spiritual depth, one’s standing in the Lord’s earthly kingdom. The apostle Paul’s penetrating counsel for the members of the Church to examine themselves to determine whether they are “in the faith” may be as meaningful a charge in our day as at any time in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ. In recent years, Latter-day Saints have been bombarded and buffeted with difficult questions, with criticisms and complaints, and with regular attacks on their faith. Unless we are rooted and grounded properly, we may not be able to stand. Once in a while it is not a bad question to ask: What would it take to shake me from my faith, dislodge me from the restored gospel, and send me searching for an alternative way of life? I am persuaded that as we seek earnestly to grow in faith, as we remain solidly involved as an active participant, as we live in a manner that the Holy Spirit of God is a consistent companion, we gradually begin to acquire a witness, a conviction, a testimony that is secure and unshakable (see Jacob 7:5; Enos 1:11). Doubt and uncertainty will no longer dog our steps. To that extent, we “enter into the rest of the Lord” (Alma 13:16).14

Notes

1. Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, 236.

2. Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, 238; emphasis added.

3. Uchtdorf, “It Works Wonderfully!” Ensign, Nov. 2015, 21.

4. Clayton, “Rooted in Christ,” Ensign, Aug. 2016, 21; emphasis added.

5. See Packer, That All May Be Edified, 117–18.

6. Howard W. Hunter, 270–71.

7. Hymns, no. 19.

8. Rasband, “Standing with the Leaders of the Church,” Ensign, May 2016, 47; emphasis added.

9. Kimball, “Listen to the Prophets,” Ensign, May 1978, 77; emphasis added.

10. Eyring, “Eyes to See, Ears to Hear.”

11. Roberts, Life of John Taylor, 39–40; emphasis added; see also Givens and Grow, Parley P. Pratt, 101.

12. Joseph Smith, 72.

13. Words of Joseph Smith, 7; punctuation modernized.

14. See Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 58, 126.