Family letter 8 March 2006

Abby asked me an interesting question.  She wondered if I would prefer to die in a world being flooded by water or in a world being burned by fire.  That was a tough question, especially since she wouldn’t let me duck it by saying that I’d just try to be righteous and avoid both options.  What she was wondering was which would be the worse way to go.

I really couldn’t decide; but I heard today of a variation of one of those options in which I definitely wouldn’t want to be a participant.  A radio report told of a couple of saboteurs who sneaked into a California dairy in the dark of night.  The claw marks and handprints in the manure pit where they fell showed that they tried mightily to get out before finally succumbing.

What an awful position to be in!  They couldn’t call for help.  They couldn’t even pray with any hope of being answered—even if they’d been disposed to do such a thing, which they probably weren’t.  He whose bidding they were doing was probably standing off to the side and laughing at their predicament.

Kevin showed us a Church history video Sunday which depicted the apostle/apostate Lyman Johnson declaring before his former associates of the Quorum of the Twelve that he would do anything to be able to feel like he’d felt before he apostatized.  He declared that he hadn’t had a happy moment since he’d allowed himself to become embittered.  One of the Farber kids said, “Why didn’t he just come back?”  The short answer is that the Spirit had left him.  “Wickedness never was happiness.”  He was in the power of the adversary whose goal is to make all men miserable like himself. —“I’ve never had a happy moment since I went away,” he said.  What a sad, sad, sad statement.

After seeing that video I got to wondering how many of Joseph Smith’s close associates apostatized, and how much he must have endured as he saw them fall away.  My researches reveal that the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon all fell away; three of the Eight Witnesses (Jacob Whitmer, John Whitmer, Hiram Page); two counselors in the First Presidency (Sidney Rigdon, Frederick G. Williams); six of the original Twelve Apostles (Thomas B. Marsh, William E. McLellin, Luke S. Johnson, William Smith, John F. Boynton, Lyman E. Johnson); and that two other of the Twelve were disaffected for a time, but retained their membership (Orson Hyde and Parley P. Pratt).

Those apostasies constitute over half of the 27 leaders in the early Church.  That would have been fatal to any organization but the Lord’s true Church.  Of the 14 who were excommunicated, five humbled themselves and came back (Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, Frederick G. Williams, Thomas B. Marsh, Luke S. Johnson).  They all testified to the fact that they sank to the depths of despair before they managed to repent.  David Whitmer and those of the Eight Witnesses who apostatized never did come back, but none ever denied the testimonies to which they signed their names in the front of the Book of Mormon.

We really can’t fault those early brethren, though.  They didn’t have as strong a position as any common Church member has today.  They didn’t have the Doctrine & Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.  They had only had the Book of Mormon for a few short years.  They didn’t have the foundation and stability of an established church with a long history that had endured storms, hardships and persecutions.

We can’t fault the Children of Israel, either.  They didn’t have any scriptures at all.  The Bible hadn’t yet been written.  All they had was a prophet who was trying to lead several million people without much help.

We marvel over the mercurial, capricious nature of the Nephites, but we likewise can’t really fault them.  They didn’t have the Book of Mormon.  Their leaders had the Brass Plates of Laban, but I doubt that there were very many copies available for family study.

I don’t think we stop often enough to think about how incredibly blessed we are.  As a common, ordinary Church member I not only have the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price; but I also have a shelf-full of general conference reports covering nearly 40 years of inspired direction from our present prophet-leaders.

All of these helps are readily available to anyone fortunate enough to live in the more advanced countries of the world.  They’re rapidly becoming available to everyone worldwide.  If a person has these scriptures on his shelf—and doesn’t use them—is he any better off—any safer—than the Children of Israel or a group of apostatizing Nephites?  What’s to keep him from falling into the slime pits that surround us?  If he slips in, who will be there to pull him out when he has distanced himself, Lyman Johnson-like, from all help?

There is so much of unhappiness around us.  People commonly ask, “Why me?”

I’ve been incredibly happy for the last 39 years since my baptism.  I ask, “Why me?”

I don’t have a satisfactory answer for why I’m so blessed, but I do know that if I want to hang onto my blessings I need to stay anchored to the scriptures and to the prophets.  By so doing I’ll stay anchored to the Lord Jesus Christ, the source of all happiness and all hope.