2023 talk given to the wards of the stake

In 1941 electricity came to our farm west of Haines.  I wasn't around then.  Prior to that time my parents lighted their house with kerosene lamps.  Dad wired the old house, and hung a single light bulb from the ceiling in the center of each room.  A string hung from the bulbs, which you pulled to turn on the lights.  My 9-year-old sister and 7-year-old brother spent the next week entertaining themselves by going into a dark room, twirling in circles until their hands contacted and pulled the string, and then exclaiming, “How did we ever even see before?!!”  The contrast between the light emitted by a kerosene lamp and a 75-watt bulb was dramatic.

Some time ago I made a list of all the doctrines that are pertinent to the Restoration of the gospel.  I came up with 52.  I then went down the list and put a check mark beside each doctrine that our Christian brethren in other churches believe and teach.  There were 13.  That's exactly 25%.  Our Protestant and Catholic friends are operating under the light of a 25-watt bulb when they could be using 100 watts.

In Joseph Smith's day the Lord said that the people were “walking in darkness.”  The world had only recently emerged from the Dark Ages.  Joseph went into the woods to pray “on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring”.  The sun was shining, and he was enjoying what was perhaps the first warm day following winter.  I'm sure that he'd have selected a sunny spot in which to kneel.  Despite being in the bright sunlight he “saw a pillar of light exactly over (his) head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon (him).”  (Joseph Smith—History 1:14 and 16).

When I get up in the morning it's still dark outside.  I step into our kitchen.  There's a night light in the corner, so I'm able to see.  At that point I'm like the world in Joseph Smith's day.  I'm able to see, but things are dim.  All anyone had then was the Bible to light their way.  I flip on a light.  The room becomes many times brighter.  That's like the world after the First Vision.  I go to another light switch, flip it on, and my bright room becomes brighter yet.  There are four circuits handling the lights in our kitchen.  Each time I flip another switch, the room gets lighter and lighter.    If there were more lights, I could make that room really, really bright.

That's what the Restoration does to the world.

I was given a Book of Mormon when I was 19 years old.  When I started reading it, a marvelous thing happened.  I felt light coming into my head.  I couldn't have told you that my head was full of darkness, but I actually felt the light pushing the darkness out.  It was such a wonderful sensation that reading the Book of Mormon was all that I wanted to do.  Going to work was a pain.  I just wanted to sit in my cold December bedroom and read that book that was lighting up my mind.

The Book of Mormon is a beacon.  It's a search light seeking out those who are looking for light.  The Bible is a heat lamp.  Put them together and you have what Ezekiel said in chapter 37 of his book would become “one” in your hand.  Both of those books are necessary.  Neither is sufficient by itself, and together they're still not enough.

The night light in my kitchen is like the light of Christ which every person has who comes into the world.  The light of Christ teaches every man right from wrong.  It gives us enough light to see our way.  The first light switch that I flip in my kitchen is the Bible.  A good Christian of whatever denomination stands out from everyone else.  The second light switch in my kitchen is the Book of Mormon, but there's more light still available.  The third and fourth lights are the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price.  Add revelation through living prophets to those, and you have a refulgence of light.  Adding that third, fourth, and fifth light gives you sufficient light to bring you to exaltation.

Our good, Christian brethren are fond of saying that all that is necessary for us to be saved is to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.  They are absolutely right.  But we don't want to just be saved.  We're striving to be exalted.  Those third, fourth, and fifth lights are necessary to get us there.  Just look at what light they provide.

For instance, Paul said in the Bible that he had been caught up to the third heaven.  He also mentioned three degrees of glory in chapter 15 of First Corinthians.  He could have told us much more, but he wasn't ordained to do so.  That was left for Joseph Smith to do.

The Bible gives hints about eternal marriage and eternal families, but the Doctrine and Covenants was necessary to make the doctrine plain.  The Plan of Salvation isn't even talked about in other churches.  These other lights were necessary to have the plan make sense.  Paul asks in First Corinthians, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all?  Why are they then baptized for the dead?”  No one had any idea what that verse was about until Joseph Smith, revelation, and the Doctrine and Covenants made the doctrine of baptism for the dead clear.

The last verses of the Old Testament say that Elijah will come again to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers.  Christian churches pay no attention to that prophecy at all, but the Jews are still anxiously awaiting his coming.  They don't know why he'll come, but they set an extra place for him at their Passover meal in case he comes.  They're expecting him to come during the Passover.  What they don't know is that he already came.  He came during the Passover—and Easter—and on the Sabbath.  That's spelled out in Section 110 of the Doctrine and Covenants; and since his coming the hearts of people the world over have turned to their fathers as they seek to understand their ancestry.  The hearts of the children have been turned to their fathers in a dramatic way.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon talk about temples, and ordinances, and covenants, and the Priesthood, but neither book explains what they are or what they're about.  Latter-day revelation explains them in detail.

When I was a little boy my mother told me about God and Jesus Christ.  I took a walk out in the field.  I was deep in thought.  I can still show you where I was as I wandered and pondered.  “Are God and Jesus Christ one person or two?  Are they persons at all?”  I couldn't sort it out.  Neither can the world of Christianity.  The Bible is a battleground over the question of what the Godhead is.  I was excited when I was given the Book of Mormon.  Finally I'd be able to answer the question of whether God and Jesus Christ were one person or two or a power or an essence that fills the universe.

But do you know what?  The Book of Mormon is just as confusing on that matter as is the Bible.  The answer isn't in that book, either.  When I was halfway through the Book of Mormon I was given a pamphlet entitled “Joseph Smith's Testimony.”  There he said that standing above him in the air, in that pillar of light, were “two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description … One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son.  Hear Him!”  (Joseph Smith—History 1:17).

I can't tell you what that did to me.  Talk about lights coming on!!  There was my answer!  They are two separate, glorified men!  I knew that Joseph was telling the truth, and knowing this one thing suddenly made everything else fall into place.

The lights are back on.  Salvation is available to everyone.  We're the only institution in the world that believes that.  Every other church would deny salvation to certain groups.

Jesus said, “I am the light that shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.”  (D&C 6:21).  He said that perhaps nine times in the Doctrine and Covenants.  Can you imagine someone coming into a dark room with a bright light, and people not seeing it?  They would have to willfully be ignoring it!  But that's what people do.

“That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”  (D&C 50:24).

“But behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many who have been ordained among you, whom I have called but few of them are chosen.

“They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are walking in darkness at noon-day.”  (D&C 95:5-6).

Those are Latter-day Saints.  We'd better be doing a luminosity test on our activities.  Lights don't come on unless you flip a switch.  How do you turn up the lights?

Prayer will do it.  When I was bishop a sister came to me loaded down with problems.  Her world was dark, and she didn't know what to do.  As I let her talk, I prayed for inspiration to know how to help her.  Finally I asked, “Are you praying?”  She looked me right in the eye and said, “Bishop, I haven't prayed in three months.”  When she said that, the lights came on for both of us.  She left with the promise to put prayer back into her life.  The next time I saw her, there was a bounce in her step, a smile on her face, and a light in her eyes.

Scripture study is necessary, too.  So is repentance, and service, and obedience.

The Church sent a delegation to Israel to negotiate with that nation and with the city of Jerusalem for permission to build the BYU Jerusalem Center, where students could come to learn and to experience things where Jesus Himself walked.  Permission was granted on the condition that the Church would not proselyte in Israel.  The Church agreed.  Teddy Koleck, the mayor of Jerusalem at the time, was watching the BYU students.  He said, “We know that you'll honor your commitment to not proselyte, but what are you going to do about the light that is in their eyes?”

He could see it, as can everyone else who's looking for such things.

If you desire to turn up the lights in your life there are five switches available:

Prayer

Scripture Study

Repentance

Service

Obedience

I'll summarize my talk with a poem that the Holy Ghost gave me just for this occasion:

The world is dim, as knowledge of Him

Is lacking or very limited.

To make things bright, turn up the light,

Don't stand there as if you're riveted.

Teach them to pray, and night becomes day,

As light the darkness banishes.

Give them the book, into which they'll look

As their looming problem vanishes.

Each must repent, or energy's spent

Needlessly and without traction.

We all must serve, nor be reserved

Nor divided into factions.

Simply obey—Do it today,

Bearing light is your ministry.

Flip on the light, smile and invite;

Eternal light will be your history.