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Our Sacred Trust

Post 2

4 min.

Providential Orchestration and the American Founding

Excerpt: As our nation nears 250 years of independence, we remember the truths that shaped our liberty—and the rising generations who must learn them, if freedom is to endure.

A Moment That Calls Us Back to Our Beginnings

In the introduction to this series, I reflected on the remarkable convergence of ideas and events that shaped the American founding. Before we explore those moments in detail, we must first consider why remembering them matters.

A 2009 survey revealed that 83% of American adults lack even a basic understanding of the American Revolution, and a later poll found that one in four Americans could not identify the nation from which we declared independence. These are not small oversights. They signal a widening distance between a people and the principles that first secured their liberty.

Why Our Founding Still Matters

The Declaration of Independence is more than a historical document; it is a moral proclamation, a bold assertion of universal rights endowed to all people. Its vision was never meant to be narrow or fleeting. It invited humanity to see freedom as a birthright—rooted in dignity, not granted by rulers.

As noted in the opening post of this series, the founding vision did not emerge in a straight line; it arose from a remarkable convergence of convictions and circumstances that pointed toward a larger purpose.

“All men are created equal” was not merely a political statement. In his original draft of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable”. Benjamin Franklin, acting as an editor, changed this phrase to “self-evident,” replacing a religious, theological tone with one based on reason and Enlightenment philosophy. Franklin felt this would be acceptable to the delegates rather than getting locked into a contentious debate over religion. It was a declaration about the nature of humanity itself—an affirmation that no person is born to rule another.

From this truth flowed another principle just as revolutionary: government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. Authority is legitimate only when it rests on the willing agreement of a free people. This idea reshaped the world. It placed the citizen above the state, conscience above coercion, and liberty above the ambitions of those who seek to command it.

Our national concern for human flourishing—our instinct to defend liberty and extend opportunity—flows directly from this founding vision, written for the benefit of “all flesh.”

The Responsibility of Memory

Liberty is never self‑sustaining. It survives only when it is taught, cherished, and passed deliberately from one generation to the next. Abraham Lincoln warned that a nation can lose its freedom in as little as two generations if its people cease to understand the principles that uphold it. His warning was not theoretical; it was a sober reminder that forgetting is often more dangerous than any foreign threat.

Edmund Burke saw the same danger when he wrote that “the true danger is, when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts.” Freedom rarely disappears in a single moment. It erodes quietly—through neglect, distraction, and the slow fading of civic memory.

Thomas Jefferson likewise insisted that education is essential to the preservation of liberty. A free people must be an instructed people. Without knowledge of their rights, their history, and the moral foundations of their institutions, citizens become vulnerable to those who would distort the past or redefine the meaning of freedom itself.

We are living in a moment when these warnings feel especially urgent. Much has changed in our civic life:

  • the pledge of allegiance is spoken less often,
  • patriotism is sometimes treated with suspicion,
  • cultural voices diminish or distort our founding,
  • and many actively work to rewrite or corrupt our history.

These forces take a toll—not only on adults, but especially on the rising generation. Young people cannot love what they have never been taught to understand. They cannot defend what they have never been taught and invited to appreciate. If we hope to preserve the blessings we have inherited, we must recommit ourselves to teaching these ideals clearly, honestly, and without apology.

An Invitation to Remember Together

In the coming weeks, I will be sharing reflections on the ideas, events, and individuals who shaped the American experiment. My aim is simple: to strengthen our connection to the past so we may more fully inherit its blessings.

Reflection: A republic endures only when its people remember what made it possible. Memory is not nostalgia; it is stewardship. It is the work of citizens who understand that liberty must be renewed in every generation.

Knowing our history can help us rekindle a love for our country. Each reflection in this series will build on the last, helping us trace the patterns, principles, and providences that shaped the American experiment. May we remember together, stand together, and faithfully preserve the freedom entrusted to us.

Blog: americasgrand.design

website: http://www.americasgranddesign.com

Email: bruss1@comcast.net

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SERIES INTRODUCTION

Providential Orchestration and the American Founding

Post No. 1

3 min

Excerpt: Can God’s providence be argued within the standards of modern history? This 60‑day series explores contingency, primary voices, and convergences that invite a fresh look at America’s founding.

For generations, Americans have spoken of the founding era with a sense of awe—sometimes even reverence. Many of the Founders themselves described the events they lived through as “miraculous,” guided by a hand greater than their own. Yet modern historical writing often emphasizes uncertainty, chance, and human limitation. Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham notes that “nothing was foreordained about the American experiment,” while Walter Isaacson describes the revolutionaries’ sense of spiritual support as a kind of haze surrounding their efforts.

I understand why many scholars hesitate to speak of divine causation. Academic history prizes neutrality, and theological claims can feel out of place in that setting. But neutrality does not require us to ignore what the Founders said, what they believed, or how remarkably their independent choices converged toward a coherent outcome. If we take their words seriously—and if we examine the patterns of contingency and convergence with care—then the possibility of providential orchestration deserves thoughtful consideration.

That is the purpose of this 60‑day series.

Why This Series Matters

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we have an opportunity not only to remember events but to reflect on meaning. The American founding was not a straight line. It was a tapestry woven from uncertainty, courage, conflict, and conviction. And yet, again and again, circumstances aligned in ways that seemed improbable—sometimes astonishing—to those who lived through them.

My aim is not to preach, but to persuade. Not to insist, but to invite. Not to simplify, but to illuminate.

Across the coming posts, I will explore:

  • Contingency — the real alternatives that could have changed everything
  • Primary voices — what the Founders and their contemporaries actually said
  • Convergences — the surprising alignments that shaped the nation’s birth
  • Providence — the possibility that these alignments were not accidental

If the evidence holds together, the argument will stand on its own merits.

A Journey Told One Day at a Time

This series is designed to unfold gradually—one post every day or two—so that readers can walk through the American founding step by step. Each entry will connect another dot, reveal another convergence, or highlight another moment when events seemed to bend toward a larger purpose. You are warmly invited to follow along.

Visit the blog or listen to the podcast regularly. Share it with others who love history, faith, or the American story. Reflect on what these patterns might suggest about our nation’s origin, purpose, and destiny.

There is a plan in place for this series—carefully structured, thoughtfully paced, and meant to build toward a fuller understanding of the founding as both a human achievement and, perhaps, a divinely orchestrated one.

Author: Brent Russell

Email: bruss1@comcast.net

Website: www.americansgranddesign.com

Blog: americasgrand.design

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Understanding America’s Christian Heritage: A Renewed Perspective

Reading Time: 3 minutes.

Many folks I know have children or grandchildren in the Gen Z age range. When I read the Deseret News account of Bishop Gerald Causse and the Piano Guys (August 31) I wanted to share a few things I have learned about that generation. This past weekend there were thousands of YSAs meeting in Salt Lake.

Gen Z Turning to Spirituality

An Invitation

The improvement of understanding serves two purposes: to expand our knowledge and to share it with others.  –John Locke

A Pew Research Center report highlights that Christianity’s decline has stabilized, with Gen Z attending church more than previous generations. This trend is seen in both the US and Western Europe, with fewer people identifying as atheists.

Gen Z is turning to spirituality to cope with anxiety, depression, and loneliness, seeking stable structures amid social disconnect and institutional mistrust. Religion helps address identity, purpose, and belonging.

For those seeking new perspectives, I invite you to explore “How and Why Christianity Came to America” which will be presented in a series of posts beginning in August 2025 in celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday.

Site: http://www.americasgrand.design. My first post: Waving the Flags of America and the Restoration.

As you learn the true story behind America’s creation, the falsehoods you may have been fed will disappear. Discovering and learning about how this nation came into existence will not only be rewarding, it will fill your mind with the realization that it is wonderful to have a country to love.

In an environment where anxiety and depression are rampant, understanding God’s love and his purposes helps people of all ages build stronger futures.

LDS Chapel

Emphasizing democracy, religion, family, and relationships supports stability.

Faith in God and in his Son Jesus Christ and believing in immortality are vital for a strong, free society.

Human progress is founded on freedom, accountability, and following the Golden Rule. Enlightenment about America’s founding provides purpose and meaning, which this series aims to deliver.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The flourishing of human progress depends on the harmonious integration of freedom, accountability, and a democracy grounded in religious values. Faith plays a vital role in shaping stable societies by fostering strong families, moral responsibility, and a sense of purpose.

Key Points

Generational Shift: Christianity’s decline in the West has plateaued, with an increase in church attendance among Gen Z, who are less likely than Millennials to identify as atheists.

Social Drivers: Rising anxiety, depression, loneliness, and weakened social trust are motivating young people to seek the structure, identity, and belonging that religion can offer.

Series Invitation: The series “How and Why Christianity Came to America” aims to clarify misconceptions about America’s origins and foster renewed appreciation for the nation’s heritage.

Core Values: Faith in God and in Jesus Christ, the belief in immortality, robust family life, and practicing the Golden Rule are foundational to a stable and free society.

Renewed Understanding: Learning about America’s founding principles can inspire gratitude and offer meaning, especially during times of widespread uncertainty and disconnection.

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Waving the Flags of America and the Restoration

Post No. 1 Read Time: 7 minutes.

Painting and comments by Al Rounds: “I was going through all of the old photographs of downtown Salt Lake, and I came across one particular photograph of the Salt Lake Temple with an American flag that hung on the south side of the temple. There was no explanation on the photograph as to why the flag was there. Nor why the flag was seemingly backwards . . .

“The flag was hung in 1896 to celebrate Utah’s statehood, and it was not hung backwards as I had thought. There was just no protocol on how to hang the United States flag until after the turn of the century . . .

“I was very fortunate to interview a woman whose mother helped sew that very special American flag. She told me that the stripes were 6 feet tall and the stars were each about a foot tall. She also said the flag was sewn on only one side such that it could be hung in only the one direction. The flag hung on the temple for the entire year in ‘Celebration’ . . .

“Larry and Gail Miller purchased this painting because of their love of pioneer heritage. And they enjoyed telling the story of why the flag was hung seemingly backwards.”

The American Experiment is Foreordained

In a recent talk, Elder Gary Stevenson invited us, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to wave the flag of the Restoration. Because the events are so deeply and beautifully intertwined, I am setting out, as we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, to wave the flags of both America and the Restoration. To tell the story, I have developed a series of 120 posts, set to be released at a pace of two or three per week until July 2026.

These posts explore the backstory of mankind’s creation, God’s unfolding work on behalf of his children, the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, the founding of America, and many of the key events that followed, all under the dual themes of “History is Prophecy Unveiled” and “How and Why Judeo-Christian Influences Came to America.” The content is tailored to resonate with three specific audience groups.

Group one comprises those who share the view of America as a nation founded under divine guidance; a nation where wise men were raised up to establish a government to be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles. With its distinctive democracy and representative government, America serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration to the world.

Group two consists of those who generally hold a favorable view of America, believing that Providence may have played a role in its founding, but often lack strong spiritual or patriotic sentiments. They see the colonists as motivated primarily by economic opportunities rather than religious or spiritual influences. Many are easily convinced that America’s founding was rooted in greed, conquest, and mistreatment of others, at times making its legitimacy questionable in their eyes.

Group three consists of deceiving intellectuals and sophists. Openly hostile to America, they comprise a disparate group of individuals who write history and commentary, serve in politics and leadership, and advocate from positions of trust in academia, media, entertainment, and think tanks that there was nothing foreordained about the American experiment. To this group, American history was not an inevitable chain of events leading to a sure conclusion, rather it was a movement founded on selfishness and greed. Individually and collectively, they dismiss the Declaration of Independence, consider the Constitution outdated, and pursue a strategy of tearing down the structure of democratic capitalism and representative government, with a twisted desire to rebuild it based on Marxist ideology.

Based on my experience, people are generally engaged in attempts to persuade others through conversations, actions, and the written word. As a missionary for my Church, I aim for my research and writing to address questions, to spark interest, and introduce ideas that may have been dismissed or never considered.

History provides a wider view of life, acting as a source of inspiration and resilience. The story of America defines us as individuals and as a nation, offering plenty to be proud of. Core values like liberty, justice, and personal responsibility play a vital role. Much like music, poetry, and art, history expands the mind and opens the heart to new possibilities.

I want people to understand how members of the LDS faith view life before birth, the purposes of mortality, and life after death; to explore how and why our perspective on the Trinity differs from the biblical view as interpreted by traditional Christianity; to gain insight into how we balance faith, works, and grace; to consider our approach to personal prayer, institutional revelation, and our willingness to follow modern day apostles and prophets; and to reflect on how we see the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I also want the general populace to understand our unique beliefs on the fulfillment of prophecy and how and why America was founded in keeping with God’s grand design.

When looking at history, it is important to remember the respect owed to those who laid the foundation of Western civilization and America’s creation. Together, we stand on the shoulders of Hebrew prophets, the sages of Greece and Rome, the Founders, philosophers, and religious leaders of far-reaching civilizations, and the multitude of key figures of the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment. Culminating with the vision and work of the Founding Fathers and those who continued their efforts, we are the beneficiaries of those who have gone before. The evidence is compelling that the American experiment unfolded by Intelligent Design. At the very least, let’s resist and stop the mindless destruction of Western civilization and the American nation.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

America’s founding and history are not accidental but are guided by a divine plan, particularly as understood within the context of the LDS faith. The narrative aims to highlight how America’s origins and development are deeply intertwined with spiritual principles and why understanding this perspective matters in current discussions about the nation’s identity and values.

Key Points

Series Purpose: A collection of 120 posts is being launched in celebration of America’s 250th birthday, focusing on the discovery, founding, and significant historical moments of the nation, especially through the lens of Christianity’s arrival in America.

Audience Groups:

Group one: Believes that America was divinely inspired and founded on holy principles.

Group two: Generally positive about America but views its founding as more pragmatic and less providential.

Group three: Hostile toward America’s founding, seeing it as selfish and illegitimate, and advocating for fundamental changes to its governance.

Purpose of Writing: To offer historical context, inspire thought, and share the LDS perspective on faith, America’s founding, and related theological principles.

Importance of History: History is presented as a source of inspiration and identity, shaping individuals and the nation while promoting values like liberty, justice, and responsibility.

LDS Beliefs Highlighted: The text seeks to explain LDS views on the nature and character of God, mankind’s pre-mortal existence, the roles of noble and great souls in advancing God’s work on Earth, the vital importance of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice, the divine role in America’s creation, and its aftermath.

Call to Respect Foundations: Emphasizes honoring the figures, philosophies, and events that contributed to the founding of Western civilization, America’s formation, and the spread of truth; further arguing that these events are a product of Intelligent Design rather than random chance.

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Be a Purveyor of Hope

We live in a world plagued by a growing epidemic of depression and anxiety, especially among the younger generations. Recent surveys have shown that nearly one-third of teenagers are suffering from clinical levels of anxiety and depression. Among the contributing factors are genetics, trauma, neglect, parenting styles, sexual orientation, peer and social group influence, and social media use. Data also suggests that older age groups are not immune to the discouragement, frustration, and sadness running rampant throughout American society. Overall, it is being reported that over 50% of Americans are dissatisfied in their lives.

I am not a counselor or mental health specialist. However, I have kids, grandkids, and friends who are facing life’s challenges as they pursue happiness and seek to discover meaning in their lives. Like Americans of all ages, they want to dream, to find meaning, and to fulfill their potential. In the ongoing battle that at times can overwhelm each of us and fill us with despair, it is my hope that when we see our futures as bleak and fragile, we will find strength and reassurance.

One clue as to where we are as a society was recently provided by a billionaire donor to Harvard University who said that Harvard and other elite schools create “whiny snowflakes.” He asked, “Are we going to educate a group of young men and women who are just caught up in a rhetoric of oppressor and oppressee and ‘this is not fair’?

“Until Harvard makes it very clear that they are going to resume their role of educating young American men and women to be leaders, to be problem solvers, to take on difficult issues, I am not interested in supporting the institution.” Over the past 40 years, he has donated in excess of $500 million to the school.

As we confront and conquer tough times, we owe a debt of gratitude to all of those, past and present, who work overtime to become a counterweight to the negative factors that threaten our individual and collective peace. Through inspiring words of wisdom and encouragement, they demonstrate how we too can become purveyors of hope.

Looking back in time, we can see that what passes today for intellectualism and scholarship is a very narrow view of the world. Disdain for natural law and a lack of respect for the great thinkers of the past has led to an intellectual environment governed by license–Let me do what I want, let me live “my truth,” while I mock and ignore the sacred, the foundational, and the traditional.

In 1987, Allan Bloom wrote The Closing of the American Mind. Painting the picture of a nation in crisis, he wrote of “the universities’ lack of purpose and the students’ lack of learning. Each of which has led to nihilism and despair, of relativism disguised as tolerance.

“What we see today is a culture which lacks an understanding of the past and a vision of the future. Entrusted with the education of our people, our system no longer provides the knowledge of the great traditions of philosophy and literature that made students aware of the order of nature and of man’s place within it. In their failure to arouse or to nurture the self-knowledge that has always been the basis for serious learning, the intellectual currents of Western civilization and history have been replaced by a spiritual malaise.”

Accelerating this deterioration are those who either have no interest in or who are actively hostile to our founding, to the Declaration of Independence, and to the Constitution. Employing deceit, and under the guise of objectivity, our culture has been transformed “by the idea that there is no longer hope in great and wise men from other places and times who can reveal the truth about life.” In short, relativism, revisionism, and opposition to spiritual principles have extinguished the real motives of education and the essential importance of the standards by which we are to be governed.

My prescription for instilling hope and alleviating sadness is as follows:

  1. We live in a world of spiritual warfare. Beginning with the War in Heaven and continuing on Earth today, a fierce battle is being waged between the forces of good and evil. It is imperative that all people, both young and old, see this.
  2. We are children of God; created in His likeness and image.
  3. Our two greatest blessings are the gift of life and the freedom to direct that life.
  4. Mortality is an opportunity to gain a physical body, to overcome weakness and temptation, to improve, and to gain experience. Each of us won (earned) the right to be here (on Earth). We were not forced to come. Furthermore, we each have an important mission to fulfill. So much of what is beneficial is discovered through developing a love of work and in learning to value time.
  5. We are possessed with an irresistible desire to know our relationship with the Infinite. Hope is rooted in faith and trust that God is at the helm.
  6. Knowledge is of no value unless used. Learn and apply correct principles.
  7. Strive to rise above the environment. Master the body and all things physical and live in a higher and more beautiful world.
  8. Turn to Jesus Christ. He is the Light of the World. He has overcome spiritual and physical death. He has suffered pains, afflictions, and temptations of every kind. Full of mercy and compassion, He understands our infirmities, anxieties, and limitations.
  9. Our nation was founded by honorable men. The invention of the market economy fostered upward mobility, harnessed self-interest, and spurred creativity, imagination, and individual talent. Remember all of our hard-won rights and responsibilities. Pursue a renaissance of respect, a revival of responsibility, a spiritual awakening of our story, of who we are and how we got here, of all we have been through and achieved, to accompany the emphasis on human rights, our pursuit of equality and justice, and our celebration of human freedom. There is no upside to the weakening of our nation. The conservative worldview drives human flourishing.
  10. Reverence for life is imperative. The world’s richest man is also the world’s leading proponent of natalism. “Having children is saving the world,” said Elon Musk. “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” Prepare well, fall in love, walk down the aisle or kneel at the altar, and raise a family. The right to life is the universal birthright of every soul.
  11. Seek and promote balance in our environmental stewardship. We do not have to choose between a cleaner planet and a prosperous economy. We can have both.
  12. Maintain freedom against the forces of socialism and communism. “Of all the systems of political economy which have shaped our history, none has so revolutionized ordinary expectations of human life–lengthened the life span, made the elimination of poverty and famine thinkable, enlarged the range of human choice–as democratic capitalism” (Michael Novak).
  13. “Lay down true principles and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of wealth against the ascendancy of the people” (Thomas Jefferson).
  14. Live the Golden Rule. Always be kind, honest, and friendly.
  15. Righteousness exalts a nation. When the meanings of words are changed through plausible definitions, freedom is degenerated, and the culture is in decline.

Above is a list of universal truths. They are designed to help us better understand the why of our existence and the purposes of mortal life. Understanding them, applying them, and sharing them will build and preserve spiritual and emotional resilience in ourselves and others. May we be the voice of hope, the purveyors of hope, to all those around us. 

 

 

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The Books of Judah and Joseph

Each calendar year, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we rotate our weekly Sunday School scripture study between what we call the Standard Works: The Old and New Testaments from the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants. These four books represent our canon of scripture. Accordingly, calendar year 2024 is devoted to the study of the Book of Mormon.

The Bible is a divine library of sixty-six individual books divided into the Old and New Testaments, collected and edited over many centuries. The books were written by divinely inspired authors about Israel’s sacred history and theology, her covenants with God, her faith and loyalty to Him, her patriarchs and prophets, her expectation of a Messiah, and the fulfillment of that expectation in the advent of Jesus Christ.

Our Church honors and reveres the Bible. We believe that the Bible has had greater influence on the world for good than any other book ever published. We consider the Bible to be the Book of books! 

The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. Foretold in both the Old and New Testaments, it is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting gospel. The Book of Mormon is the greatest witness for the truth of the Bible that has ever been published. Through its teachings, we draw nearer to the Infinite, greatly aided in our discovery of the reasons for our being.

In support of these claims, Plato’s divine ontology and Socrates’s divine signs manifestly fit the narrative of the human quest: to discover our highest potential. As members of the human family, we were in the beginning with God. Each of us is on the Earth because of our acceptance of the plan of salvation, and because we lived satisfactory preexistent lives. We won the right to be here; we were not forced to come; we won our place on the earth!

The work of God has been designed and will not be complete until every soul has been taught the gospel and has been offered the privilege of salvation and the accompanying great blessings which the Lord has in store for His children. Joining the Bible in proclaiming that our purpose in mortal life is to seek and follow divine pronouncements, the Book of Mormon is essential to mankind.

Further substantiating these assertions are four narratives, each beginning around 600 BC. First are the prophecies of Isaiah which foretell the coming of the Messiah, a time of falling away through transgression of the laws and changing of the ordinances, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and the establishment of an ensign for the nations in anticipation of the gathering of Israel and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Second is the philosophical account which led to ethics and helped preserve Christianity in the time of Constantine. The three great minds behind this unfolding were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Third is the Muslim scholarly tradition. The role played by eastern intellectuals in keeping truth alive was essential, as visionary Muslim scholars fled the Ottoman Empire, bringing sacred and vital works to Italy, thus fueling the Renaissance. The fourth in this series of connected events is the record of Nephi, a succession of kings and prophets in the New World. Containing the fullness of the everlasting gospel, this record is known as the Book of Mormon.

Creating a paradox, the philosophical, Roman, and Muslim narratives had at their heart the idea of obscuring, burying, or eliminating true Christianity. For example, in the face of biblical and historical evidence, the Greeks and Jews scoffed at the idea of Christ’s resurrection, thus negating the purpose for which He had come to Earth and given His life. Islam, on the other hand, though regarding Jesus as a great prophet, is not Christian. Siding with universal truths that were appealing and important, in order to be popular and relevant in the world, these movements sold out what Jesus Christ was really about, and precious truths were lost.

Upon the foundation of Hellenism–the act of becoming Greek in thought and culture–and warped by speculative thinking–resulting in creeds and edicts–God lost His corporeal form and free will yielded to the iron yoke of man-made ecclesiasticism through the joining of the altar and the throne and the establishment of the Divine Right of Kings. Moreover, many of the Master’s original teachings, such as the correct mode of baptism, the doctrine of preexistence, and the emblematic nature of His sacrifice were allowed to wither away. Over time, through the introduction of doctrines and practices such as purgatory, limbo, the sale of indulgences, and the establishment of national churches, the Roman Church would greatly limit the spiritual quest of ordinary people. To ensure conformance with an ever-changing orthodoxy, the state became the arm of power.

Unique from other Christian churches, this combination of events, known historically as the Dark and Early Middle Ages, and theistically as the Great Apostasy, triggered the loss of priesthood power from the earth, severed the lines of revelation, and signaled that purity of doctrine would not long remain. Over a period of centuries, guided by the hand of the Lord and designated scripturally as a marvelous work and a wonder (see Isaiah), a series of events took place which prepared the way for constitutional government and the Restoration of that which had been lost. Beginning with the Renaissance, and continuing with the Protestant Reformation, the Ages of Enlightenment, Discovery, and Colonization, and the War for Independence, the way was paved for civil and religious liberty and pluralism, wherein the restitution of all things as foretold by Peter could begin to unfold.

As the doctrine of biblical inerrancy and the rise of state churches continued to perpetuate the falsehoods of apostasy in America, the timing was right for a great reset. Translated by the gift and power of God and coming forth as the great clarifier of the true mission of Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon was brought forth in 1830. Bypassing the influences of Greek and Roman jargon and sophism, the Book of Mormon was also spared the grueling process of polemical translation that the Bible had undergone. Accordingly, we believe, as expressed by the Prophet Joseph Smith, that the Book of Mormon is “the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

Beginning with the events of 1820, the Doctrine and Covenants is not a translation from ancient documents but rather direct revelations and communications from God to His children through His chosen prophets in our times. It is a book of scripture given directly to our generation, containing the will of the Lord for us in these last days that precede the Second Coming of Christ.

Throughout the history of the world, the Lord has revealed His word and will to prophets. In our day, all the streams and rivers of the past are flowing into the grand ocean of truth that is known as the dispensation of the fulness of times.

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Opinion: ‘He appeared and the soul felt its worth’

The James Webb Telescope has shown the world a glimpse into endless and spectacular creation. The question is, do puny humans on a tiny speck of a planet really matter?

My post for this week is by The Deseret News Editorial Board, Salt Lake City, Utah December 24, 2023.

The “Pillars of Creation,” a star-forming area about 6,500 light-years away from Earth, are shown in this image from the James Webb Space Telescope.
The “Pillars of Creation,” a star-forming area within the Eagle Nebula about 6,500 light-years away from Earth, are shown in this image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Viewed in the right light, Christmas brings clarity to so much of what vexes the world. If that clarity entered every household during this season, think how the world would change.

Consider how ridiculous the hubris of dictators and tyrants appears amid the endless sparkles of creation the James Webb Telescope has laid bare this year. Consider how the perspective of endless creation reduces human conceit and pride to nothingness.

Just one example, but a typical one, is a photo the telescope produced, showing what experts say is 50,000 sources of near infrared light. Each tiny bright spot is a separate galaxy containing millions of stars and planets. The website explorersweb.com says this one single photo may contain as many as 4 trillion stars.

That seems impossible to comprehend.

Not only do human pursuits vanish into vapor against this backdrop, but a bigger, more ominous question comes to mind. How could anyone on a planet such as earth, which is less than a dark pebble in an ocean of stars and planets, presume a level of importance at all? How does anything we do matter?

And how could any thoughtful person consider the vastness of endless creation without wondering about the value of individuals, from the tiniest newborn baby to the most powerful political figure?

Christmas brings clarity to it all. 

“O, Holy Night,” a hymn written by Placide Cappeau, a poet in a small town in France, contains these words about Jesus Christ: “Long lay the world, in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.”

The story of Christmas is the story of weak things being, in reality, of infinite worth. It is the story that corrects the way perspectives can be obscured by finite vision. It is about how tiny lives on a dim and remote planet, eclipsed by endless creative splendor, are important enough for the God of all creation to send his “only begotten son” to offer redemption, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) 

More than just a story about a baby born in a manger, it is a jaw-dropping affirmation of the divine worth of every person who has inhabited this planet, or whoever will so long as the planet exists. This tiny speck of a globe, then, is in reality the most sparkling jewel in the vast array of cosmic lights.

One of the most troubling tragedies of modern life is the way so many people today readily lose sight of the eternal and focus obsessively on things of little or no value. Much has been written in recent years about families in the United States being torn apart by politics. Many people cringe at the thought of another acrimonious election season coming in 2024. 

Too many people now refuse to talk to or acknowledge mothers, fathers, sisters or brothers who hold differing political views. Too many walk amid splendor and beauty, focused only on the tiny specks of imperfections they insist on magnifying beyond proportion. Too many strive to keep those they dislike under their thumbs.

In an opinion piece for The New York Times, Will Leitch described the change in people regarding politics over the past eight years, or so.

“What had once been merely some awkward moments at Thanksgiving became constant fissures pitting kids against parents, siblings against siblings, generation against generation,” he said.

Others focus solely on wealth or the acquisition of things, oblivious to the short duration of their own lives.

It is common this time of year to hear people talk about wanting to feel the spirit of Christmas. Let’s be clear about that. 

Cappeau’s “O, Holy Night” continues, “Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease.”

The spirit of Christmas comes when we forgive as he does, when we love as he does, and when we stop trying to punish others for what we have seen as irredeemable shortcomings. It comes when we view all people as equals, endowed by the same loving creator with certain inalienable rights. It comes when we look around us and, most importantly, above us, focusing on transcendent beauties and wonders that lift and inspire.

It comes when we discover the worth of our own soul, and subsequently the worth of all other souls. It comes when we can see the bright light of that holy night through the perspective of eternity.

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What is the Bible and Where did it come from?

Who wrote the Bible?

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I may look at the Bible differently than you. While I consider it to be the greatest literary treasure of Western Civilization and the driving force in the shaping of the English-speaking world, I have studied the path that what would eventually become the King James Version, commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, traveled, before its official designation and acceptance. Historical data has influenced my thinking.

To begin, we know very little about the authorship of the Old Testament with the exception that it arose over time and in phases. No doubt, its different prophets had different agendas and concerns while working in different cultural frameworks. While it conveys many wonderful and consistent themes, it is also complex and can be the subject of controversy.

Likewise, in the New Testament, which has a much less complicated history, we find discordance between the apostles. For example, the challenge James faced with what he was hearing about the teachings of Paul began when he realized that Paul’s teachings about salvation through faith alone in Jesus Christ, absent performance according to the law, were being interpreted in an oversimplified way that Paul never intended. In his book, James clarified this by writing that true faith always leads to righteous works, meaning our actions and efforts.

In the ensuing centuries however, beginning with Martin Luther, who was attempting to unwind some of the elaborate theology that had overtaken the Roman Church through the doctrines of pilgrimages to holy sites, confession to a priest, penance, indulgences, limbo, purgatory, and transubstantiation, we see that Paul’s teachings were continuing to be distorted through Luther’s development of the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

As their frustrations grew with these works that were purported to save, “The Reformers overcompensated and invented a new doctrine of salvation by grace alone, a doctrine that disavowed all works, even godly works, as a necessary ingredient of salvation. The pendulum merely swung from one heresy to another. As a result of the Reformation, many Christians teach that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be saved by grace alone, regardless of any works on our part” (Callister).

In his misinterpretation of Paul’s teachings, Luther contended that the redemptive work of Christ was finished, that the sinner’s condition does not depend on what he can do today, but on his relationship to what Christ has done. Justified by faith alone, he taught that all that is needed for salvation is to either accept Jesus in your heart or confess him with your lips.

When one looks at the hold this doctrine of justification by faith alone has on the Christian world as well as its mistaken linkage to the doctrine of grace, it is as if a central theme of the Book of James, “Faith without works is dead,” has never been a factor. It is as if Luther was saying, “Well, let’s just throw out the book of James!” Moreover, it undermines the Savior’s continual emphasis of doing and becoming as He constantly emphasized in His sermons. A half-brother to Jesus, and one who was by His side for His entire earthly ministry, there can be no doubt that James understood the Savior’s teachings.

When our Church states, as a matter of doctrine, that “We believe in the Bible, as far as it is translated correctly,” what we mean is that we are not on board with the liberal Protestant tradition of biblical inerrancy. There are too many things that have been lost, too many definitions that have been incorrectly formulated through the interpolations of men, and too many erroneous descriptions of God and His interactions with His children.

Furthermore, as Joseph Smith labored to better understand the Bible, there were the frustrations of working within the limits of language. Thus constrained, he struggled to transmit his feelings into words and wrote, “The little narrow prison almost as it were total darkness of paper, pen, and ink, and a crooked, broken, scattered, and imperfect language.”

Willing to acknowledge the challenge of writing with concise, accurate grammar and diction, and anticipating a future day when all of us will read and understand to the fullness and satisfaction of our immortal souls, the Prophet of the Restoration seemed to say, “I don’t have the full picture. I’m struggling with an imperfect language.”

There are far too many unanswered questions to make everything fit together perfectly. This suggests that the Bible is the repository of numerous accounts, versions, and a library of stories rather than one coherent narrative. Because there is so much to learn about the life before, the Creation, Adam and Eve, the Fall, the Atonement, the true nature of God and man, and the teachings of Jesus, rather than take the position that the Bible is complete and has all the answers, it seems reasonable to be open to further revelation or even scholarship to fill in the gaps.

In accordance with this line of thinking, there is another basic belief to share. Introduced by Joseph Smith in 1842, as one of 13 Articles of Faith of the newly restored Church, it is the doctrine of ongoing revelation: “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”

In conclusion, the Bible is a book of inspired discourse. It unites us in our pursuit of understanding ethics and the divine will. The foundation of our Judeo-Christian heritage, it provides a basis for common conversation and community. In its morality lies the safety of society.

Explained by a Jewish writer, “Somewhere on the Temple Mount was the actual temple, but we don’t know exactly where. And so, we take off our shoes and treat the whole Mount with the reverence it deserves. And that’s how I try to approach the scriptures. I know that God’s fingerprints are there.”

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O Beautiful for Spacious Skies

It never ceases to amaze me how incredible, and how beautiful, this country and her people are.

Park City, Utah, started out as a mining town in 1884 and had great success.  When the mines played out there was agriculture and farming.  Then, along came skiing, tourism, and the Olympics.  At its heart, a community of wonderful people combined the elements of all these industries. And therein lies the appeal of this very special place on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.

No doubt, the most interesting thing I do, as an owner of a transportation company with two of my sons, is meet and talk with people from all over the United States (and the world) and from all walks of life.  Over the years I have heard some amazing things as people shared a part of their life story.

I remember the young man from Tibet.  In our ride to the airport, he spoke quietly of how much he enjoyed the solitude of the mountains.  He said that as he skied through the powder and the trees he was overcome by the grandeur of it all and felt great peace, “a oneness with nature.”

I’ll never forget the woman who flew in for a convention and a three-day ski vacation at a luxury hotel.  She was so appreciative of everything from the physical beauty of her surroundings to the way she was treated.  Traveling to the airport we began to talk about her story–her pathway to such an “incredible experience.”

A few years before she held a good job doing research.  Then she was hired by a large firm to find out why their candy sales fell off during Christmas and other major holidays, at a time when the owners of the company felt that their sales should soar.

What she discovered was that candy sales did increase, but it was in the upscale brands because people were willing to spend more on candy during those times of the year.

Her discovery led to a change of thinking in the presentation of their product.  This was followed by the development and marketing of red and green M & M’s and other candy specialties.  Indeed, their candy sales took off–and so did her career.

Two years ago, on a beautiful evening, just as the sun was beginning to go down, I was returning to Park City with a family who had enjoyed an afternoon of snowmobiling.  Sensing what was happening in the sky and on the tops of the mountains, as the light converged in an incredible mixture of pinks and blues on the snow-capped peaks, I took a different route because I wanted them to see the back of the Wasatch Range (Mt. Timpanogos) under these conditions.

Nature did not disappoint.  As we crested a hill and the back of the Wasatch came into view, with its 11,000-foot peaks, there were gasps of appreciation.  Then, stilled silence, as they took it all in.  It was a special time as a family from New Orleans experienced a moment they will never forget.

What I have written about Utah is something that unfolds in thousands of places across America, many of which I have witnessed firsthand. Throw in the changing seasons, from the fall colors to the stillness of winter, from Nature’s renewal in springtime to the long summer days with their parades, celebrations, and family gatherings.

Such reflection often leads me to a question: What is the higher purpose of Nature? And to a possible answer: “To cultivate the sense of the beautiful, is one of the most effectual ways of cultivating an appreciation of the divine goodness” (Bovee).

As I wrote in the beginning, it never ceases to amaze me how incredible, and how beautiful, this country and her people are.

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All Men Are Created Equal

A Rebuke to Tyranny and Oppression

When considered in light of the most common charge leveled against America’s Founding Fathers, and against our nation itself, that they were hypocrites who did not believe in their stated principles, and therefore the country they built rests on a lie, two of the leading theological doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, properly understood and taught, would have significant impact on our culture. These teachings would refute the machinations of politics and selfish human interests, as well as undo the destructive theories that continue to divide Americans and tear at the fabric of our country.

First, is the powerful teaching of premortal life. Simply stated, man was in the beginning with God.

More specifically, in the premortal realm, order, agency, and eternal truths prevailed. Setting themselves apart through faithfulness, diligence, and devotion, leaders, including those who would discover, colonize, and establish the American nation, emerged. Born when and where they would be needed the most, these faithful individuals would be called upon to assist God in the development and progress of His work on earth.

Demonstrating the pattern of heaven, these noble and great souls would come forth as ancient philosophers, pagan or Israelite, as well as the great characters of modern times. In renewal, invention, translation, reform, discovery, science, enlightenment, music, colonization, the struggle for freedom, emancipation, union, statesmanship, diplomacy, religious ideals and philosophy, educational pursuits, and innovations, they would find in Christ the keys to human advancement and the source of the marvelous truths they would advocate.

Contrary to the greatest acts of mighty men, which have been carried out to depopulate nations and to overthrow kingdoms at the expense of the lives of the innocent, the blood of the oppressed, the moans of the widow, and the tears of the orphan, these noble and great ones would be inspired in doing what they do for the amelioration, liberty, and advancement of the human race. Unfolding under the umbrella of divine design, their leadership and accomplishments would be progressively refined to correspond with human understanding of God’s intentions.

Second, the inspiring assertion that our founding documents, and our nation itself, were created by the hands of wise men who were prepared in the premortal realm for that very task and raised up by God in mortality for that very purpose. Moreover, upon the foundation of the existential nature of freedom, over the course of centuries, God would employ a wide variety of methods and individuals to prepare the way and assist His chosen servants in the creation of this nation.

In 1620, upon boarding the Mayflower, the Pilgrims were worried about how self-government might be established upon their arrival in America. Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, in one of the most significant acts in history, they drew up the Mayflower Compact.

Drawing heavily on the Long Letter, which had been presented by their spiritual leader, John Robinson, in Holland, the Mayflower Compact spelled out ideas for the group’s legal and social organization in the New World. For the role it played in inspiring this document, John Adams would credit Robinson’s Long Letter as foundational to the United States Constitution.

The aim of the Pilgrim enterprise, undertaken to escape religious persecution in the Old World and to seek the opportunity for self-government in the new one, was underscored by their belief that the Renaissance and Reformation were not ends but means to greater light. And even though God had not revealed His whole will to them, they knew they wanted to “be as a city upon a hill, [for] the eyes of all people are upon us” (John Winthrop).

In 1687, our notion of the structure of the natural world expanded dramatically with Isaac Newton’s discovery of gravity. The concept of a higher law, divinely ordained, was strengthened.

If Newton had been able to discern the particular laws that God had established to govern the movements of the planets in the heavens, how much more certain it was that He had ordained such laws for the direction of human societies. Accordingly, acting on John Locke’s assertion that the natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and that ordinary individuals could form new communities and governments simply by agreeing to do so, confident of the fact that their rights were guaranteed by God Himself, the Founding Fathers would source human rights to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God.

Having gained a foothold in the New World, the parade of great and noble souls in pursuit of God’s will, continued to unfold. With a collective yearning for divine and practical guidance in an era of constitutional thinking, colonial America was richly blessed by the influence of George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather, John Wesley, and James Otis.

In 1776, building upon the momentum of the Great Awakening, and further magnified by clarity of intellect, profundity of knowledge, and revolutionary genius, a powerful combination of noble and great souls would come together in Philadelphia. Bound together in their love of freedom, this most remarkable generation of public men in history would deliver a compendium of self-evident truths, truths they regarded as “sacred and undeniable.”

Envisioning an empire of liberty traveling westward, they were looking forward to the destined moment when America would give the “law” to the rest of the world in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Pledging their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, they would declare independence, affirm that “all men are created equal,” state that rights come from God, and enshrine in the American consciousness the supernal principle of consent of the governed.

Also in 1776, Adam Smith would publish The Wealth of Nations, which, through the invention of a market economy, would unleash a movement that would more profoundly revolutionize the world between 1800 and the present day than any other singe force. Defining freedom of thought as the most critical goal of the America Revolution, Thomas Jefferson would author the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, thus laying the groundwork for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. And Edward Gibbon, seeking to answer the questions, “what happened, and could it happen again” would publish The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Eleven years later, the Founding Fathers, led by George Washington, whose “very presence in Philadelphia certified the connection between the two founding moments: the first to win independence and the second to secure it” (Ellis), would give birth to the Constitution of the United States of America, “the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man” (Gladstone). Basing their work on “just and holy principles,” the Framers would establish the foundation and legitimacy of our nation.

Meanwhile, on July 13, 1787, in New York, the Confederation Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance which protected civil liberties and outlawed slavery in the new territories. Simultaneously in Great Britain, William Wilberforce, in combination with other noble and great souls, began a determined effort to abolish the slave trade and then to abolish slavery itself in all English possessions.

As indicated in the small sampling of noble and great ones aforementioned, foreordination is the premortal selection of individuals to come forth in mortality at specified times, under certain conditions, and to fulfill predesignated responsibilities. In the totality of these few examples, through what they accomplished as individuals and in groups, as well as in the movements they led and supported, the discovery, colonization, and establishment of America was to be a significant part of “a marvelous work and a wonder,” as foretold by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.

While “many Americans labor under the illusion that slavery was somehow a uniquely American evil, it was the Western world’s repudiation of slavery, only just beginning to build at the time of the American Revolution, which marked a dramatic sea change in moral sensibilities. The American Founders were living on the cusp of this change, in a manner that straddled two worlds” (1776 Report).

The Framers of America’s founding documents knew that slavery was incompatible with the idea that “all men are created equal.” Yet, in the formative years of the United States, there was insurmountable social, cultural, and political opposition in the fight to end human bondage in America.

Remarkably, on December 16, 1833, with the issue of slavery unresolved, the Prophet Joseph Smith quoted the Lord. Referring to one of the “just and holy principles” upon which this nation was founded, he wrote, “It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood” (DC 101.79-80).

In the fight against tyrannical practices, our history is one of common struggle and great achievement. Our ancestors won independence, created a government, and tamed a wilderness. In addition, over 600,000 lives were lost in the successful effort to end human bondage.

Interpreting the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln noted, “They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all . . . and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.”

Having based our political legitimacy on the eternal principles of liberty, justice, and consent of the governed, Thomas Jefferson was singled out by Lincoln, who wrote, “All honor to Jefferson–the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce in a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times . . . a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.”

In their appeal to both reason and revelation, our founding documents speak to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” to the principle of freedom, and to the will of “We the People.” Working together, they are “an outgrowth, in practical terms, of man’s desire to protect the principle of free agency by defining the role and limits of civil authority” (G. Homer Durham).

Having established America as a city on a hill, those who came before brought forth eternal truths and a desire to share those truths with the rest of mankind. Under the protection of the Constitution of the United States, the spread of Christ’s gospel can go forward as the greatest motivational power in the world to be and to do good. Revealed as a trail of clues, our founding documents have given us the opportunity to establish and maintain a Republic, if we can keep it, and to offer universal peace and prosperity to all mankind, if they will receive it.

For additional information on America’s Grand Design, please see: http://www.americasgranddesign.com

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Standing with the Constitution

THE RELATIONSHIP OF FREEDOM AND TRUE KNOWLEDGE

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.  –Benjamin Franklin

The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy.  Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors.  The answer was provided immediately.  A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”  With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

What do you think Benjamin Franklin meant by those words?

The American government was created and established on the foundation of natural law.
The American government was established on the foundation of natural law.

Centrally involved in the process that resulted in The Declaration of Independence and the creation of The Constitution of the United States, Franklin understood natural law which is the belief which holds that rights exist in nature and are not granted to individuals by anyone or any government.

Our nation was established on the foundation of natural law.  Expressed in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident:  that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights:  that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness:  that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

We live in a world where freedom is not guaranteed.  Liberty is fragile and can be lost.  A constitutional republic, like ours, can quite naturally become wicked and corrupted and evolve into tyranny and dictatorship.

By applying the conditional, “if you can keep it,” Franklin was saying that only individuals can secure and maintain their liberty. If we the people do not uphold natural law and remain “ever vigilant” in watching our government, the rule of law, society, and government itself will break down in the face of abusive practices.

The Constitution is an outgrowth, in practical terms, of man’s desire to protect the principle of freedom; our personal ability to choose.  Constitutional, or higher, law undertakes to protect that principle by defining the role and limits of civil authority.

As to what kind of ideas the Founders subscribed to, Franklin noted, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Putting forth another idea on which our Republic was founded, James Madison wrote, “We have staked the whole future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, and to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God.” The Ten Commandments are the basis and fundamental principles of all law, just, and legal administration that should govern the human family. 

Far from being an establishment of religion, this very practical approach to self-government places political power in the hands of the people through a system built on trust.  Madison knew that reverence for God, regard for others, and respect for property inspires adherence to a high moral law that transcends the constraints of civil and criminal codes.

As a body, the Founding Fathers subscribed to the belief that “human passions unbridled by morality and religion” would lead people away from the voluntary fulfillment of responsibilities based upon morality to costly legal enforcement of rights compelled by legislation, litigation, and oppression because they understood that personal freedom yields to the power of government. They comprehended in the abstract what sports and music teach us about rules, out of bounds, and out of tune.

In 1987, an exhaustive study was conducted to determine the sources of the ideas that influenced the Founding Fathers.  In a remarkable conclusion, it was determined that of the thousands of citations quoted to support their ideas, 34 percent came from one source–the Bible.  Most of these were from the book of Deuteronomy, which is the Book of God’s law.

With the importance of the Bible’s influence on the Framers in mind, recommitting to the Ten Commandments is a good starting point in our quest to Stand with the Founding Fathers.

  1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
  2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
  3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
  4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
  5. Honor thy father and thy mother.
  6. Thou shalt not kill.
  7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
  8. Thou shalt not steal.
  9. Thou shalt not bear false witness.
  10. Thou shalt not covet. 

The Founders were highly qualified and educated men–the best and the brightest of their time.  They were deeply read in the facts of history; they were learned in the forms and practices and systems of the governments of the world, past and present; they were, in matters political, equally at home in Rome, in Athens, in Paris, and in London; they had a long, varied, and intense experience in the work of governing their various Colonies.

With no known exception among them, they were united in their belief, as expressed by James Madison, “A well instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”

As such, they should be our inspiration.

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Stand with the Founding Fathers

A Worldwide Collision of Ideas

Let the Constitution be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges, let it be written in primers, in spelling books and in almanacs, let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.  And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation.  –Abraham Lincoln

In the world we live in there is no question that government is preeminent:

  • from student loans to immigration,
  • from health insurance to how much money is left over from our labors,
  • from the establishment of justice to the assurance of domestic tranquility,
  • from the fear of our enemies to providing for the common defense,
  • and from the promotion of our general welfare to the securing of the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

Government is very much at the center of our lives.

With so much money, power, and influence at stake it is essential that we educate ourselves and others regarding the proper role of government.  We must do so in order to remain free.

I cite two examples:

In recent years, we have allowed the government to ignore one of the most fundamental stipulations of the Constitution–namely, the separation of powers–by allowing Congress to fund numerous federal agencies that encroach significantly on our constitutional rights.  These agencies grow continually to regulate and control the lives of millions.

Most of these federal agencies are unconstitutional because they concentrate the functions of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches under one head. They have power to make rulings, enforce rulings, and adjudicate penalties when rulings are violated. They are also unconstitutional because we the people have no power to recall administrative agency personnel through our vote. These agencies form a shadow government that operates contrary to the principle of consent of the governed.

The abandonment of fundamental governing principles places our nation in great jeopardy. Pondering what kind of a government they wanted to establish, the Founders learned that civilizations of old had “been destroyed by convulsions and upheavals, by vice and decadence.” By the love of money and power.

With these lessons in mind, and with great foresight, the Founders championed religious freedom and education as a means to “cultivate the piety and virtue necessary for the success of self-government.”  To safeguard their efforts and secure the republic, they nurtured an environment in keeping with George Washington’s warning, that “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

Through a series of essays entitled STAND WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS, I would like to give expression to certain principles that are so basic to human nature as to be applicable to different times and cultures as well as to our own.  In other words, to principles that are universal, and even eternal.  I do so with the hope that our freedoms, both individual and collective, will be better understood and more anxiously safeguarded.

We are witnessing a collision of ideas that is worldwide.  I urge all Americans to Stand with the Founding Fathers; against those who are seeking to destroy their work.

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The Declaration of Independence, The U. S. Constitution, and The Bill of Rights

Established on Just and Holy Principles

What I Believe

America’s founding documents: The Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution, and The Bill of Rights are the culmination of centuries of progress. Paving the way for freedom, they express the ideals that define “We the People of the United States” and inspire free people around the world. They represent the consolidation of eternal truths for the universal blessing of the human family, the common connection through which all the inhabitants of Earth will be blessed.

Envisioning an empire of liberty traveling westward, the Founding Fathers looked forward with eager expectation to the destined moment when America would give the “law” to the rest of the world in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Reflecting this sentiment, Thomas Jefferson wrote in his initial rough draft: “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable.” Preferring a phrase which characterized the truths as grounded in rationality and reason–truths that could be understood by basic, original evidence and man’s innate moral common sense–not in the dictates or dogma of any particular religion, Benjamin Franklin changed the wording to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” In both cases, these statesmen were declaring that in its design and intent what they were proposing was to be established “according to just and holy principles” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:77).

It was this appeal of America’s values, through a willingness to engage in a war of ideas, that won us independence. Likewise, it has been the continued appeal of America’s values that has assured victory over totalitarianism and communism in modern times. Both generations realized that ideas had power which would prove stronger than weapons.

Now being challenged by those who are willing to undermine our founding principles through the advancement of progressive policies and increasing governmental power, we, as citizens who believe we are entitled to liberty and that our rights should be respected by a government whose legitimacy comes from our consent, are seeing unfold before our eyes what lawyer and diplomat James Russell Lowell may have had in mind when he said, “Our American republic will endure only as long as the ideas of the men who founded it continue dominant.”

In like manner, we are witnessing the deteriorating conditions in our culture and social environment which call attention to the words of John Adams, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Little by little, day by day, in a failure that would dismay the Founders, who knew the power of those truths they proclaimed nearly 250 years ago, we are losing the war in defense of self-evident truths–the war of ideas, ideals, and eternal verities–in America and around the world. A caution to each of us, we must awaken to the truth that the ideals which inspired the Founding Fathers remain inspiring today.

As to what we can do, we must understand that people and principles are superior to the governments they form. Thomas Jefferson emphasized principles in the Declaration of Independence by advancing the claim that all persons are entitled to equal rights and privileges before the law, that certain rights come from the Creator, and in themselves are divine and eternal in nature, and that these sacred rights pertain in part to the enjoyment of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Also focusing on correct principles, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught that both governmental and personal leadership are successful when rooted in principle rather than expediency.

In the Great Declaration of Belief regarding governments and laws in general, members of the Restored Church in 1835 sustained the principle of a “higher law,” designed to protect the free agency of man. “We do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul” (DC 134:4). The doctrine of higher law is an ancient idea. It runs to the most basic considerations in religion. It is found in cultures throughout history.

For example, Aristotle distinguished between written laws, which are man-made, and the “law,” which he felt was in accordance with nature and therefore immutable. In Roman law, distinctions were made between the summa lex, or the highest law, and the lex scripta, or man-made law. Catholic philosophers from Augustine to Aquinas discussed the idea of an overruling law of nature, and other fundamental laws which were not capable of being changed by any civil authority. Anglo-Saxon political and legal tradition, including the philosophical method of John Locke and the scientific method of Isaac Newton, were also part of the “establishment” process which resulted in the formation of America’s founding documents and their assertion that people are created equal and have certain inalienable rights.

The Framers not only understood the significance of the legacy which history and tradition had bequeathed them but coupled that knowledge to their own colonial experience so when it came to political questions, they were at home not only in Virginia, Maryland, or New York, but also equally at home in Rome, in Athens, in Paris, and in London. “The Constitution was born, not only of the wisdom and experience of the generation that wrought it, but also out of the wisdom of the long generations that had gone before, and which had been transmitted to them through tradition and the pages of history” (J. Reuben Clark).

In 1842, Joseph Smith declared, “The Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God.” Providing deep insight into the religious basis of our founding documents, members of the Church sustain several underlying principles which represent a practical guarantee in the political arena that individual freedom will not perish.

First, the basic elements of constitutional government, as embodied in our founding documents, “should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh” (DC 101:77). Each individual, whatever their race, color, or creed, is equally entitled to the protection of law in the exercise of personal rights.

Second, America’s government should be maintained “according to just and holy principles” (DC 101:77). The Framers, by divine inspiration, embedded within our founding documents certain eternal principles–self-evident truths. “Just and holy” in nature, these principles prove themselves without the need of further validation. They are the eternal, irrevocable, and inalienable “endowment” of all mankind.

Third, the purpose for which these “just and holy principles” exist is to assure that “every man may act in doctrine and principles pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment” (DC 101:78.) This pronouncement suggests that principled limitations upon the government are ordained to provide the maximum possible range of freedom of choice as people engage in the pursuit of happiness and the creation of a more perfect union.

Fourth, “It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose,” (DC 101:79-80). The most common charge leveled against the Founders, and hence against our country itself, is that they were hypocrites who did not believe in their stated principles, and therefore the country they built rests on a lie. This charge is false!

Even so, “Many Americans labor under the illusion that slavery was somehow a uniquely American evil” (1776 Report). In truth, “It was the Western world’s repudiation of slavery, only just beginning to build at the time of the American Revolution, which marked a dramatic sea change in moral sensibilities. The American Founders were living on the cusp of this change, in a manner that straddled two worlds” (Ibid). Our Founding Fathers knew that slavery was incompatible with the idea that “all men are created equal.” Yet, in the formative years of the United States, there was insurmountable social, cultural, and political opposition in the fight to end human bondage in America.

Following the loss of over 600,000 lives, the clashes in the halls of Congress and on the battlefields of America were finally resolved by amendments that abolished slavery. However, amplified by the machinations of politics and selfish human interests, the damage done by the denial of core American principles proved widespread and long-lasting. Continuing to this day, they form the basis of some of the destructive theories that continue to divide us and tear at the fabric of our country.

In the fight against tyrannical practices, we need to remember that our history is one of common struggle and great achievement. Our ancestors won independence, created a government, and tamed a wilderness. Interpreting the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln noted, “They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all . . . and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.”

Having based our political legitimacy on the eternal principles of liberty, justice, and consent of the governed, Jefferson was singled out by Lincoln, who wrote, “All honor to Jefferson–the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce in a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, . . . a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression.”

Hence, in their appeal to both reason and revelation, our founding documents speak to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” to the principle of freedom, and to the will of “We the People.” Working together, they are “an outgrowth, in practical terms, of man’s desire to protect the principle of free agency by defining the role and limits of civil authority” (G. Homer Durham). In other words, “just and holy principles,” championed by the hands of wise men who were raised up for that very purpose, provide the foundation and legitimacy of our nation.

In a recent address on the Constitution, Dallin H. Oaks told of an experience in the 1960s when he began teaching law at the University of Chicago. An older professor, who had taught at the University of Utah’s College of Law early in his career related that he met many students who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “They all seemed to believe that the Constitution was divinely inspired,” he said, “but none of them could ever tell me what this meant or how it affected their interpretation of the Constitution.”

President Oaks went on to say that he believes the Constitution is divinely inspired because it contains principles and rights that bless not only this nation but also the world. To him, the attribution of sovereign power to the people, the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, and the balancing of powers between the federal government and the states is the foundation for a well-ordered government of laws, and not of men.

Respecting the divine nature of human relations, Friedrich A. Hayek declared, “If old truths are to retain their hold on men’s minds, they must be restated in the language and concepts of successive generations.” In other words, every generation needs someone to interpret the wisdom of the past for the present, for every generation must rediscover true history and the gospel anew.

This is especially true in our day “because error is preached all the time.” As a result, “Truth has to be repeated constantly” (Goethe). Our collective task is both exhilarating and foreboding: “We must stop the mindless destruction of historical America” (David McCullough).

Think about it! As Americans, the story we have to tell is exciting beyond measure! As one of 56 delegates who gathered in Carpenters’ Hall in 1774, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that “he thought he had come to one of the greatest conclaves of the greatest minds of all time. He was amazed by the range and variety of talents on display” (McCullough). Two years later, this group of patriots would pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause of freedom.

Years later, having again finished their work in Independence Hall, James Madison wrote of his colleagues: “Whatever may be the judgment pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction, derived from my intimate opportunity of observing and appreciating the views of the Convention, collectively and individually, that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them, than were the members of the Federal Convention of 1787.”

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in our desire to champion civic awareness and the common good, it is our privilege and responsibility to affirm that, “History is not an accident. Events are foreknown to God. Long before America was even discovered, the Lord was moving and shaping events that would lead to the coming forth of the remarkable form of government established by the Constitution” (Benson). It was not by chance that the Puritans and others who followed later left their native land and sailed to New England where they were inspired to establish the God-given system of government under which we live. Laying the foundation for the 1820 vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the unfolding Restoration, this series of historical events is described by the biblical prophet Isaiah as “a marvelous work and a wonder.”

We need not pretend to a divine commission and a sacred destiny. America is a part of redemptive history, of divine prophecy fulfilled, of God’s grand design. Established for the rights and protection of all flesh, America’s founding documents represent the practical guarantee in the political arena that adherence to natural law and Christian teachings will protect freedom, that liberty of conscience and individual moral agency will not perish from the Earth.

This is why I believe.

Featured

Reason and Revelation

“Almighty God hath created the mind free.” Thus, in 1776, Thomas Jefferson begins the “Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.” The freedom of the human mind means that all individuals can choose between good and evil.

The theological conviction of early Americans was that all human beings are fallen and fallible, subject to roiling passions and calming reason. As flawed but rational beings, humans should strive to let reason–a gift from God–rule their lives, for with that rule comes the possibility of self-government.

The Founding Fathers concluded that with careful cultivation of the soul, with attention to “the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” and with the uplifting assistance of family, church, and local community, America’s citizens could learn to control their passions and act worthy to receive the blessings of liberty.

Advancing one of the most revolutionary tenets in the history of ideas, America’s right to religious liberty was established as a matter of principle.

We know of human nature, natural law, and the mind’s freedom not because we are members of any particular church or denomination, but because we are able to follow reason’s path in the discovery of such truths. In other words, reason demands religious liberty.

In one of the most famous metaphors in American political and constitutional thought, Jefferson wrote of “a wall of separation between church and state.” In 1947, in Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court transformed his words into constitutional law.

For many, who have listened mainly to the Supreme Court for lessons about religious liberty, the Court’s misreading of Jefferson’s metaphor has contributed to a popular misunderstanding of politics, law, morality, and religion.

The religious liberty established by the Founders does not mean the erection of a wall separating religion and politics. Rather, it was the establishment of a principle that would let religion flourish.

Please see Brent’s latest book: americasgranddesign.com

Introduction

As America approaches its 250th birthday, the gospel motivates us to recognize our unity in purpose, promoting truth, moral courage, and strengthening societal fabric globally.

As our nation approaches America’s 250th birthday, I want to show that Jesus Christ’s pronouncement ignited a chain of providential preparation—creating Western civilization, enabling America’s founding, and making possible the Restoration of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Across centuries that only God could orchestrate, this unfolding work arrested spiritual decline, expanded civil and religious liberties, and opened the path to exaltation (eternal life) for innumerable souls. Isaiah’s words fit it perfectly: “a marvelous work and a wonder.”

The gospel perspective compels us to see one another as we truly are—literal brothers and sisters, sharing the same heavenly origin and separated, in the eternal view, by only a brief span of instruction and ordinances. Our charge as members of the Restored Church is to learn truth and carry it to others. Yet that very perspective also demands humility: God continues to raise up and employ people outside his Church to accomplish his purposes.

All around us, organizations, churches, and individuals lift societies by teaching moral courage, practicing real compassion, and providing steadying influences for those reaching for a better life. The freedom, imagination, and creativity, encouraged—and protected—by our constitutional system do more than benefit a nation; they give the Lord’s work room to advance across the globe.

Even when the beauties and glories of the Restored Gospel are not fully recognized, honoring the good done by others does lessen our core beliefs or dilute our convictions—it strengthens our integrity. The doctrines and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are unparalleled: the most profound system of philosophy and spiritual truth the world has ever known. Foretold by Isaiah, Daniel, and a host of other Hebrew prophets, they will be established prominently and spread freely from one to another across the earth—incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation—for the moral and mutual instruction of mankind. As this work gathers force, millions of God’s children will join with it, fulfilling his purposes: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

The Tale of Two Paul’s

Raising the Bar

Across America, across the world, across generations, across the span of a lifetime, in pursuits that are both universal and timeless, people seek to find meaning and purpose in their lives. With keen insight, the poet Harry Kemp wrote:

But, chief of all thy wondrous works, Supreme of all thy plan,

Thou hast put an upward reach, Into the heart of man.

Homeward Bound, a musical composition by Marta Keen, carries symbolic lyrics often seen as a metaphor for life’s journey and returning to God. Lines like “Bind me not to the pasture; chain me not to the plow” express a wish to gain independence and transcend earthly limits, while “When adventure’s lost its meaning, I’ll be homeward bound in time” implies seeking renewal, a change in direction, after worldly pursuits. “And the path I’ll be retracing, when I’m homeward bound again” points to regaining a state of emotional stability and spiritual purity.

The song’s broader, universal themes—seeking purpose and returning home—invite varied religious and secular interpretations. Ultimately, its message resonates with many, whether about personal growth or coming back to one’s values.

Music

Greek myths and legends offer insights into the role of music. In ancient Greece, music was an element of basic education and played a part in religious and civic activities. Plato studied music and its influence on individuals, stating that rhythm and harmony affect the mind and can shape character.

Ancient Greeks, despite lacking biochemical knowledge, theorized that music entered through the ears, was processed by the brain, and transmitted via the blood to influence both organs and the soul. Modern research indicates that certain sounds can trigger reactions in the brain that affect the body.

Plato discussed the importance of music in education, defining rhythm as order in movement and pitch as order in articulation; together, these formed choric art. He recommended two forms of education: gymnastics for physical development and music for mental development—believing that both are necessary for balanced growth. According to Plato, music could elicit emotional responses and encourage virtuous behavior.

Plato illustrated his viewpoint using the example of a mother who lulls her child at night, not with silence but with motion and sound, similar to dancing and singing. These external stimuli help ease agitation or fear.

Plato maintained that music could represent emotions such as courage and dignity. Listening to music often aligns one’s feelings with those conveyed by the music. He proposed that beneficial music promotes virtue, while adverse music can lead to negative outcomes.

Exposure to quality music can have long-term effects on personality. Plato suggested that children who experience measured emotional expression through music learn to regulate their feelings. This fosters a sense of well-being and prepares the mind for learning, stimulating curiosity and perception.

Regarding universal enjoyment of music, Plato argued that although everyone can appreciate rhythm and melody, preferences vary. He believed that the value of music could be assessed by the nature of its audience and posited that the best music appeals to those who are virtuous and educated.

In summary, Plato identified three benefits of listening to high-quality music, especially during childhood: it influences emotions and fosters virtues, provides moderated enjoyment that helps the soul appreciate goodness and beauty, and enhances perception, making learning more effective.

A Tale of Two Paul’s

The apostle Paul, formerly Saul, was a Pharisee who persecuted Christians before a vision on the road to Damascus transformed his life. After his baptism, he preached in Arabia and Damascus, travelling widely as a disciple of Christ, ultimately dying as a martyr in Rome.

Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus

In the late 1960s, Paul McCartney faced major personal and professional changes following worldwide fame. Seeking renewal, he moved with his wife Linda to a Scottish farm, embracing rural challenges and self-reliance. The isolation fostered creativity and helped him move beyond the Beatles. Linda’s desire for personal freedom aligned with his journey. Together, they formed Wings.

Paul McCartney’s family farmhouse in Scotland

Touring, with their children in tow, showed Paul the universal nature of people and music’s power to unite different backgrounds. Family responsibilities kept both away from the destructive habits that destroyed the lives of many of their associates and friends, such as Jimmy McCulloch, Hendrix, Joplin, and Keith Moon. Wrote McCartney, “When you think of all the drug taking, of the deaths of many of us, you realize we were lucky, but it was more than that: we avoided the hard drugs, and most of all, it was family . . .  

“Passages of time give us a richness of perspective that I’m particularly aware of now. The fact was that Linda and I now had kids who were growing up. A lot of others didn’t have these kinds of responsibilities. We could no longer go out late. We had to avoid the insanities. Because you had children, you wouldn’t do drugs, and you couldn’t drink as much, either.” Reflecting on how these changes in perspective facilitated his creative process, McCartney values inspiration, nostalgia, and the drive to be different as he continues to create new music.

Conclusion

In the universal message of Homeward Bound, diverse interpretations emerge, both religious and secular. For some, the journey is not necessarily about death, but personal growth, spiritual renewal, and returning to one’s core values or family.

For Saul, lifetime changes began as he fell to the earth when a voice said unto him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me?” And Saul responded, “Who art thou, Lord?” And the Lord said, “ I am Jesus whom thou persecutes.” And Saul, trembling and astonished said Lord, “What wilt thou have me to do?”

The men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man, led him to Damascus where he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

With the apostle Paul his change was of a spiritual nature, as he was brought into contact with what would become his “calling.” With Paul McCartney, his lifetime of changes began with the realization that he wanted to chart his own path after the adventures of his life had lost their meaning. In the cases of both men, it was about seeking and finding a different path, a higher purpose.  

Note:  Homeward Bound, Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, arranged by Mack Wilberg. This song is also themed in a wonderful period-piece movie from the 1912 Olympics in Sweden, entitled Raising the Bar by TC Christensen.   

SUMMARY

Big Idea

Raising the bar is the universal human quest for meaning, purpose, and personal growth across generations, cultures, and lifetimes. Drawing from poetry, music, philosophy, and biography, individuals seek to transcend earthly limitations, find renewal, and return to their core values.

Key Points

People everywhere strive for purpose, as captured in Harry Kemp’s poetry and the symbolic lyrics of Marta Keen’s “Homeward Bound,” which represent the journey of life and the desire to return to spiritual or emotional wholeness.

Greek philosophy, especially Plato, highlighted music’s power to shape character, emotions, and virtue. Ancient and modern perspectives agree that music deeply influences both mind and body, fostering well-being and learning.

The stories of the apostle Paul and Paul McCartney illustrate profound personal change. Paul’s spiritual awakening led him to a new life mission, while McCartney’s shift to family life and rural isolation fostered creativity and personal growth.

Both Paul’s found deeper purpose by moving away from destructive paths and embracing values of family, responsibility, and inspiration—reflecting the broader theme of returning “home” in a metaphorical sense.

The message of “Homeward Bound” and the life changes of both Paul’s can be seen through religious and secular lenses, emphasizing growth, renewal, and the pursuit of a higher calling.

The Golden Rule

Post No. 10    Read Time: 2 minutes.

The Foundational Principle for Human Relations

I am determined to subdue every unworthy passion and treat all men as I wish to be treated by all. –John Adams

Two thousand years ago, Jesus shared a timeless principle: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This Golden Rule echoes through our founding documents and is a universal truth shared by many religions.

Examples include:

Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

Confucianism: “Do not do unto others what you would not want done to yourself.”

Hinduism: “Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.”

Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself.”

Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”

The Golden Rule teaches empathy and compassion, urging us to care for all people, even those we do not know personally. It underpins moral virtue and social teachings, fostering faith, hope, and ethical behavior across humanity.

If we all followed the Golden Rule, our world would be kinder and happier. Homes would be more harmonious, relationships warmer, and conflicts resolved with empathy. We would show more generosity, thoughtfulness, and a stronger commitment to peace and goodwill.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The Golden Rule—treating others as you wish to be treated—is a timeless moral principle shared across many cultures and religions. It promotes empathy, compassion, and ethical behavior, and its universal adoption would lead to a kinder, more harmonious world.

Key Points

The Golden Rule is found in Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism, each expressing the idea of empathy and reciprocity.

This rule underpins moral virtue and social teachings, fostering faith, hope, and ethical conduct.

It teaches us to care for others, including strangers, by putting ourselves in their position.

Widespread practice of the Golden Rule would result in greater kindness, harmonious relationships, and peaceful conflict resolution.

The Word

Post No. 9   Read Time: 2 minutes.

The Word

Order is the foundational element for both individuals and societies, signifying a structured and harmonious organization of character and communal life. Societies that uphold justice and freedom exhibit robust systems of order.

Order is established through both revelation and reason. In philosophical terms, the Greek concept of “logos” encompasses reason, purpose, and plan; in Christian theology, it underscores Christ as the intermediary between God and the universe.

According to John 1:1, wisdom originates from God, with Christ imparting teachings through reason and law while acting as the creative agent who facilitates understanding of the divine. Jesus employed parables as a means of providing moral instruction and guiding humanity towards spiritual reconciliation.

The development of any civilization is intrinsically shaped by its dominant religious beliefs. Economic structures, artistic endeavors, and scientific progress are reflective of the values and frameworks inherent to religious traditions. At the heart of every culture lies an ethical system that defines notions of good and evil, founded on the authority of established religious doctrines.

The Ten Commandments, conveyed to Moses by Jehovah (the pre-existent Christ), addressed persistent human concerns. Although Moses was acquainted with the sophisticated society of Egypt, the commandments he received transcended existing norms and contributed to their enduring relevance. Rather than serving solely as prohibitions, the Ten Commandments function as principles designed to minimize wrongdoing, foster justice, and facilitate peaceful and ethical coexistence.

American legal tradition has roots in the influence of ancient Israel, which recognized the significance of law and established core principles of justice. The moral and legal codes associated with Moses laid the groundwork for subsequent Christian ethical thought.

The framers of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were guided by a biblical interpretation of human nature. They constructed the Constitution as a covenant intended to limit violence and dishonesty, embedding mechanisms to check authority through moral and religious principles.

Stated in modern revelation, “And for this purpose have I established the constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose.”

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The central theme of the passage is the foundational role of “Order” in shaping individuals, societies, and civilizations. Order is both a philosophical and theological concept, rooted in reason, revelation, and religious ethics. This structure underlies justice, freedom, and moral development, serving as a guiding force for societal organization and legal traditions.

Key Points

Order brings structure and harmony to personal character and community life, supporting justice and freedom.

Order is established through both revelation (divine guidance) and reason (philosophical inquiry), with the concept of “logos” bridging these realms.

Dominant religious beliefs shape the development of civilizations, influencing economics, art, science, and ethical systems.

Core ethical principles, derived from religious doctrine, define notions of good and evil within cultures.

The Ten Commandments serve as enduring moral guidelines, designed to reduce wrongdoing and promote justice and peaceful coexistence.

Ancient Israel’s recognition of law and justice influenced the development of Christian ethics and American legal principles.

What Would I Say To My Younger Self?

Post No. 8 Read Time: 5 minutes.

What I Would Say To My Younger Self?

The wisdom of predecessors and past ages is like an elder guiding their younger self. Tocqueville would advise, “Remember that life is neither pain nor pleasure; it is serious business, to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice.” Santayana would offer, “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.” James M. Barrie would remind us, “Life is a long lesson in humility.”

Regarding the significance of work, Johnson would suggest, “He that embarks in the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many founder in their passage, while they lie waiting for the gale.” Colton would reflect on the fleeting nature of enjoyment: “How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth, we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age, we are looking backward to things that have passed; in manhood, although we appear occupied with the present, even that is often absorbed in vague determination to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time.”

Albert Barnes would advise his younger self, “Life, if properly viewed in any aspect, is great, but mainly great when viewed in its relation to the world to come.” Bulwer would add, “There are two lives to each of us, the life of our actions, and the life of our minds and hearts. History reveals men’s deeds and their outward characters, but not themselves. There is a secret self that has its own life, unpenetrated and unguessed.”

Goethe might provide a metaphor, “Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.” Phillips Brooks would encourage us to aspire to greatness: “Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God’s Paradise.”

To my younger self I would say: God is the source of order and justice. All true law comes from him.

Society is held together by order. The inner order of the soul and the outer order of society are intimately linked together. The path we follow; the pattern by which we live with purpose and meaning would be insufferable without the harmony of an ordered existence. It is not possible for us to live in peace with one another, unless we recognize some principle of order.

Turn to the beliefs of yesteryear for guidance, there is not a better moral system or political pattern than the ones we have inherited. Given to Moses and repeated by Jesus: our charge is to love God and our fellowman. When we do that, everything else will fall into place; it will fit together and make sense.

Recognizing that life encompasses highs and lows, adversities and triumphs, it is fitting to reference the Master. The Bible clearly and certainly defines happiness and the path to attain it. As Augustine noted, “In Cicero and Plato, and other such writers, I meet with many things acutely said, and things that excite a certain warmth of emotions, but in none of them do I find these words, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’”

I conclude with this thought from President Dallin H. Oaks, a prophet of God, and the newly installed President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Those who govern their thoughts and actions solely by the principles of liberalism or conservatism or intellectualism cannot be expected to agree with all of the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As for me, I find some wisdom in liberalism. Some wisdom in conservatism. And much truth in intellectualism–But I find no salvation in any of them.”

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The enduring wisdom of historical thinkers and spiritual leaders emphasizes the importance of order, purpose, and moral guidance in life. True happiness and meaning come from adhering to timeless principles—specifically those rooted in faith, love, and self-sacrifice. The inner order of the soul is intrinsically linked to societal harmony. While various intellectual traditions offer insights, it is only through the spiritual teachings found in Christianity that salvation and ultimate fulfillment can be found.

Key Points

Wisdom from the past acts as a guide, offering perspective and advice for living a purposeful life.

Life is serious and requires courage, humility, and enjoyment of the present, as noted by various philosophers and writers.

The significance of work and the fleeting nature of enjoyment highlight the importance of focusing on meaningful pursuits rather than waiting for ideal circumstances.

Life should be viewed in relation to the world to come, emphasizing spiritual perspective and the existence of a “secret self” beyond outward actions.

Character is shaped through ongoing effort and self-reflection, as described by Goethe’s quarry metaphor.

Societal order is grounded in Divine and natural law; the harmony of the soul and society are interconnected and essential for peaceful coexistence.

The best guidance for living comes from inherited moral and religious traditions, particularly the commandments to love God and others.

The Bible provides clear direction for true happiness, surpassing the wisdom found in secular philosophy.

Intellectual, liberal, and conservative philosophies offer partial truths, but only spiritual teachings offer salvation.

Free Expression and Civility are Only the Beginning

How long will the American Republic endure? “As long as the ideas of the men who founded it continue dominant.” –James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell, a 19th-century American poet and diplomat, was an influential abolitionist and “Fireside Poet.” In 1845, he noted that the nation’s survival depended on upholding the Founders’ moral and philosophical principles.

Lowell’s phrase emphasizes the importance of civic virtue and unity, referenced by Benjamin Franklin’s “A republic, if you can keep it,” and John Adams’s “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.”  Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “If America is ever destroyed, it will be destroyed from within.” Abraham Lincoln warned that any danger to the nation would arise from within, not from external sources. He stated that if destruction occurs, it will be self-inflicted: “As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.”

Without shared standards, persuasion gives way to power and conflict as noted by William J. Bennett: “We must make America safe for argument again . . . Our form of government requires us to be able to argue our way to truth rather than shoot our way to silence.”

When fundamental moral principles are disregarded, society faces serious risks. A nation rooted in liberty cannot ignore Divine and natural law without consequences. Diversity of opinion and freedom of speech alone will not restore lost values or prevent moral decline. As Ronald Reagan noted, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it is never more than one generation away from extinction.” If you think about it, the evil issues permeating our culture right now are all ultimately an attack on the family to destroy the culture from within.

Criticism of America includes claims of corruption, racism, cruelty, and historical abuses. Opponents of American philosophy assert that its founding principles restrict equality of outcome which leads them to argue for political correctness over traditional values.

A significant fact facing society today was noted in 2018 by Christian researcher George Barna, who stated that Generation Z (born between 1999-2015) is the first truly “post-Christian” generation. In fact, statistics show Generation Z is twice as likely to be atheist as any previous generation. While delivering a speech in Australia, in August 2014, atheist Lawrence Krauss stated: “Change is always one generation away . . . So if we can plant the seeds of doubt in our children, religion will go away in a generation, or at least largely go away—and that’s what I think we have an obligation to do.”

Another current challenge for young people and society is understanding America’s political climate post-Civil War. While some believe slavery was an exclusively American issue, it was actually Western opposition to slavery—growing since the American Revolution—that changed moral perspectives. The Founders recognized slavery conflicted with the principle that “all men are created equal.”

During the Industrial Revolution, many American elites advocated Progressivism, arguing that the governing principles formulated in the 18th century were outdated for modern society. They claimed truths change over time and dismissed the Declaration of Independence’s core rights—the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and government by the will of the people.

Progressives created a new government system based on their false view of rights. Under the “living” Constitution theory, government evolves to secure changing rights instead of protecting traditional natural rights.

Codified within our founding documents, America’s Framers believed in a Creator who established clear moral laws, including loving God, others, and following the Golden Rule. From their study of history, they recognized that republics had been destroyed by convulsions and upheavals, by vice and decadence. From their study of human nature, they became acutely aware of man’s instability, self-interestedness, and selfishness, designing America’s political institutions to take these into account. As John Adams put it, “Human passions unbridled by morality and religion would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”

A significant challenge for national unity today, as described by Robert George, is “moral subjectivism,” which refers to the view that truth is determined primarily by individual feelings rather than faith or reason. According to George, this perspective can lead to strong moral positions based on personal belief rather than shared principles, which results in actions such as limiting others’ freedom of speech or participating in efforts to discredit people whose ideas are considered objectionable. This approach causes societal divisions, including disputes expressed through violence, academic sophistry, and the misuse of power.

Simply promoting free speech and civility will not succeed in saving our republic. As declared by James Russell Lowell, this will only occur as we re-anchor ourselves to the eternal truths embodied in our founding documents. It is my hope that as we celebrate 250 years of America’s existence that we can awaken something deep within, for it is a beautiful thing to have a country to love.  

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The endurance of the American Republic depends on upholding the founding moral and philosophical principles. Mere freedom of expression and civility are not enough; the nation’s survival requires a renewed commitment to the core values enshrined by the Founders, such as civic virtue, unity, moral standards, and respect for Divine and natural law.

Key Points

The survival of the Republic is tied to adherence to the original moral and philosophical standards set by America’s Founders, as emphasized by James Russell Lowell and echoed by Franklin, Adams, and Lincoln.

Historical figures like Tocqueville and Lincoln warned that internal moral decay, not external threats, poses the greatest danger to America.

Without shared moral standards, society risks replacing reasoned debate with conflict and power struggles, as noted by William J. Bennett.

While free expression is vital, it is insufficient to restore lost values or prevent decline without a foundation in shared morals and Divine and natural law.

America faces new challenges as younger generations, particularly Generation Z, move away from traditional religious and moral frameworks, increasing the risk of societal fragmentation.

Misunderstandings about issues like slavery and the evolution of Progressivism show the ongoing tension between founding ideals and modern re-interpretations of rights and government roles.

The rise of moral subjectivism—where personal feelings override shared truths—threatens unity and fosters division and intolerance.

To ensure the Republic’s future, Americans must reconnect with the enduring truths embedded in the founding documents and cultivate a renewed sense of national love and responsibility.

THE PLAN OF LIBERTY

Post No. 7 Read Time: 11 minutes.

The Plan of Liberty

God’s aim is to develop human personality. In particular it is to create within men and women the priceless quality of intelligence, skill, and kindness. To succeed in this undertaking, he designed a world, with laws, suffering, risk, and free-will, where life is a training school for character. –James Gordon Gilkey

I have no way of knowing if this statement is still accurate, but years ago, it was claimed that as a religious institution only the LDS Church believed we existed in spirit form before birth. The writer also noted that most people believed that Jesus lived pre-birth, but not themselves.

With those thoughts in mind, and in the spirit of the above-quoted words of James Gordon Gilkey, there are four intellectual, spiritual, and universal truths that will advance our understanding of the structure and purposes of life on earth. First, man was in the beginning with God. Second, rather than a Spirit, our Heavenly Father is an exalted man in whose image and likeness we are created. Third, following his rebellion against God, Satan was thrust down from heaven along with those that followed him where he would continue his rebellion in the ongoing conflict between good and evil. Fourth, comprehending these eternal truths will lead to an understanding of God’s plan for his children where everything fits together and makes sense. In other words, the fact that God created a world for us where we could strive to fulfill our potential, prove ourselves, and gain experience, is not only theological it is logical.

Early Christians valued the doctrines of preexistence and an embodied God as crucial for understanding life in mortality. However, in the early centuries following the death of Christ and the apostles, these teachings were corrupted, ignored, and allowed to wither away. Alternatively driven by speculative thinking, the philosophies of men, so-called Christian scholars, and influenced by councils and creeds, civil and religious authorities exerted efforts to suppress individual freedom and control the populace through heresies and orthodoxy while excluding revealed truths.  

Fortunately, divine intention did not allow this spiritual disruption to continue. As the foundations of Western Civilization and the American nation were established, an extensive process of deconstruction and reconstruction occurred over centuries. This created the environment for Joseph Smith’s experience in the Sacred Grove in 1820. At 14-years-old, the young prophet bravely challenged conventional definitions of God that were unsupported by scripture or logic but upheld by powerful institutions and traditions. He also confronted falsehoods and advanced truths surpassing philosophy and science. With his assigned work underway, the Restoration reintroduced the interconnected structure of mankind’s preexistence.

First, it defines the true nature of both God and mankind. Second, it explains that the Fall was not just a seemingly negative occurrence—rather it initiated human progress. Third, possessing great knowledge and power, the Devil and his henchmen are continually trying to make us do anything and everything that is not right. Fourth, it highlights the Atonement of Jesus Christ as the centerpiece of the gospel by asserting that human effort alone cannot restore righteousness or our relationship with God. Only through divine intervention can we overcome sinfulness and be resurrected.

To better comprehend the interconnection between the Creation, the Fall, the temptations we face, and the Atonement, it is helpful to view God’s plan for humanity as a three-act play. Act One narrates the premortal existence. Act Two encompasses mortality. Act Three describes the postmortal experience.

Act One

In the beginning, as the future human family, we lived with Elohim, the name-title for our Father who is almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving. He is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. Jehovah is the name-title by which the premortal Jesus Christ was known. The Holy Ghost is a male spirit personage, the minister of the Father and the Son. These three distinct personages form the Godhead.

Wanting to be like God, we were taught that our mortal experience would continue our premortal opportunity to prove ourselves. Endowed with agency, having been told that we would come to earth and receive a physical body, we voted upon and accepted his plan. This announcement caused us to shout for joy.

Before mortal life, we learned about a governing structure based on loving God and others. We were taught that true freedom comes from following the law of Christ; that moral reasoning is essential for civic order and needs ongoing renewal. Possessing innate intelligence, having been well-instructed, and free to think and act independently, we grasped the concept that individual destiny lies in the one’s own hands, that freedom of choice is crucial for developing true values and making moral choices and that we could either accept truth when it is presented on earth or reject it.

Over the years, various figures have added perspective to the life before: President Harry S. Truman stated: “Human life comes from beyond this world. It is God-given and infinitely valuable.” William Wordsworth remarked: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.” Harry Kemp noted: “Chief of all thy wondrous works, O God, Supreme of all thy plan. Thou has put an upward reach; into the heart of man.” The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah expressed: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Acknowledging the natural man, God understood that resulting tensions would lead to a profound struggle between human and divine will. Because the doctrine of our premortal life was untaught due to periods of apostasy, it is a vital part of the restitution of all things.

With confidence in God’s plan, we believe in laws enabling us to progress. Anticipating mistakes and recognizing the need for a Redeemer, we see the importance of a Savior. Thus, Jesus Christ, stands as the central figure guiding the world’s progression.

Act Two

Mortal life is a probationary period whose primary purpose is to give us the opportunity to return to the presence of God. In our quest, we learn that truth is discovered, not created; that individual freedom is a core right and that we are individually responsible for living in harmony with divine and natural laws. We constantly face the choice between serving the body or developing the spirit, recognizing that some restraint is beneficial while absolute freedom is not.

Heraclitus (500 BCE) noted: “All things come into being by the conflict of opposites.” William Blake (1790) declared: “Without contraries there is no progression.” Comprehending that conflict drives progress, a Book of Mormon prophet wrote: “There must needs be an opposition in all things.”

Our divided nature leads to a mighty struggle between spiritual and carnal desires. While we admire human achievements in science, we frequently ignore wisdom and conscience. Ironically, many otherwise talented individuals oppose moral principles, such as the rule of law, the right to life, sound economic policies, and sacred teachings, the foundations of our prosperity and survival.

Cultural approbation may seem to improve society but can lead to the loss of valuable past insights. New morals do not guarantee enlightenment or happiness. We need thinkers who revive timeless truths through moral philosophy and sound economics, so each generation can reconnect with enduring principles.

Ancient wisdom can help us lead fulfilling lives. Humans need connection, love, purpose, and meaningful activity. As Buddha said, doing good brings joy. Strong leadership and respect for established laws also guide us toward a purposeful life.

Ultimately, finding happiness and meaning, regardless of the source, is an extension of The Golden Rule. Rabbi Hillel stated: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow; this, in a few words, is the entire Torah; all the rest is but an elaboration of this one, central point.”

Buddha, Lao Tzu, and other sages of the East discovered a method for achieving peace and tranquility through letting go. They explained how to follow this path using meditation and stillness. Many individuals in the West have adopted these practices, and although few have achieved Nirvana, many have experienced some level of peace, happiness, and spiritual growth.

Some people question the necessity of a church, believing they can feel spiritual in Nature. While Nature can be a wonderful source of spiritual renewal, Christ established his church with various offices and callings and encouraged his followers to be baptized into it. He knew happiness comes from internal feelings, external connections, and serving others.

Attending church, engaging in fellowship, and participating in service opportunities create a community of individuals who seek inspiration from stories about Christ, virtuous actions, and correct principles. When attendees leave such gatherings feeling hopeful and desiring to improve, they have been influenced by the Spirit of God.

A modern prophet has taught that the purpose of earthly existence is to develop spiritual qualities. Loyalty to ideals, helpfulness to humanity, suffering for righteousness, being and doing good for goodness’ sake, and unselfish expressions of love are all aspects of spirituality.

“Spirituality, our true aim, is the consciousness of victory over self and communion with the Infinite. Spirituality impels one to overcome difficulties and acquire more and more strength. To feel one’s faculties unfolding and truth expanding in the soul is one of life’s sublimest experiences” (McKay).

Our time on Earth consists of daily thoughts, spoken words, and actions, along with the need for spiritual renewal. Our goal is to uphold Christ, maintain individual and collective liberty, and support newly revealed truths that come into our lives by virtue of “the restitution of all things.”

Act Three

Through Jesus Christ’s Atonement, every person who has been or will be born will be resurrected with a perfected, immortal body. Known doctrinally as salvation, this future gift is due to our past choices, to God’s love, and to the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The text explores the interconnected doctrines central to understanding the purpose of life on earth from a Latter-day Saint perspective. It emphasizes the eternal nature of humanity, the development of spiritual and moral character, and the divinely orchestrated plan (often called the “Plan of Salvation”) that encompasses our premortal existence, mortal life, and eventual resurrection. This plan is logical, purposeful, and rooted in revealed truths that were once lost but restored through modern revelation.

Key Points

Premortal Existence:

Humans existed as spirits with God before birth. This doctrine, largely unique to the LDS Church among modern religious institutions, is foundational to understanding life’s purpose.

The Nature of God and Humanity:

God is an exalted man in whose likeness and image we are created. Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, as distinct personages, form the Godhead. Understanding their true nature clarifies our own divine potential.

Mortal Experience as a Test:

Life on earth is a probationary period designed for personal growth, spiritual development, and moral choice. The existence of suffering, agency, and opposition is essential for learning and character formation.

Doctrinal Restoration:

Key doctrines—such as the premortal existence, the embodied nature of God, the true significance of the Fall and Atonement, and the role of Satan—were lost or corrupted after the time of Christ but were restored through modern revelation beginning with Joseph Smith.

The Three-Act Super Structure of God’s Plan:

Act One: Premortal life with God, learning and accepting his plan. Act Two: Mortal life as a time of testing, choice, and growth. Act Three: Life after life.

The Role of Opposition and Agency:

The ongoing struggle between good and evil, exemplified by Satan’s rebellion and temptations, is necessary for spiritual progress and the development of true values and character.

Importance of Eternal Truths:

Internalizing these restored and eternal truths provides coherence and meaning to life’s challenges, and places human experience within a logical and divinely orchestrated framework.

Spiritual Growth and Community:

Developing spiritual qualities, participating in church, and serving others are essential to fulfilling God’s plan and achieving lasting happiness.

A Remarkable Old Testament Prophecy

Post No.  6   Read Time: 7 minutes.

The Sticks of Joseph and Judah

The Stick of Joseph

Join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. –Ezekiel 37:17

Looking ahead to our time, the biblical prophet Ezekiel prophesied that there would be two books, the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph, that would become one in thine hand. The Bible (the stick of Judah) and the Book of Mormon (the stick of Joseph) both emphasize the importance of seeking and following divine guidance.

In support of Ezekiel’s prophecy, there are three narratives. The first is the philosophical account which contributed to ethics and helped preserve Christianity during the reigns of Constantine and the Holy Roman Empire. The three influential figures in this development were Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. Over time, influences from various scholars led to changes in Christian doctrines.

After centuries of analysis and debate on biblical translation, Joseph Smith, resulting from the appearance of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, was able to describe the true nature and character of God. Complimenting what he learned through that sacred experience, the newly translated stick of Joseph clarifies and restores many plain and precious truths that had either been lost or omitted from the Bible. However, even though he translated the historical record through the wisdom and power of God, his work faced fierce resistance from the American Protestant establishment, receiving no notable endorsements.

The second narrative involves the Muslim scholarly tradition. With the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Renaissance received a major boost, for many Eastern scholars fled to Italy, bringing with them important books and manuscripts and a tradition of Greek scholarship. As the new spirit spread north across Europe, the revival of classical learning and wisdom was a welcome change. Emphasizing truth and the dignity of man, humanism as it came to be known, inspired a host of lofty concepts.

The third narrative is the Book of Mormon, an account written upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi. Written by commandment and through prophecy and revelation, it aims to convince Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, and proves the truth of the holy scriptures.

The Book of Mormon invites all people to read and ponder its message and ask God if the book is true. Those who receive a divine witness from the Holy Spirit come to know the divinity of Jesus Christ, the prophetic role of Joseph Smith, and the establishment of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the kingdom of God on the Earth.

Historical narratives from Greek, Muslim, and Roman traditions (and later Protestant) frequently aimed to change or influence Christianity. In their attempts to make religious beliefs and traditions more popular, acceptable, and universal, ecclesiastical leaders significantly altered many of the doctrines and practices of the Primitive Church. 

In 1776, in an example that survived deep into American culture and demonstrated how fortunate our country was to have courageous individuals willing to make a stand, the Virginia Assembly defined heresy as the denial of the Trinity or the divine authority of the scriptures, still punishable by imprisonment or death. Thomas Jefferson, in what he described as the severest trial of his life, argued against such laws, advocating for their removal to prevent enforcement against individuals’ beliefs, as he doubted whether people would support execution for heresy related to their acceptance or rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity.

What is the Book of Mormon and What is its Purpose in the Modern Day

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, a companion volume of scripture with the Bible. Its central message instructs individuals to acknowledge their weakness, confess their sins, and surrender their lives to God our Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. This guidance will help people address challenges, establish priorities, and find meaning in life. Consistent with biblical themes, the Book of Mormon asserts that one’s purpose is best understood through seeking spiritual counsel and striving to follow divine direction.

Filled with redemptive theology, the Book of Mormon is “the most correct of any book on earth.” This is because it affirms that peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come can be enjoyed only in and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. With its undiluted and penetrating message, it focuses repeatedly upon man’s utter inability to forgive or cleanse or resurrect or save himself. It places the Savior center stage and testifies of the infinite and eternal scope of his atoning sacrifice.

Ezra Taft Benson

Our opportunity and challenge is not just to read and study the Book of Mormon but to live it and accept and apply its doctrines and philosophy. From its pages, paraphrased through the words of a previous Church leader, we learn how to better raise our children; how to deal justly and mercifully with others; how to bear testimony; how to teach and preach in such a manner that people cannot go away unaffected; how to detect the enemies of Christ; how to withstand those who seek to destroy our faith; how to discern and expose secret combinations that seek to eliminate freedom from the face of the earth and destroy the works of God; how to deal properly with persecution and those who oppose the Church; and how to establish Zion. In summary, our study of the Book of Mormon should be a lifetime pursuit. The power within its teachings will provide spiritual and intellectual unity throughout our entire lives.

Gordon B. Hinckley

In support of my overall goal of explaining how and why Christianity came to America, I offer these words of Gordon B. Hinckley, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 13 years, who, in 1988, declared, “We who believe in the Book of Mormon accept these great words: ‘Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.’ . . . An acknowledgement of the Almighty and a return to the teachings of God will do more than all else to keep our ship of state on a steady course as she sails into the third century of nationhood. Here is the answer to the conflicts that beset us. Here is the answer to the evils of pornography, abortion, drugs, and the squandering of our resources on evil pursuits. Here is the answer to the great epidemic of litigation which consumes time, saps our financial strength, and shackles our entrepreneurial spirit. Here is the answer to tawdry politics which place selfish interest above the common good . . . Trust is what makes a government work, and a lack of trust is one reason for the serious problems we are experiencing.”

Thomas Jefferson

Taking its place by teaching in clearer, plainer, and in more expansive ways, and by restoring lost truths, the Book of Mormon is the keystone to recovery following years of apostasy. Recognizing that many points of Christ’s doctrine hinged on the definitions of scholastics and interpretations by ecclesiastics, that many truths had been corrupted, and even lost, Thomas Jefferson observed the terrible state of confusion in which Christianity was mired: “The religion-builders have so distorted and deformed the doctrines of Jesus, so muffled them in mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods, have caricatured them into forms so monstrous and inconceivable as to shock reasonable thinkers. . . . Happy in the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity, I must leave to younger athletes to encounter and lop off the false branches which have been engrafted into it by the mythologists of the middle and modern ages.”

Margaret Thatcher

In 1996, Lady Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, visited Utah where she spoke of the goodness and strength of America, which was settled by people from the British Isles who, she said, came with the English Bible and the English common law. Those early settlers from the British Isles were Christian people who came with the Judeo-Christian concepts of right and wrong, of truth and error, which they derived from reading that Bible. They were people who looked to God for strength and inspiration and expressed their gratitude to him for every blessing.

Lady Thatcher said, “You use the name of Deity in the Declaration of independence and in the Constitution of the United States, and yet you cannot use it in the schoolroom.” This is symptomatic of the secularizing of America. Reverence for the Almighty, gratitude for his blessings, pleadings for his guidance, are increasingly being dropped from our public discourse. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding as a nation, I hope we will reflect on and again embrace the values that built our country.

Summary

Big Idea

The Book of Mormon serves as a vital companion to the Bible, fulfilling biblical prophecy and restoring lost truths to Christianity. It offers clear doctrine and guidance, emphasizing the necessity of divine revelation and the central role of Jesus Christ, and aims to unify spiritual understanding in the modern era. The coming together of the “stick of Judah” (the Bible) and the “stick of Joseph” (the Book of Mormon) is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy, providing a foundation for faith, spiritual growth, and societal improvement.

Key Points

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel predicted that two books—the Bible (Judah) and the Book of Mormon (Joseph)—would unite, symbolizing restored truth and unity.

The Book of Mormon clarifies and restores doctrines that were altered or lost through centuries of philosophical, religious, and scholarly influences.

The Book of Mormon repeatedly asserts the divinity, atoning sacrifice, and centrality of Jesus Christ as the path to peace, salvation, and exaltation.

Individuals are encouraged to read, ponder, and pray about the Book of Mormon to receive personal revelation regarding its truth.

Greek, Muslim, Roman, and Protestant traditions have shaped and sometimes distorted Christian doctrines, highlighting the need for the Restoration.

The Book of Mormon provides teachings for daily living, such as raising children, dealing justly with others, and defending faith, as emphasized by Ezra Taft Benson.

Gordon B. Hinckley links the teachings of the Book of Mormon to solutions for modern societal issues and maintaining national integrity.

Thomas Jefferson opposed laws punishing heresy, underscoring the importance of religious liberty and the restoration of original Christian teachings.

Restoring clarity, the Book of Mormon is the keystone for overcoming confusion and apostasy.

Margaret Thatcher praised America’s Judeo-Christian heritage while lamenting that our nation has turned away from reliance on the Almighty.

The Greek Philosophers

Post No. 5   Read Time: 2 minutes. 

              

The Ancient Greeks

When the ancient Greeks traveled to India and other places, they found that rules, morals, and customs varied from region to region. This observation led to the development of philosophy, a field dedicated to the study of wisdom, moral inquiry, and introspection.

Socrates contributed to this development by emphasizing freedom. He recognized that different individuals have unique frameworks guiding their lives, which broadened his understanding of humanity. In response to conflicting moral codes, he chose to dedicate his life to seeking wisdom that could provide insight into these differences. He developed the method of asking probing questions.

Aristotle’s ideas significantly influenced Western civilization. He observed that specific rules, laws, and customs varied across regions. Instead of being discouraged by these differences, he argued that humans naturally develop governing attitudes. As their knowledge grows, they respond to reason, logic, and order.

Plato believed in the immortality of the soul and viewed philosophical inquiry as a means to test existing concepts. He asserted that learning is about rediscovering forgotten knowledge—latent within consciousness—rather than creating new information. Through priori reasoning, individuals recognize the eternal forms with which they were familiar before birth.

Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato have significantly influenced beliefs and lifestyles throughout history. Their teachings encourage individuals to achieve their potential, despite often confronting the realities of sin and self-criticism.

The concept of natural law emerged from the synthesis of biblical teachings on the inherent value of mankind and the Greek belief in human rationality. The combined wisdom of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and others led to the formulation of natural rights.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The development of philosophy in ancient Greece, especially through the teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, fostered a new approach to understanding morality, wisdom, and the nature of law and human rights. Their insights laid the groundwork for the concept of natural law by blending Greek rationalism with biblical views of human value.

Key Points

Ancient Greeks noticed that moral codes and customs varied between regions, prompting deeper philosophical inquiry.

Socrates introduced the method of questioning and emphasized the importance of individual frameworks for understanding life.

Aristotle observed the diversity of laws and customs but saw them as a reflection of humans’ capacity for reason and governance.

Plato asserted that learning is the recollection of innate knowledge and believed in the immortality of the soul.

The philosophies of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have had a lasting influence, encouraging self-discovery, moral inquiry, and the pursuit of potential despite human flaws.

The concept of natural law emerged from the integration of Greek philosophical thought and biblical teachings about human dignity and rationality.

Moses: The Great Lawgiver

Post No. 4  Reading Time: 8 minutes.

The Gift of Self-Government

As a historian, an orator, a leader, a statesman, a legislator, a patriot, and a man, Moses stands pre-eminent. But no mere genius could have made          him the originator of sound jurisprudence—the great teacher of     monotheism and sound morality—except he had also been a              prophet of God, supernaturally guided and aided in his work. –Funk and Wagnall                                                                            

America: a Judeo-Christian Nation

Destructive criticism of the Bible, with its companion process of downgrading biblical personalities, has been engaged in over the years. Because of its apparent scholarship this criticism has led many believers astray, destroying their faith.

Such was the case in the early days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Widespread religious revivals created confusion about God’s nature. To restore Christ’s original church, accurate knowledge of God had to first be reestablished.

Recent scientific research supports elements of the biblical account, with modern scripture from Joseph Smith aligning with descriptions of the Israelite experience in Egypt. The Bible recounts Moses leading the Israelites to the promised land with demonstrations of divine intervention.

Research also indicates that ancient societies possessed advanced knowledge and skills. Craftsmen received training and often belonged to guilds. Artistic practices existed and earlier cultures displayed significant levels of refinement.

In another evidence that the gospel came down from Adam, many of the moral laws taught by Moses were already practiced by Egyptians of his time, showing that these principles predate both Moses and the Christian Church. Archaeological evidence also suggests that such laws have existed since the earliest civilizations.

Moses, born in 1393 BC and living for 120 years, was rescued as an infant from a royal decree by Pharaoh’s daughter’s maid and raised by the princess after being nursed by his own mother. He was educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians, who were then unsurpassed in civilization and learning by any people in the world.

A military leader, a well-educated man, and a prophet without parallel, Moses walked and talked with the Lord repeatedly. He was shown the mysteries of the heavens and much of creation. He received laws from God beyond any other ancient man of whom we have record. His work had both ancient and modern significance.

Moses learned about astronomy through divine power, asking God about this earth and its people. In reply, God told Moses, “Worlds without number have I created . . . This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

A unique prophet, Moses regularly communicated with God and was entrusted with divine laws and insights. He was raised up by the Almighty for the express purpose of releasing Israel from bondage. However, the Israelites were so apostate and steeped in the traditions of the Egyptians that they would not heed his guidance.

Despite his Egyptian education and upbringing by Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses remained committed to his Hebrew identity. In the words of the apostle Paul, “By faith he forsook Egypt.” His life is a study in obedience to the divine will.  

The Bible states that Moses killed an Egyptian who was attacking a Hebrew but provides no further details. Historian Eusebius adds that this occurred during a court plot to assassinate Moses, and he killed his attacker in self-defense.

No one can worship God intelligently without an accurate understanding of the nature of the Deity. It is a lack of such knowledge that leads to the proliferation of creeds and false religious traditions.

God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ appear to Joseph Smith.

These are the foundational reasons for the appearance of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith in 1820. It was on this occasion that Joseph Smith discovered that indeed they are in human form, and that the scripture was correct in saying that man was made in the image and likeness of God.

Joseph Smith heard their voices and received their counsel. As he gazed upon them, he could see plainly two heavenly Personages, and he knew for a fact that they were as separate and distinct as any two other persons, each one an individual by himself.

It was at that moment, for the first time in many centuries, that a mortal being knew what God looked like, and heard his spoken words. It was only with this sure knowledge that Joseph Smith was able to proceed with his great assignment.

In the account of Moses, the narrative states that the Ten Commandments were inscribed on stone tablets by the finger of the Lord. These commandments are described as forming a foundational part of both civil and religious legal traditions. While similar principles appear in other biblical texts addressing specific issues, the Ten Commandments are generally considered the foundation for all proper human conduct.

Among thousands of citations supporting the ideas of the Founding Fathers, 916 were key, with 34% from the Bible—mostly Deuteronomy, also known as the Book of God’s Law. Citations ranged across works by historians, philosophers, and Enlightenment thinkers, but their core principles were consistently anchored in the Bible.

In their discovery, the Founding Fathers viewed biblical governance and Anglo-Saxon traditions as key influences for the American Constitution. Seeing this nation as the place where the remnants would begin to gather, they saw in their interpretation of scripture a divine plan for America; and they saw themselves as divinely appointed servants of the Almighty in restoring the sacred law given to Moses. All throughout their writings is the expressed anticipation that these events will take place in their day.

Their deep understanding of the Bible stemmed from their college educations, as all major American institutions then required students to study the Bible regardless of their major. At King’s College in New York, for example, John Jay, at the age of 14, was taught by Samuel Johnson, an Anglican minister, who used the New Testament for his text. For Johnson, almost every aspect of the college curriculum was aimed at turning out devout and virtuous young men.

Years later, upon the passing of his wife, Sarah, at the age of 45, an ardent American patriot who was perhaps more vocal than her reserved husband as she contributed to the creation of the new nation in many ways, John Jay led their five children “into an adjoining room, and with a firm voice but glistening eye, read to them the 15th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, thus leading their thoughts to that day when the lifeless but beloved form they had just left would rise to glory and immortality.” Ten years older than his wife, Sarah had provided the light and the life in the Jay household.

In summary, the account of Moses is one of the earliest recorded instances of a leader being chosen to receive, document, and implement a significant set of laws. By the time these laws influenced America’s Founding Fathers, they had adopted the belief that these ancient statutes were the fundamental principles for all law, justice, and legal administration.

Attesting to their relevance, James Madison, a coauthor of the Constitution, wrote, “We have staked the whole future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, and to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God.” Madison believed that reverence for higher principles, regard for others, and respect for property inspires adherence to a moral code that transcends civil and criminal regulations.

In 1836, Moses, in the capacity of a ministering angel, conferred the keys of gathering upon the Prophet Joseph Smith, and these were subsequently passed to each successive leader in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One significant aspect of Moses’ life was his direct association with the Almighty. The Savior affirmed Moses’ prophetic role, and Moses, in turn, bore testimony of the Savior. The Savior is regarded as God, while Moses is recognized as one of his prominent prophets.  

SUMMARY

Big Idea

Moses was a divinely guided leader whose reception and implementation of God’s laws not only shaped ancient Israel but also profoundly influenced the moral and legal foundations of American self-government.

Key Points

Modern criticism has challenged biblical figures like Moses, yet his influence remains foundational for law and morality.

Moses was uniquely qualified, being educated, a leader, and a prophet who communicated directly with God.

The biblical narrative, supported by scientific research and ancient records, affirms Moses’ role in lawgiving and morality.

Joseph Smith’s experience is linked as a restoration of true knowledge of God, paralleling Moses’ role as a prophet.

The Ten Commandments are a core foundation for both civil and religious law, influencing subsequent societies.

The Founding Fathers of America drew deeply from biblical law, especially Deuteronomy, when forming the Constitution and their vision for the nation.

Biblical study was central to early American education, with figures like John Jay exemplifying the integration of scripture and civic virtue.

Moses’ legacy continued in American religious and civic life, with key LDS teachings linking his prophetic role to modern prophets. James Madison and other Founders stressed that self-governance depends on adherence to the spiritual and ethical standards rooted in the Ten Commandments.

How Does God Accomplish His Work on Earth?

The prophet Isaiah foretells the birth of Christ and the marvelous work and wonder.

Post No. 5 Read Time 6 minutes.

These I will make my rulers.                                                                                                           –Abraham

Although American society is more prosperous than ever, skepticism about God’s existence has grown. Christianity in the U.S. has declined over the past 15-20 years but now appears stable, with Christians making up about 60-63% of the population.

Skeptics often struggle to reconcile faith with science, seeking evidence before belief. While many acknowledge the historical Jesus and value his teachings, they reject claims of his divinity and supernatural events like the resurrection. Most skeptics also lack a personal experience with prayer, seeing it as going unheard.

Both believers and non-believers make compelling points. Mill noted that understanding all sides is essential. Atheists argue for restricting religion in government and society, while believers highlight the value of religious morals and accountability to God.

In his Farewell Address (1796), George Washington argued that morality and religion are key to national prosperity. James Madison noted that political institutions rely on self-governance guided by religious principles such as the Ten Commandments. While to some degree ethics can exist apart from religion, dismissing religious belief as unimportant is unfounded.

To broaden our perspective, we need influential thinkers who will revive moral philosophy and reintroduce timeless truths for every generation. Drawing on historic wisdom, they help us balance introspection with life’s challenges and guide us toward ethical ideals rooted in respect for others.

During periods of uncertainty, increasing complexity, and prevailing pride, a close examination of the world reveals that, despite perceptions of divine absence, it is ultimately God who is deserving of the most steadfast loyalty and reverence. As Emerson observed, “Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of God bursts through everywhere.”

Throughout history, prophets, philosophers, and religious leaders have conveyed moral principles which contribute to evolving concepts of human values. Promoting moral truths that broaden human understanding, the belief that all individuals have inherent value, rooted in the idea that “God created man in his image,” emerged early on. Later, the Greeks were inspired with the concept that men and women are naturally meant to use their reason.

Plato argued that the immortal soul recalls knowledge through inquiry, viewing philosophy as rediscovering what was once known. Using priori reasoning, we access truths understood before birth, a view echoed by Joseph Smith who defined such knowledge as “that which was from the beginning.” Plato’s concept of divine ontology included reason, will, and natural law. The integration of Greek rationalism with Judeo-Christian beliefs about human value contributed to natural law theory.

Many influential figures throughout history, such as Cicero, Augustine, Da Vinci, Gutenberg, Columbus, Luther, Newton, Handel, Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Wilberforce, Lincoln, and King Jr., played key roles in human progress across various fields. Collectively, their contributions and those of many others significantly advanced society.

Furthermore, artists, scholars, scientists, and prominent individuals from the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment eras were motivated by the advancement and improvement of mankind. Their contributions, alongside those of parents and committed leaders, facilitated the expansion of individual liberty and the dissemination of knowledge.   

Samuel F.B. Morse invented the Morse Code

Enlightenment thinkers, though separated by time and distance, explored the foundations of morality and education, shaping ethical principles that drove intellectual and societal progress. Most believed mankind could understand its purpose through adherence to higher laws, influenced by social contracts, moral agency, religious teachings, classical education, cultural values, universal truths, natural law, popular consent, the combination of Judeo-Christian principles, and common sense. Adherence to these ideals meant that nations would foster progress and virtue.

Using Enlightenment language, Thomas Jefferson stated: “We are not in a world ungoverned by the laws and the power of a superior agent. Our efforts are in his hands, and directed by it; and he will give them their effect in his own time.”

Affirming that we are not left alone in our mortal journey, Jefferson further grounded his ethics in a universal, innate “moral sense” that he believed was given to all human beings by their Creator as the true foundation of  morality. Described in scripture as the Light of Christ, the gift of conscience has also been defined as “the spark of divinity.”  It is given to every person that comes into the world to help us judge good from evil.

The Founding Fathers initiated revolution and constitutional government, leading to expanded civil and religious liberties, a free-market economy, and pluralism. A participant in the Federalist with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and America’s first Chief Justice, John Jay, declared, that God works for our good in every circumstance—testing our gratitude in prosperity, our contentment in mediocrity, our submission during misfortune, our faith in darkness, and our steadfastness under temptation. We are called upon to act wisely and trust him with the outcome.

Author John A. O’Brien argues that belief in God’s existence is based not on conscience as a mystical or infallible faculty, but on the moral order of the universe reflected in our conscience’s directive to do right and avoid wrong. Alfred North Whitehead described God as a figure who guides the world through an emphasis on truth, beauty, and goodness, while Francis Bacon believed that denying God diminishes human dignity.

In summary, our founding documents, with the advances of liberty, religious freedom, and economic prosperity, are based on Judeo-Christian and free market principles. The aim of these principles is to foster the development of the individual through liberty and justice founded in righteousness-affirming mutual respect.

Key historical moments, from ancient eras through the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the Second Great Awakening in America, set the stage for religious liberty and the restoration of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith’s birth in 1805 marked a pivotal step in establishing God’s kingdom on the Earth, with many dedicated individuals significantly advancing this work.

Referencing Francis Bacon’s view that deep study removes doubt, I witness that our Father in Heaven is real; that he loves mankind; and that he desires our happiness and return to his presence. Historically, he has chosen key individuals and sent them to this world to help set moral standards, encourage freedom, protect people, and advance human potential.

Finally, in his greatest work of all in behalf of the human family, God sent his Son to bring us immortality through his atonement and resurrection. Thus, our great hope is to be raised in immortality unto eternal life through devotion and dedication to keeping his commandments. This is God’s ultimate work on behalf of mankind.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

Throughout history, the achievements of influential individuals have been woven into a greater divine plan. Directed by God, this plan encourages human progress, the expansion of freedom, and guides mankind toward eternal life. The advancement of liberty, religious freedom, and economic prosperity rests on enduring principles that foster the development of individuals through liberty, justice, and mutual respect.

Key Points

God’s plan unfolds through the actions and contributions of key historical figures, including prophets, religious leaders, philosophers, and innovators, each engaged in his work.

Prominent personalities—such as Adam, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Socrates, Columbus, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Wilberforce, Lincoln, King, and many others—have played pivotal roles in promoting freedom, truth, and the well-being of mankind.

Artists, scientists, and thinkers from the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment inspired progress and helped spread knowledge, while everyday individuals—including parents and dedicated leaders—also contributed to positive change.

The founding documents and principles of democracy in America are rooted in Judeo-Christian values and a free-market economy, aiming to cultivate liberty, righteousness, and individual development.

Major historical events, from ancient civilizations to the Constitutional Convention and religious awakenings, have enabled greater religious freedom and the restoration of spiritual truths.

Life Before Life

Post No. 3 Read Time 3 minutes.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development and attaches her curse on all inaction. –Goethe

As a Christian, did you know that the belief in mankind’s premortal existence was taught and held by ancient Christians for nearly 500 years before it was declared heretical during the Dark Ages of apostasy and allowed to wither away? Ironically, this key doctrine was altered or lost by those responsible for preserving scriptural truth.

The doctrine of mankind’s premortal existence teaches three main ideas: First, all people existed as spirit children of God before birth. Second, in that premortal life, there was order, leadership, and instruction, allowing each of us to develop personal qualities. Third, adhering to the principle of common consent, we agreed, individually and collectively, to God’s plan to come to Earth in order to gain physical bodies, to prove ourselves through obedience, and to further develop our capabilities.

At that time, we also know that there were individuals designated by God as noble and great. Envisioning a world for developing intelligence, skill, and kindness, with laws, challenges, risks, and free will to build character, our Father in Heaven chose key leaders to set moral standards, to promote and defend freedom, and to help in mankind’s progression.

Among these were men who would come forth as Hebrew prophets, Greek philosophers, Roman statesmen, religious figures from across the spectrum, such as Aquinas, Mohammed, and Buddha, and a host of additional great individuals who would be inspired to promote moral standards, ameliorate human suffering, fight for truth and righteousness, and utilize their gifts and talents to expand human understanding.

A common argument for non-belief is that life’s difficulties leave people with a sense of hopelessness. In “Slip Sliding Away,” in a verse whose lyrical meaning has sunk deeply into America’s cultural psyche, Paul Simon captures this feeling: “God only knows. God makes his plan. The information’s unavailable to the mortal man.”

Because it is true that without vision the people perish, I would like to add my voice to those who believe that God indeed has a plan. Not only does he have a plan, but through the “restitution of all things” he has made that plan available to the mortal man!

With a beginning of understanding regarding the doctrine of premortal life, one now has answers to the questions: Where did I come from? And what is my purpose on this Earth?

SUMMARY

Big Idea

Premortal existence is the belief that all humans lived as spirit children of God before being born on Earth. While in this realm, we gained an understanding of our purpose and destiny.

Key Points

Premortal existence was accepted by early Christians for centuries before being labeled heretical.

This doctrine teaches that all people existed as spirit children of God, received guidance, and developed personally before birth.

As God’s spirit children we agreed to his plan to come to Earth, to gain physical bodies, and to further our spiritual development.

Some spirits were chosen by God as leaders, destined to set moral standards and guide humanity. These figures included prophets, philosophers, and other influential thinkers across religions and cultures.

Life’s hardships can lead to hopelessness, but the doctrine of preexistence reassures believers that God has a plan for each person.

Understanding our premortal existence provides meaningful answers to questions about our origin and purpose on Earth.

The Promised Land

Post No. 2   Read Time: 6 minutes.

Moses leads the Israelites, Lehi leaves Jerusalem, Pioneers arrive in the top of the mountains.

America’s Grand Design

There are places I’ll remember all my life, though some have changed.
All these places had their moments, I’ll often stop and think about them. I know I’ll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. In my life I’ve loved them all. –Lennon and McCartney 

Places gain meaning from our experiences—homes, parks, hillsides, and neighborhoods become special over time. As Shakespeare said, “a place is honored by the actions that occur there.”

Sacred locations are those valued for their spiritual or lasting significance, such as hospitals, homes, chapels, temples, cemeteries, or lands important to freedom and religion. Social media often highlights moving moments, like an artist returning home or to the setting of a choir, where a love of music began. These special places inspire feelings about faith and identity, reflecting humanity’s rich spiritual and cultural heritage.

Lorraine American Cemetery

The Garden of Eden was the original home of Adam and Eve. After their expulsion from the Garden, they settled at Adam-ondi-Ahman in present-day Daviess County, Missouri. This area has been designated as the future site of Zion or the New Jerusalem.

In this sacred place, Adam was told that many nations would come from him, and he would be a leader over them. Despite his age, he gathered his descendants and spoke about their future generations. Never before had one spot of earth been favored with such a meeting.

Adam-ondi-Ahman, Daviess County, Missouri

However, Cain killed Abel, and according to the narrative, unrighteousness increased throughout the world. Generations later, the Lord sent a flood to cleanse the earth.

Scripture records that “after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all others.” Such a place needed to be protected. In response to God’s decree, the great continents separated and the ocean rushed in to surround them; the promised place was set apart. 

Shortly after the events of the Tower of Babel, a nation known as the Jaredites traveled to the promised land on the condition that only those who served God would be allowed to remain. Over time, their society experienced wickedness and conflict to such a degree that it was eventually destroyed.

The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ

Also recorded in the Book of Mormon, after the Jaredite civilization ended, two families, led by a prophet named Lehi, left Jerusalem around 600 BC and sailed to the New World. Their story, along with the account of their descendants, lasted over one thousand years. It recounts cycles of conflict and righteousness, wars and peace, while also including vivid details of Christ’s visit to America. Following nearly three hundred years of peace, they rebelled against the gospel, fractured into tribes, and became the principal ancestors of the American Indians. Through it all, as prophesied, they faced war, disease, and near destruction.

A thousand years later, an Italian explorer sailing for Spain said divine inspiration drove his journey despite ridicule from others. Similarly, again from the Book of Mormon account, a prophet named Nephi saw the future discovery, colonization, and emergence of a mighty nation.

The cultural and religious freedoms that sprang from the Renaissance and Reformation helped inspire the focus on personal liberty during the Age of Enlightenment, creating a foundation for America as a “first new nation.” Before becoming president, George Washington noted that America’s origins were shaped by intellectual progress and a growing awareness of human rights, making it an opportune time to establish a government.

Also recognizing this unique moment in history, Thomas Paine noted that America represented a fresh start for government, where people could observe its creation firsthand rather than relying on ancient history or guesswork. He wrote, “We are brought at once to the point of seeing government begin, as if we had lived in the beginning of time.”

Washington and Paine could not have anticipated the enduring influence of their contributions. Building upon the legacy of predecessors such as pilgrims, Puritans, patriots, and statesmen, they and their contemporaries played a pivotal role in shaping a foundation for the future. Washington referred to the “singular interpositions of Providence,” which, over millennia, helped establish a political framework ultimately facilitating the “restitution of all things.” Shortly after the Constitutional Convention of 1787 secured fundamental freedoms through the Bill of Rights, Joseph Smith, later known for founding the Restoration movement, was born in Vermont.

Following centuries of meticulous preparation, God was ready to restore his priesthood, his church, its central leadership, and the fullness of the everlasting gospel. The purpose of America was to provide the platform of freedom, the setting wherein all of this was possible. All else takes its power from that one great, central purpose. Noted by Lafayette, and as those who gain knowledge and a testimony of this work will attest, “The welfare of America is closely bound up with the welfare of all mankind.”

In summary, the formation of Western Civilization, the founding of America, and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ can be attributed to two primary factors. Originally, Jesus’ words emerged purely from the Jewish tradition. However, through the machinations of men, many parts of the initial gospel, which included key teachings and covenants, were removed or altered. Secondly, because of what has been lost, many are misled by deception and false traditions. The Book of Mormon plays a central role in the Restoration by reintroducing previously lost teachings intended to benefit people universally.

The Book of Mormon describes America as a land which is choice above all other lands. It is a land reserved for a people who will have Jesus Christ (Jehovah) to be their God. Emphasizing the importance of laws for political and moral order, the book also recounts how two civilizations were destroyed after failing to uphold these standards, highlighting the serious responsibilities that rest upon those living in this promised land.

SUMMARY

Big Idea

The narrative explores the deep significance of sacred places in shaping spiritual, cultural, and national identity, emphasizing how divine guidance and human actions across history set the stage for freedom, faith, and the eventual restoration of the gospel in America.

Key Points

The welfare and destiny of America are intimately linked to the broader spiritual welfare of humanity, supported by the testimonies of influential historical figures.

Places acquire meaning through the experiences and actions that unfold there, becoming sacred due to their spiritual, historical, or personal significance.

Scriptural and historical locations—such as the Garden of Eden, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and sites from the Book of Mormon—are portrayed as pivotal in humanity’s spiritual journey.

Western Civilization and America’s founding were influenced by the ages of Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment, under the direction of Divine Providence.

America’s foundation was uniquely prepared as a place where personal liberty, intellectual progress, pluralism, and religious restoration could flourish, thus facilitating the mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith, the spread of liberty across the globe, and the individual and collective efforts of good people everywhere on behalf of mankind’s general welfare.

The decrees of God warn that whatsoever nation shall possess the promised land shall serve Jesus Christ, or they shall be swept off when the fullness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fullness of his wrath comes upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.

Please see: Book of Mormon, 1 Ne. Chapter 13 (pages 23-27).

The Solution to Save the Great Salt Lake and Provide Water to Utah and 40m people in the Western Region is Under our Feet.

Read Time: 10 minutes.

The Great Salt Lake, city skyline, and the Wasatch Mountain.

In reference to the drought conditions being experienced in the Great Basin, which directly impact the Great Salt Lake, the Colorado River, Lake Powell, Lake Mead, their tributaries, and the eight-state region, four general positions are being proposed to alleviate the water shortages we collectively face: 1. conservation and slowing growth. 2. bringing in water from outside sources. 3. relying on Nature to provide. 4. finding other sources of water.

While I believe there is merit in a balanced approach and appreciate that much good is being done by thoughtful people at the present time, this post will argue in favor of finding other sources of water as the primary solution to our challenge.

Conservation and slowing growth.

Nine out of ten Utahns live along the Wasatch Front and in Washington County. In other words, 90% of the state’s residents live on just 1.1% of the land.

The federal government owns 64.4% of the land.

4.5% of the land is held in trust for tribal nations.

The state of Utah owns about 10% of the land.

21% of the land is privately owned, much of which is not suitable for or used for residential development.

I do not see conservation (heresy, I know) and slowing down Utah’s growth as feasible solutions.

Bringing in water from outside sources.

If state, regional, national, and international politics could allow water to flow from Canada, the Colombia River, the Snake River, or directly or indirectly from any of the Great Lakes, into the Great Basin, that would be an incredible solution.

Relying on Nature to provide.

In its truest sense, no matter which solution we adopt, we will be relying on Nature to provide. However, I am specifically referring to snowpack, water storage, and allocation. There are many perspectives to consider: we need water for food, recreation, and lifestyles, which is why my proposed solution will focus on the 4th option.

Finding other sources of water.

People of faith are often ridiculed because we believe that “the earth has enough and to spare,” an affirmation that the Earth’s resources are abundant. Somewhat heartening, it is also true that even scientists can be “stunned by Nature’s surprises.” Let’s consider:

71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water.

The Earth’s crust (mantle) may hold more water than all the ocean’s combined.

Within the Earth are “the fountains of the deep,” the subterranean waters that combined with the rain to flood the Earth in the days of Noah.

The remainder of this post will focus on this option. I invite you to read, comment, like, and share.

COMMON SENSE:  A Call to Action

An LDS maxim states: “Men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many things of their own free will . . . for the power is in them.” There is value in proactive engagement, individual initiative, and meaningful contributions toward achieving positive results, rather than waiting to be told what to do. Service is an imperative, whether to God or to our fellowmen. Bringing water to the Great Salt Lake and surrounding areas is a good cause.

In the 1930s. in a powerful example of harnessing Nature’s abundance, government and private interests combined to build a series of dams, canals, and irrigation systems in the Northwest, bringing water and transportation to the land. These visionary efforts brought productive agriculture and a multitude of benefits to millions of people in the region and across the entire United States. Though solving today’s issues will require a different approach, the challenge remains the same: we need water!

In all human pursuits, power shapes societal structures and influences quality of life. Therefore, even though the issue of power may appear to be balanced and fair at the present time, it is essential to exercise discernment amid the many factors at play. The increasing mindset of scarcity feeds inefficiency, lust for control, and bureaucratic growth. Hence the constant emphasis on the crisis of the GSL: “Droughts are growing more severe as population increases . . . Less surface water is available . . . Reliance on well water is increasing . . . Everything is human caused . . . We must regulate . . . We must control population and growth . . . We have tools for later use.” Some observers even go so far as to attribute aspects of climate change to certain religious groups, such as the LDS Church, noting that their support for irrigation and large families increases resource consumption. These perspectives are a powerful reminder that Thoreau’s idea of addressing the root cause is essential.

Water means freedom!

As debates over power intensify, we the people have a great deal to lose if bureaucratic thinking and policies win the day. To preserve liberty, boldness is needed. Let’s not forget, that government is best which governs least.

Water means beauty!

Let’s continue to beautify our homes, yards, parks, public spaces, and houses of worship; let’s keep our lawns, gardens, and fences well-groomed, reflecting orderliness. Let the beehive–with the hive and the honeybees forming our communal coat of arms–be a significant representation of the industry, harmony, order, and frugality of the people, demonstrating the sweet results of our toil, union, and intelligent cooperation. Let’s keep in mind the eternal principle that all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of mankind, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart. Let’s cherish our mountain lakes, rivers, and streams, and do everything we can to support the migratory birds and animals that seek refuge and sanctuary across our state. In our pursuit of social refinement, let’s rejoice that music continues to swell the breeze with freedom’s song.

Water means a bright future!

Let’s continue to develop parks and trails that bring families together and draw people to the beautiful outdoors. Let’s continue to support the centers that celebrate the arts, elevating the culture. Let’s continue to showcase our commitment to education, physical achievement, and entertainment through beautiful schools, manicured campuses, and magnificent athletic fields, arenas, and golf courses. Let’s continue to facilitate commerce through transportation systems that are safe and efficient as they carry us to the four corners of our state. Let’s continue to keep our winter sports and year-round outdoor activities attractive and vibrant.

Citing Jay Evensen (DN, Dec. 1, 2022), I encourage KSL Radio and TV, the Deseret News, Rod Arquette and Greg Hughes, as well as all other Church and secular communication organs to give voice to the proposals by Steven Lund and Matthew Memmot in order to spur interest and thought in the public square by advancing positive conversation of horizontal drilling of deep freshwater aquifers and statewide desalination reactors to quickly restore the GSL, refill Lake Powell and Lake Mead, and increase water flow across Utah and the Western region for the benefit of over 40 million people. The methods they advocate are presently in use across the United States.

Deep water aquifers, found 400 to several thousand meters underground and still largely uncharted, are more widespread than once thought. The current record drought and historical absence of saline lake recovery offer a timely opportunity to seek new deep groundwater sources.

The USGS estimates that these aquifers contain at least 900 million acre-feet of water, with approximately 700,000 acre-feet needed to restore the GSL. Verifying these figures would involve drilling wells projected to cost $100 million. Using existing oil and gas data and satellite technology will reduce exploration costs.

Down through the years, beginning in Nauvoo and continuing through the modern day, the Restored Church has faced many challenges. In the early stages of the great pioneer exodus, Church leaders directed members to construct the roads and bridges to assist the migration. These efforts were followed by the down-and-back trains and the rescue at Martin’s Cove directed by Brigham Young.

In addition to the tasks performed by the Saints, many of the things that have been done were beyond the capacity of ordinary members, requiring a much higher level of ecclesiastical engagement. For example, sending supplies to war-torn Europe following World War II, the ongoing world-wide philanthropic efforts carried out by the Church, and, in partnership with local officials, the renovation and improvement of downtown Salt Lake City to create a buffer of protection around Temple Square and Church headquarters.

While Church members continue to contribute tithes, offerings, missionary service, and other support, we do not have sufficient resources among us to solve the current water crisis. I believe that alleviating the drought will require another joint venture between ecclesiastical and state officials. I urge the Church to play the leading role in controlling the narrative, providing the funding, and organizing the efforts, because sitting back and relying on well-intentioned individuals and organizations risks empowering bureaucracy and reducing our individual and collective freedom.

LDS generosity is well known throughout the world, but at the same time we can focus on strengthening ourselves from within, without compromising that vital mission. Much like the need for the development of City Creek as a protective barrier within downtown Salt Lake, action must be taken to expand the arc of protection to all citizens of Utah and beyond our borders through solving the water crisis. Regardless of your location or resources, this crisis threatens our very way of life and the spiritual work we have been assigned to do. Instead of relying solely on Providence, let’s keep in mind that the Lord helps those who help themselves.

I respectfully urge the Church at all levels of bureaucracy, leadership, and membership to follow the prophet. When the prophet announces a house of the Lord, he is endorsing growth, prosperity, and freedom. Proven time and again, this is the economic pattern that unfolds once a temple is dedicated. He is also affirming that the Restoration is ongoing, that the Restored Church is the kingdom of God on the Earth, that the earth has enough and to spare, and that the desert blooming as a rose symbolizes a spiritual transformation from darkness to light as well as the interdependence of human and environmental health. If we see in these words more than mere abstractions, then indeed the power is in us to be anxiously engaged in a good cause.

Sources:

  1. Doctrine and Covenants 58:27-28.
  2. Jay Evensen, DN Opinion Editor, December 1, 2022.
  3. Deep Groundwater Might be a Sustainable Solution to the Water Crisis by Claudia Bertoni, Fridtjov Ruden, Elizabeth Quiroga Jordan and Helene Ruden. February 27, 2025.
  4. Great Salt Lake Strike Team.
  5. Doug Burgum: A rough rider at heart. DN May 15, 2025.
  6. Sustainability, October 12, 2022, Beyond the story: Great Salt Lake in the New York Times, Maximilian S. Werner, College of Humanities.
  7. If the Great Salt Lake dries up what would that mean for the U.S. economy? Janet Nguyen, SaveShare.
  8. The Colorado River Basin’s groundwater is disappearing faster than the river  itself. May 31, 2025, Kevin Lind, Ideas and Culture team covering the Intermountain West.
  9. The Great Lake Is Drying. Can Utah Save It? Leia Larsen, The New York Times, May 5, 2025.
  10.  Climate Change and Capitalism: A Political Marxist View. Simon Mair, July 7, 2019.
  11. Environmentalists’ goal is climate indoctrination, not education. Washington Examiner, Kaylee McGhee White.

Celebrating our 250th Anniversary

The American Spirit

Premise: the American experiment is foreordained.

History: who we are and what we stand for.

Purpose: it is wonderful to have a country to love.

Goal: help stop the mindless destruction of America.

Introductory Post: an invitation.

First post: august 28, 2025, and continuing through July 2026.

2/3 posts per week.

I invite you to comment, share, and invite.

PLEASE HELP TELL OUR STORY ACROSS THE WORLD!

americasgrand.design

A Heritage of Freedom

WHY I BELIEVE

America’s founding documents are the culmination of centuries of progress. In their formation, they represent the consolidation of eternal truths for the universal blessing of the human family. Paving the way for civil and religious liberties, they are the common connection through which all the inhabitants of Earth will be blessed.

At the heart of the American system are two vital principles: liberty and justice. In support of these ideals, in an idea that was revolutionary at the time, the Founding Fathers insisted that the new government put the welfare of the population before their own. To accomplish this aim, they established specific economic policies and governing standards. They firmly believed that the key ingredient in wealth creation, the pursuit of happiness, and maintaining moral virtue was man’s creative or productive power, made possible by his being made in the image of the Creator.

Flowing from the vision of our Founding Fathers, the American identity is built around a constellation of ideas–namely, education, equality, love of God and neighbor, hard work, the Golden Rule, the rule of law, individualism, and teamwork. Springing from these values, each of us have something deep within, the big idea of freedom!

Encouraged by the Founding Fathers, Americans internalized the lofty idea that freedom is best served as we learn to master our emotions and actions. Right behavior results from harmony and control of our reason, passion, and appetites. The habits we develop make all the difference. Practice brings self-control. Unhappiness and personal distress come into our lives when we fail to control our tempers, appetites, and passions.

Emphasizing the importance of true knowledge, the Framers saw moral education as training the heart and mind toward that which is good. Stated by Emerson, “If a man’s eye is on the eternal, his intellect will grow.”

In today’s world, where much has been pushed out of our lives, or lost, we may wonder: where do we find the materials, the moral literacy, that will aid us in our quest to live and teach the virtues of self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty, and faith? How do we discover the ideals by which we wish our children and grandchildren to live out their lives? How do we create and maintain the kind of nation we hope to be?

Certainly, the Bible, the Classics, intellectual pursuits, worship services, and the historical narrative provide a rich quarry of information. In their pages and themes, we find a moral anchor for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, our culture, our history, and our traditions.

Across this nation we have had, and continue to have, men and women committed to the proposition of teaching moral literacy as it relates to personal conduct and the formation of character. Without hesitation, equivocation, or embarrassment, parents, teachers, neighbors, friends, visionary leaders, and a host of others speak to the inner part of the individual, to the moral sense. We better understand the great purposes of Earth and the potential of individuals and nations when we link classical literacy, world history, American history, and commonsense principles. Reminding us of eternal truths and moral verities, they counter the distortions of the times in which we live.

Education, knowledge, and literacy are the foundations for intellectual and moral development. Freedom is not a license to ignore the requirements of moral integrity. We do not progress by making our own rules, by turning our backs on the Almighty, or by creating a golden calf of our egos. It is impossible to build a sustainable society in this manner.

Moral education teaches good habits; it involves rules, precepts, standards, and discipline. It teaches that life has purpose, that it is a necessary thing to be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, to do good to all men and women, to have a country to love, and to be willing to seek after that which is praiseworthy and of good report. God will patiently and tenderly lead His children in their pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness.

Benjamin Franklin declared, “To pour forth benefits for the common good is divine. Every thought which genius and piety throws into the world alters the world.” Americans are blessed with a heritage of freedom and the opportunity to chase away darkness, to enlighten nations, and to renovate the world and cover it with light, truth, unity, peace, and love.

This is why I believe.

THE LIFE BEFORE

HOW OUR PREMORTAL EXISTENCE AFFECTS OUR MORTAL LIFE

Why I Believe

We do not realize how much everything we have in this life springs from our premortal existence. Hence, the more we learn about the life before, the more we can weigh and consider to what end this life is given to each of us.

First and foremost, a knowledge of the life before gives us perspective. For example, in recent decades, we have traveled far into the freedom-destroying and soul-destroying land of socialism. Why is this the case?

Here is the answer according to David O. McKay, a religious scholar and former President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “There are two great forces in the world more potent than ever before, each force more determined to achieve success, more active in planning, and on the one side, scheming, than ever before. These two great forces are hate and love.

“Hate had its origin in our preexistent state where Satan was determined to destroy the free agency of man and to supplant God. In the spirit of hate, as is manifest today in the world, the very existence of God is denied, the free agency of man is taken from him, and the power of the state supplanted. Thus, the history of the world with all its contention and strife is largely an account of man’s effort to free himself from bondage and usurpation. Force rules in the world today.”

Biblical teachings and much of classical literature undergird the logic of man’s preexistence. Our nation was founded upon divine providence. Flowing from our experience in that environment, human mortality has been designed as a team effort. We need not pretend to a divine commission and a sacred destiny. America is part of redemptive history, of divine prophecy fulfilled. The whole world needs such enlightenment.

If we are to survive as a nation and as a Church, to progress, we must counter the evil forces in the world with the guarantees of the Bill of Rights that are set up by our Constitution. There is nothing more important than the First Amendment, because behind all that lies in our lives and all that we do in our lives is freedom of conscience and expression, our religion, our worship, our belief and faith in God.

Fortunately, as noted by National Geographic (2023), “For one-third of all people around the globe–and roughly two-thirds of Americans–Christian values continue to be relevant today.” Springing from commitments we made in the life before, we have a tremendous responsibility to serve as a beacon of hope to people all across the globe. As Americans, we must stand for and teach principles of liberty and righteousness.

From a small community of Galilean fishermen to a movement that conquered the Roman Empire and ultimately the rest of the world, the powerful words of Christ, and about Christ, continue to have mature, profound, and undeniable impact. What is it that has made them so irresistible through two millennia? The answer is in the back story; that which took place before the human family began to inhabit planet earth.

In the beginning, we lived with God as His spirit children. Governed by order, we knew and worshipped Him as the Father of lights.

Sensing our Father’s exalted state, and aware that certain things could only be experienced and learned in a temporal world, we expressed our aspiration to become like Him. Granting our desire, the Lord presented a plan which allowed us to transition from premortal to mortal to afterlife, wherein we could progress and return to His presence. Fundamental to this plan, we would be placed in mortality to pursue divinely ordained possibilities, centering on receiving a physical body, acting according to our wills and pleasures as we choose between good and evil, gaining experience, and being subject to infirmities and physical death.

Eager for the progression of His children, yet with the foreknowledge that His commandments would be ignored, His laws violated, and that some of His offspring would be lost as a result of disobedience and rebellion once we left His presence, God created this world for us. His purpose, which He defined as His work and glory, would be to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Established on the eternal principles of agency and consent of the governed, the unfolding events were not without controversy. “The contention in heaven was–Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he would save them all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote in favor of Jesus Christ. So, the devil rose up in rebellion against God [in what is known as the war in heaven]” (Joseph Smith).

As penalty for attempting to destroy man’s agency and usurp God’s power, Lucifer and his followers were cast down to earth, where he became Satan, even the devil, the author of all sin, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto the voice of God. With inspired pathos, Isaiah lamented, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will be like the Most High.”

In our preexistent state we lived in an atmosphere of agency and accountability. However, there were, as there are on earth, varying levels of intelligence, obedience, and understanding. We were free to act for ourselves, to think for ourselves, and to receive the truth or rebel against it.

During this period, Jehovah was chosen and ordained to be the Savior and Redeemer of the human race. “At the first organization in heaven we were all present, and saw the Savior chosen and appointed and the plan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it” (Joseph Smith). Filled with wonder and amazement at what was being done on our behalf, our reaction was breathtaking: “. . . the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job).

Following this series of events, subsequent councils were held to organize, prepare, and further instruct the future inhabitants of earth, on the law of God, the role of mortality, and the plan of salvation. From among our ranks, noble and great souls were chosen to advance truth. Among them were those who would become prophets, poets, philosophers, theologians, scholars, and reformers, as well as other gifted and talented visionaries and luminaries.

Known in the premortal world as Jehovah, Christ would teach the gospel to Adam, and make known His truths to Abraham and the prophets, including Moses on Mt. Sinai. He would be the inspirer of the ancient philosophers, Pagan or Israelite, as well as the great characters of modern times. Columbus, in discovery; Washington, in the struggle for freedom; Lincoln, in emancipation and union; Bacon, in philosophy; Franklin in statesmanship and diplomacy; Stephenson, in steam; Watts, in song; Edison, in electricity, and Joseph Smith, in theology and religion, found in Him the source of their wisdom and the marvelous truths which they advocated. Likewise, Calvin, Luther, Melanchthon, and others were inspired in thoughts, words, and actions, to accomplish what they did for the amelioration of injustice, the advancement of the human race, and the revolutionary idea of individual freedom.

Addressing the role of those who would be called upon to lead and inspire in mortality, Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero wrote, “There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence, and this takes the deepest root, and is most discoverable, in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls.” Such truths caused David to exclaim, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him” (Psalms)?

Providing additional evidence of our pre-mortal existence, Jeremiah quoted the Lord, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Provided in God’s way, an evolving moral code has been established through these and many other historical figures. Fully aware that this world was being created for our development and progress, we vowed to make the story of the human family a series of ascending developments.

It has been said that “everyone is possessed with an irresistible desire to know his relationship with the Infinite” (McKay). The reality of a premortal existence is a curative for the yearnings expressed in music, poetry, and literature, such as, “You’re a stranger here” (Snow), “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting” (Wordsworth), and these words from Plato: “Your favorite doctrine, Socrates, that knowledge is simply recollection, if true, also necessarily implies a previous time in which we have learned that which we now recollect. But this would be impossible unless our soul had been in some place before existing in the form of man; here then is another proof of the soul’s immortality.”

Such feelings are shared by many, including the belief that man has spiritual roots which reach far back beyond this existence. Proclaimed Rousseau, “Not all the subtleties of metaphysics can make me doubt a moment of the immortality of the soul, and of a beneficent providence. I feel it. I believe it. I desire it. I hope it and will defend it to my last breath.” Declared by Herman Hesse, “We all share the same origin; . . . all of us come in at the same door.” We are brothers and sisters, literal spirit children of an Eternal Father.

Further supporting belief in the immortality of the soul of man, the main character in Alex Haley’s Roots learns of the premortal existence and the life beyond mortality from his father, Osmoro, upon the death of his beloved grandmother.

“He said that three groups of people lived in every village,” explained Haley. “First were those you could see–walking around, eating, sleeping, and working. Second were the ancestors, who Grandma Yaisa had now joined.

“‘And the third people–who are they?’ asked Kunta. ‘The third people,’ said Osmoro, ‘are those waiting to be born.'”

This sentiment was also held by Edmund Burke, the Father of Conservatism, who wrote of the formation of society’s social contract: “It is a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead and those who are to be born. Each contract of each particular state is but a clause in the great primeval contract of eternal society, connecting the visible and invisible world.”

In 1776, as he championed American independence in a letter to a friend, John Adams showed why he was considered the colossus of independence. “Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures in which the lives and liberties of millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of the world.”

Concerned with posterity and future generations, the Founding Fathers, with prescient wisdom, declared the right to life as the most fundamental human right, the universal birthright of the human family. It was their conviction that each life was to have its beginning, its growth, and its end. The right to life unlocks the door to freedom and progression for those who were to follow.

In Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835, Joseph Smith linked societal peace with the protection of life: “We believe that no government can exist in peace, except such laws are framed and held inviolate as will secure to each individual the free exercise of conscience, the right and control of property, and the protection of life” (Doctrine and Covenants).

Mysteriously, with few exceptions, most cultures and religions in the Western world generally reject the idea of a premortal life of man and the principle of eternal progression. Despite the many inspired references to a pre-earth life, to the upward reach in the heart of man, and to evidence which suggests that the doctrine of a premortal existence was common in the early years of Roman Catholic doctrine and was discussed openly, most of modern Christianity rejects such a notion.

By AD 543, even though there were those who spoke of Old Testament figures being “chosen by God because of merits acquired before this life” the teachings on pre-mortality had been declared heresy in the Church and allowed to wither away. From this date on, the doctrine of man’s premortal state and relationship to God was viewed as heretical and unfounded in scripture.

Continuing today, with far-reaching negative consequences that affect millions, conventional Christianity vehemently rejects the notion of a premortal existence. Though the spiritual and theological examination of the life before, and its impact on mortality, have been institutionally silenced, this is not to say that substantial numbers do not feel strongly that we existed before our present life on earth.

Wrote Macel Proust, a modern French novelist, “Everything in our life happens as though we entered upon it with a load of obligations contracted in a previous existence.” The “larger consciousness” or “larger self” is the spirit of man which was schooled and enlarged upon in a premortal realm and subsequently influences the psychological and intellectual traits of the mortal person.

Employing spiritual terms, Joseph Smith characterized this “consciousness” as “that which was from the beginning,” the premortal teachings we received for the intended purpose of understanding the reasons for our physical creation, which centered on our potential to become like our Heavenly Father, an exalted being with a body of flesh and bones. This teaching, that man may become perfect as God is and dwell in His presence, has stirred great controversy. Yet, it is at the heart of the expression: “My sheep hear my voice.”

It is good to be a part of life. Human learning, with the blessings of God upon it, introduces us to divine knowledge. Flowing from that knowledge, we know that the adversary is no idle spirit, but a vagrant, whose motive, cause, and main intention is to ruin man. Following are three reasons why the devil is determined to make us miserable and ensnare us in sin and selfishness.

  • First, he will never have a physical body. Consequently, he will use his influence to encourage each of us to misuse and desecrate our bodies.
  • Second, he will never marry. As a result, he will do everything in his power to destroy the institution of marriage.
  • Third, he will never have children. Through promotion of the philosophies of men, such as abortion–a horrific, inhumane act that produces a calloused and desensitized society–he will author movements of fraud and deception against God’s purpose of multiplying and replenishing the earth.

As we become absorbed in achieving eternal goals from the perspective of the life before, life becomes more abundant. To the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, the formula is straightforward: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

Expressed in the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the doctrine of foreordination. “Before we came to Earth, we were given certain assignments. While we do not now remember the particulars, this does not alter the glorious reality of what we once agreed to” (Kimball). Man was in the beginning with God. We were not created or made ex nihilo (out of nothing). We are eternal and have always existed.

Stated by Santanya, “Life is hardly respectable if it has not generous task, no duties or affections that constitute a necessity of existence.” In one such example, a modern-day prophet links premortal life with the preservation of liberty: “I reverence the Constitution of the United States as a sacred document. I testify that the God of heaven sent some of His choicest spirits to lay the foundation of this government, and He has sent other choice spirits–even you who read my words–to preserve it” (Benson).

Published on 22 January 2013 by Canada Free Press, Protestant Mike Jensen wrote an article entitled “Smart Mormons.” He wrote, “Mormons believe that all humans lived a life before mortality. This is where Mormon theology is so intriguing. The greatest of all battles, the war in heaven, was fought over liberty, or as they call it, ‘free agency.’ The battle for liberty is not unique to this life; it is the core battle of the ages. It is a fundamental, eternal concern. God intends for humans to be free and make their own choices and live with the consequences of those choices. The Fathers of this country said essentially the same thing in the Declaration of Independence: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.’ My study has not only given me newfound respect for religion, but it has also made me evaluate my own attitude towards liberty. The fact that I’m here says that I was on God’s side in the war in heaven.”

A long lesson in humility, every man’s life is a plan of God. Your life is your own, and it will be what you have to take into eternity. “Be such a man, and live such a life, that if every man were such as you, and every life a life like yours, this earth would be God’s Paradise” (Phillip Brooks).

This is why I believe.

Website: http://www.americasgranddesign.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brent Russell’s book, America’s Grand Design (2022), retraces the history of American heritage and humanity’s Constitutional liberties, grounded in the hope of universal goodwill.

Holistically outlining the interconnectedness of the historical events which caused and then overcame the Dark and Middle Ages, leading to the development and establishment of America’s civil and religious liberties, this treatise is a timely reminder that God governs in the affairs of men.

Developed through centuries of struggle, freedom of conscience and expression are woven into the very soul of our nation. Yet, there is danger lurking, for those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Because error is preached all the time, truth must be repeated constantly. We must stop the mindless destruction of historical America.

The American experiment was foreordained. America is a part of redemptive history, of divine prophecy fulfilled, of God’s grand design. As a society of free-born people, we must reawaken to the truth that “righteousness exalts a nation.”        

Third in a trilogy of Constitutional enlightenment and awareness, the author supports the Utah State Legislature’s designation of September as Founders and Constitution Month. In an effort to champion civic awareness and the common good, he reaffirms that it was not by chance that the Puritans and others who followed later left their native land and sailed to New England where they were inspired to establish the God-given system of government under which we live.

Laying the foundation for the 1820 vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the unfolding Restoration, this series of historical events is described by the biblical prophet Isaiah as “a marvelous work and a wonder.” In an acknowledgement of our responsibility to teach the true greatness of our founding and nation, may we reenergize a spirit of patriotism in recognition of God’s hand in the origin and destiny of America, that we will be a nation under God, not without God.   

Website:  www.americasgranddesign.com                 BLOG: americasgrand.design 

Courage and Resolve

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.  –Abraham Lincoln

On a recent Sunday, as we sat down with our wives for a spontaneous brunch, a friend and I had one of those conversations that seem to come out of nowhere. Our topics covered a lot of ground. However, the part that touched me deeply was his personal story.

Speaking freely, we discussed the meaning and purpose of life. Why we are here (on earth) and what we are supposed to be doing with our lives.

He grew up in Chicago in a very dysfunctional situation.  There was divorce, alcoholism, drug use, abuse, early separation from his siblings and parents, suicide, and poverty. His reaction was anger, bitterness, loneliness, and hopelessness, a teenager with a horrible temper and poor self-esteem.

At 18, traveling to California with his girlfriend, they stopped at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. He felt something. Shortly thereafter he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).

A year later, sitting in a speed-reading class at BYU, he gazed out the window, thinking how much he hated being there. Standing directly in front of him, the professor asked a couple of questions about the assignment, and then surprised him by asking, “How do you feel about things?”

“You want to know how I feel?” asked my friend.

“Yes,” responded the teacher.

Facing one of those moments requiring courage, he was tempted to ease his way out of the situation. But not today! He spoke his mind, and it all came out.

“I think you and the others are just a bunch of posers. You say things to impress people, but you don’t mean them, and you don’t care about us.  It’s all for show.”

Realizing a teaching moment was at hand, the instructor responded with kindness, “My challenge to you, young man, is to get an education and then go out and confront the hypocrisy you so readily see in the world and change things for the better.”

This was the turning point of his life! He began pursuing his education with a higher purpose in mind. With degrees in hand and happily married, he has been teaching philosophy, critical thinking, and creative writing at the university level for the past 30 years.

Knowing my friend as I do, I can say with great confidence that he has been changing things and making a positive difference in the lives of students, associates, and his family since that day.

In this account we find a universal truth: when you educate a man, you liberate a man. The most important key to a proper education is to read to the point that words become precious. As you learn, you will begin to see that you are the person who has the most to do with you and what happens in your life.

This matters because our country needs you! You need to understand that the men who founded this nation believed that our system of government was designed for a well-informed and educated people. They understood that each of us needs to play our very important part in maintaining liberty.

While it’s true we need smart people to understand and correct our problems, what we need even more is people who care. People who are willing to love God, to love their neighbors, and to live by the Golden Rule.  Like the teacher at BYU, our nation’s greatest need is people with common sense who care about others and the future of our country.

There is a great deal riding on the education of our young people. Misunderstanding freedom, many great and powerful nations have destroyed themselves from within through moral decay, fiscal irresponsibility, and selfishness. A proper education will instill these lessons because they matter, for the same fate could happen to us.

You can make a difference! Be inspired by men like Abraham Lincoln who carried a book with him everywhere he went; and often that book was the Bible. Be motivated by women like Emily Dickinson, who wrote, “There is no Frigate like a Book, to take us Lands away.” Be anxiously engaged in self-improvement. Discover a steadfast purpose to sustain you.

Like my friend, you were sent to earth to make a difference. Improve yourself, gain experience, help others along the way. As encouragement, I offer this poem:

The more you read, the more you know;

The more you know, the smarter you grow;

The smarter you grow, the stronger your voice;

When speaking your mind, or making your choice.

America is the only country founded on the principle that men and women should and could govern themselves. Seek true knowledge and govern yourself accordingly. Have confidence that the goodness of your life will lead to success and happiness.

Please see: http://www.americasgranddesign.com

Blog: americasgrand.design

Oppenheimer: an appeal to the academic left

The Vital Importance of Limited Government, Religious Influence, and Economic Freedom

 The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.  –Emerson

When J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physics professor at Berkeley, was approached by General Leslie R. Groves to head the Manhattan Project there was the “snag” of Oppenheimer’s left-wing background, which, in the words of General Groves, “included much that was not to our liking by any means.” The general wanted Oppenheimer anyway, because none of the other men suggested for the position appeared to be his equal. “He’s a genius,” declared Groves.

For his part, Oppenheimer thought himself “a most improbable appointment. I was astonished.” At thirty-eight years of age in 1942 when he accepted the assignment, he listed three reasons on how he had changed in recent years from one who “had no understanding of the relations of man to his society.”

First, “I had a continuing, smoldering fury about the treatment of the Jews in Germany.”

Second, says Oppenheimer, “I saw what the Depression was doing to my students. And through them I began to understand how deeply political and economic events could affect men’s lives. I began to feel the need to participate more fully in the life of the community.”

Third, a few years prior to 1942, as he began to move among what he called “leftwing friends,” he wrote, “I liked the new sense of companionship, and at the time felt that I was coming to be part of the life of my time and country.” However, after reading Engels and Feuerbach and all of Marx and finding their dialectics less rigorous than his taste, Oppenheimer declared, “I never accepted Communist dogma or theory; in fact, it never made sense to me.”

Appealing to all members of academia, I would like to ask you to consider how deeply political and economic events are affecting the lives of your students. In hundreds of thousands of cases, year after year, young people are leaving our institutions of higher learning saddled not only with debt but unable to find suitable employment in an economy that has been reduced in many respects to a manifestation of leftwing politics. To address this very basic and systemic problem, your students need each of you–like Oppenheimer’s students needed him–to feel the need to participate more fully in the life of the community by promoting an economic environment that allows them to fulfill their potential and actualize their dreams.

How can this be done? Sadly, with leftwing politics so ingrained within our society, rather than moving into an economy built on meritocracy and free-market values, the talents and gifts of hundreds of thousands of students are being denied expression. With an emphasis on undermining the values of Western civilization, as well as a full-throated endorsement of a green agenda–which, in turn, leads to censorship, the curtailment of free expression, and mob rule–powerful interests are scuttling human potential by promoting a limited kind of diversity. This is no surprise, for as the data demonstrates, at many institutions of higher learning, those with the highest levels of education (including administrators and educators) are the first to dismiss those with conflicting points of view. In one of the great paradoxes of our time, many of those who prize academic freedom for themselves above all else are denying the very essence of academic freedom to those they teach. This is not the education standard our young people have been promised. The resulting impoverishment of intellect is a great loss to them and a tragic loss for our country.

There needs to be a major change in how we approach education. Instead of the politics of coercion, which are grounded in sensitivity, diversity, multiculturalism, and environmentalism (as defined by liberals), we need classrooms where traditional and theoretical ideas can find expression. We need laboratories where students can come to grips with how best to unleash their talents and potential in pursuit of their highest aspirations. Unfortunately, however, to the collective detriment of all Americans, an iron curtain of censorship has descended upon many of our institutions of higher learning. Rather than promoting academic freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas many of our most prestigious centers of higher learning are promoting diversity in everything but thought.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground. –Thomas Jefferson

That which the academic left undermines and opposes through censorship can be reduced to three categories: limited government, religious influence, and economic freedom. Institutional opposition to these foundational elements is one of the great mysteries of a free society, especially in light of the conclusion reached by Dr. Oppenheimer (the UC Berkeley creator of the greatest school of theoretical physics that the United States has ever known) that Communist dogma or theory never made sense to him.

It is imperative that today’s young people are taught and understand that limited government, religious influence, and economic freedom are the pathway to the fulfilling of their potential and the betterment of society. No centralized government, no matter how big or well-intentioned, can effectively and efficiently control society in a beneficial way. On the contrary, big governments are inherently inefficient and harmful because in their promotion of dependency they rob citizens of their initiative and self-respect. As declared by President Franklin Roosevelt, “Continued dependence on government support induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” Evident in our time, big government corrupts the political process and eventually kills the goose that lays the golden eggs.

The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical, or infidels, or agnostics, or atheists. –William Jennings Bryan

During the past several years, I have had many rewarding experiences driving people from the Salt Lake Airport to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival or their ski vacations. The 45-minute drive is always interesting as I get to know people from all around the world. Two winters ago, as I drove two first-year college students from Austin, one of them proudly announced that she was a philosophy major who does not believe in God anymore. When I asked her how her parents felt about her atheism she said, “My dad is very sad.”

On a subsequent occasion I was driving a family of four. A daughter, who was attending Notre Dame, happened to be a philosophy major as well. When I asked her if her teachers had destroyed her faith, her mother looked up and said, “I want to hear the answer to this!” The twenty-six-year-old responded, “No. At Notre Dame they are very respectful of religious belief.”

Contrast her experience with what happened to one of my nieces at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, during her freshman year a few years ago. As related by her, she said that she was sitting in a required philosophy class with hundreds of other students when a tenured professor walked in and said, “If any of you believe in God that’s okay. But if you believe in God at the end of this semester it will be because you are a ‘blanking’ idiot!” My niece related that she stood up at that moment and walked out of the class.

Her stand reminds me of the experience of Robert P. George, a devout Catholic and tenured Princeton professor who has been called the most influential Christian conservative thinker” in the United States by Time magazine. As a 19-year-old, George was sitting in an introductory political philosophy class at Swarthmore College discussing “Gorgias,” in which Plato questions the motives for debate by asking if individuals argue in order to find and advance the truth or simply to boost their own social standing by winning the argument.

For George, contemplating those questions for the first time in college was like “having a bucket of ice water thrown in my face, and I woke up. I realized I should be asking a much more important question than about how to win debates. I should be asking the question, ‘What side am I on?’ For the first time in my life…I had to think my way to where I would stand, rather than just standing where I stood because it was what the ambient culture told me.”

With its foundation in faith, its action in works, and its aim of obedience to God in improvement of self and benevolence to others, religious influence is the foundation of society, the basis on which all true civil government rests, and from which power derives it authority, laws their efficacy, and both their sanction. In other words, religious influence is a universal good–a key ingredient in the flourishing of individuals and societies everywhere.  Without its free expression, if shaken by contempt or loss of popular respect, the whole fabric of society cannot be stable or lasting.

Addressing why he is willing to fight for economic freedom, Charles Koch, Chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, Inc., recently wrote, “I want my legacy to be greater freedom, greater prosperity, and a better way of life for my family, our employees, and for all Americans. And I wish the same for every nation on earth.”

Those of us who cherish freedom and the opportunities freedom brings can relate to the desires of Charles Koch. We also want every living soul to experience the joy of potential fulfilled.

There are many reasons why the views of Oppenheimer, Roosevelt, George, and Koch have universal appeal. First, it is good to have feelings for the oppressed and to be willing to do something about it. Second, it is good to consider the state of young people who are facing a bleak economic outlook and be willing to participate more fully in the life of the community. Third, it is good to recognize the importance of limited government, religious influence, and economic freedom and then be willing to champion their value in the classroom, in the news, in political discourse, and from the pulpit.

A society that puts equality–in the sense of equality of outcome–ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.  The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.  –Milton Friedman

As a further inducement to the abolition of social injustice, I suggest that preparing students for an economy built on limited government, religious influence, and economic freedom is our best way forward as a nation.  As things now stand, the rate of return on capital, such as real estate, dividends, and other financial assets, is racing away from the rate of growth required to maintain a healthy economy. Stagnant pay, except among the super-rich, soaring health care and education costs, unemployment, high energy and transportation costs, and diminished expectations among young and old alike are becoming the norm. If these trends continue inequality will get worse as wealth becomes ever more concentrated in the hands of a few.  Moreover, the avenues of upward mobility that beckon us and define the American Dream will be closed off while retirement will become something to endure rather than to enjoy.

The solution to these problems is to create an economy with good paying jobs rather than an economy that punishes success via inflation, taxation, regulation, and redistribution of income.  If academia could somehow reconcile their egalitarian views on poverty, income disparity, redistribution, and the environment with a realization of how deeply political and economic events are affecting the lives of their students and others, they might begin to see the harm in unrestrained government, of social engineering, of denigrating our Founders and our Constitution, of mocking religious influence, and of bashing capitalism.

To underscore the vital importance of economic freedom I turn to the wisdom of Charles Koch:

“Karl Marx famously said: ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’ The result of this approach is not equality, but rather a lowering of everyone’s standards to some minimal level.

“Some people worry about the disparity of wealth in a system of economic freedom.  What they don’t realize is that the same disparity exists in the least-free countries. The difference is who is better off.

“Under economic freedom, it is the people who do the best job of producing products and services that make people’s lives better. On the other hand, in a system without economic freedom, the wealthiest are the tyrants who make people’s lives miserable. As a result of this, the income of the poorest in the least-free countries is one-tenth of what it is in the freest.”

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest… As for governing, I love to see honest men and honorable men at the helm, men who will not bend their politics to their purses, nor pursue measures by which they may profit, and then profit by their measures. –Thomas Jefferson

By doing their part to prepare their students to obtain good jobs in a market based economy, teachers and administrators will maintain the integrity upon which the system of higher education should be built. In so doing they will also help alleviate the problems of poverty, unemployment, and income disparity by placing their graduates firmly in the middle and upper-middle class income brackets.  Beyond that, if they will realize and teach that an economy based upon limited government, religious influence, and economic freedom is in the best interest of not only their students but the entire human family, then, and only then, will they play their unique and pivotal role in helping to turn around a desperately misguided ship of state.

American Founders and Constitution Month

The Utah State Legislature has designated the month of September each year (beginning in 2023) as American Founders and Constitution Month.

In support of this request, the Area Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is asking Church members to reenergize a spirit of patriotism and recognition of God’s hand in the origin and destiny of America, that we will be a nation under God, not without God.

It was not by chance that the Puritans and others who followed later left their native land and sailed to New England where they were inspired to establish the God-given system of government under which we live.

Our rights come from God. Civil power is justified only when it secures, promotes, and defends those rights. Essential to the citizens of a free-born society, freedom of conscience and expression are woven into the very soul of our nation.

Holistically outlining the interconnectedness of the historical events which overcame the Dark and Middle Ages and led to the development and establishment of America’s civil and religious liberties, my recent publication, America’s Grand Design, is a timely reminder that God governs in the affairs of men.

Preparing the way for the 1820 vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the ongoing restoration of the Gospel of Christ, this series of events is described by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah as “a marvelous work and a wonder.”

My conclusions are these:

  • The America experiment–the foundation of the blessings of liberty and justice for all–was foreordained.
  • We need not pretend to a divine commission and a sacred destiny.
  • America is a part of redemptive history, of divine prophecy fulfilled, of God’s grand design.

The right to offer opinions about morality, society, politics, literature, art, science, or virtually any other subject developed gradually and took centuries of struggle to establish. For these essential characteristics of life to continue:

  • We must stop the mindless destruction of historical America.
  • Because error is preached all the time, truth must be repeated constantly.
  • We must reawaken to the truth that “righteousness exalts a nation.”

Please see: http://www.americasgranddesign.com (Special price: $12.00).

Our Finest Hour

“There is not a truth from history more certain than this: that civil liberty cannot long be separated from religious liberty without danger, and ultimately without destruction to both.” –Joseph Story, Associate Justice U.S. Supreme Court

Coming out of the Great Depression and World War II, the parents of the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964) wanted to give their children the good life. The result was that the Boomer generation “did many did things which their fathers would have deprecated, and then drew about themselves a flimsy cordon of sophistry while talking about the advance of humanity and liberal thought, when it was really nothing more than a preference for individual license” (John Hall). Agreeing with this sentiment, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, recently stated that Baby Boomers will “go down in history as the most disappointing generation ever, from sex, drugs, and rock and roll to what we have today.” Hyperbole? I am not sure. But I do see where this could be the epitaph of my generation unless we act firmly and decisively in doing that which is still within our power: changing the course of American civilization.

Along with the aforementioned influences, the Boomer era saw the curtailment of prayer, Bible reading, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and the singing of Christmas carols in schools. In addition, they created Greenwich Village and Haight Ashbury, epicenters of the 1960s counterculture movement, orchestrated the passage of Roe v Wade, and saw some of the brightest and most ambitious among them take their talents to institutions of higher learning and to Wall Street where they could continue their bohemian lifestyles in more comfortable environs.

The collective result of these actions fueled the acceptance and teaching of Marxist ideas in universities, in the national media, and among the cultural elites. In other words, there was a steady cultural shift away from the traditional values upon which this nation was founded.

Accompanying these trends was America’s turning away from absolute truth and a sense of personal accountability. As described by a leading churchman, “We spend billions of our resources in litigation one against another. Our spiritual power is sapped by a flood tide of pornography, by a debilitating epidemic of the use of narcotics and drugs that destroy both body and mind, and by a declining moral standard that is alarming and devastating to relationships, families, and the integrity of our nation as a whole. In too many ways, we have substituted human sophistry for the wisdom of the Almighty.” (Gordon B. Hinckley)

While we live in a generally prosperous and optimistic age, yet grave problems persist, namely crime, violence, chronic poverty, teen depression, suicide, teen pregnancy, broken families, corruption, changing the meaning of words, fiscal irresponsibility, and other signs of cultural decline. The confrontation in which we are engaged is transforming popular ideas, beliefs, and our national character. Evidence abounds that the fight for the survival of our nation is upon us.

Having won the tacit approval of much of the press, influential policymakers, and a great many ordinary Americans, what has taken place is the triumph of sin and selfishness. In one of the great ironies of freedom, a growing number of our most gifted young people–as well as our citizens overall–are turning away from the principles of our founding, from the nobility of Western civilization, from the rule of law, from sound economic principles, and from the sacred, the very sources of our prosperity and survival.

Data also shows that the decline in foundational virtues–work, marriage, and religion–affects all levels of society. Wrote one essayist, “What a surprise! We raised a generation of bright kids without a foundation in religion . . . We never told them that the virtuous life was both necessary and hard, that character was something that had to be built step by step from youth, that moral weakness was contemptible and natural.” (Walter Russell Mead)

Affirming that although there are many successes in raising great individuals, a renowned scholar writes that conditions in today’s world are particularly difficult for boys. “Confusion regarding manhood abounds, including confusion about a proper understanding of virility. Fathers are missing from boys’ lives in devastatingly high numbers. Children are exposed to a dizzying array of cultural signals about what it means to be a man.” (William J. Bennett)

In search of answers as we cross traditional political and cultural boundaries, the driving force in the potential resolution of this conflict will be an increasing awareness that the fate of our nation depends, perhaps like never before, on this truth, as articulated by Aristotle, “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” Order supplies the basics in training the rising generations; the fate of nations hangs on their education.

Thus, the biggest task at hand is to strengthen the home, family, and community, to remind ourselves of America’s Grand Design through a reaffirmation of our divine heritage and potential. To turn things around, we need a restoration of public sentiment in favor of America and to reintroduce classical literature and civic virtue into the classroom and the culture at large.

But there is a danger lurking. Alarming reports indicate fading respect for absolute truth and foundational traditions, which have obscured enduring values. With great numbers turning away from Christianity, and with many on the pathway to atheism, significant numbers from all generations are turning their backs on the religious traditions of their upbringing.

Each of these conditions point to the fact that if there was ever a time for religious influence in our society to be re-examined, the time is now. To achieve our common goals of the public peace, progress, and prosperity, we must be more articulate and persuasive in making the case for Christ, for Christianity, and for the principles of meritocracy, liberty, and justice, which are at the heart of the American system of government.

The rights of conscience and freedom of expression developed gradually and took centuries of struggle to establish. For these essential characteristics of life in America to continue, we must stop the mindless destruction of our Western and American heritage. We need not pretend to have a divine commission and a sacred destiny. America is a part of redemptive history, of divine prophecy fulfilled, of God’s Grand Design.

In a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born, we must honor the great primeval contract of eternal society, underwritten by the Golden Rule, which connects the visible and invisible world and finds expression in our Declaration of Independence as “the right to life.” Driven by an all-consuming desire to amass power through the doctrines of scarcity, privilege, and fear, we must also realize that freedom’s future hinges on an essential truth: we do not have to choose between a clean environment (via socialism) and a prosperous economy. We can have both.

The roots of this clash extend back hundreds of years. It is a battle between capitalism and Marxism, between the power of the state and equal opportunity for each individual, and between freedom and coercion. It is therefore essential to re-emphasize that a democratic system depends on its legitimacy, not upon equal results, but a sense of equal opportunity.

It has been said that we are fast approaching that moment when, “Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.” (Joseph Smith)

“To those who have discerning eyes, it is apparent that the republican form of government established by our noble forefathers cannot long endure once fundamental principles are abandoned. Momentum is gathering for another conflict–a repetition of the crisis of two hundred years ago. This collision of ideas is worldwide. Another monumental moment is soon to be born. The issue is the same that precipitated the great premortal conflict–will men be free to determine their own course of action, or must they be coerced? . . .

“The war in heaven over free agency is now being waged here on earth, and there are those today who are saying, ‘Look, don’t get involved in the fight for freedom. Just live the gospel.’ That counsel is dangerous, self-contradictory, unsound.” (Ezra Taft Benson)

In the movie Apollo 13, as the spacecraft faced multiple perils with three astronauts on board, the chance for a safe return was greatly diminished. Upon hearing his supervisor say, “I know what the problems are. This could be the worst disaster NASA has ever experienced,” Gene Krantz (Ed Harris), the leader in Mission Control, turned towards him and said, “With all due respect, Sir, I believe this will be our finest hour.”

As a generation of Baby Boomers, the challenge before us to preserve human freedom is daunting. Will we be remembered as the generation that lost liberty because of “sex, drugs, and rock and roll?” Or will we, in our finest hour, be the generation that reestablished America as “the world’s best hope?”

Brent Russell is the author of America’s Grand Design. http://www.americasgranddesign.

Blog: americasgrand.design.

Why I Wrote a Book

What does it mean that the American experiment was foreordained? The Ten Commandments, the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, and the the Golden Rule–these articulate the divine and universal standards upon which all nations will stand or fall.

Five years ago, I began reading Thomas Jefferson, The Art of Power. Nearing the end of the Prologue, I was stunned by the Pulitzer Prize winning author’s words as he asserted that there was “nothing foreordained about the American experiment.”

As the days passed, I could not get those words out of my mind. They went against everything I had been taught about America’s founding and against everything I believed. Furthermore, I was deeply troubled that this point of view was gaining ground and beginning to take hold in the consciousness of the American people.

I gradually came to the conclusion that society will choose and decide; that someone’s values will prevail in the end. It was at that point that I decided to get involved, to push back against the secular perspective, to take a stand on behalf of freedom, religious liberty, America’s founding, and our Founding Fathers.

In the book I address many topics. With regards to whether the American experiment is foreordained, my study and research reaffirmed my personal beliefs. We need not pretend to a divine commission and a sacred destiny. America is a part of redemptive history, of divine prophecy fulfilled, of God’s grand design. Established for the rights and protection of all people, the United States Constitution represents the practical guarantee in the political arena that adherence to natural law and Christian teachings will protect freedom across the globe. Thus, America is a land with not only a sacred history and a prophetic destiny but also a tremendous responsibility to serve as a beacon of hope.

The foundation of knowledge flows from reading. I read to learn of those who have passed before, to weigh and consider, to discover something of value. I read to improve my mind and morals and to regulate my conduct, to mark the great events of the world, to discover new ideas, to separate the chaff from the wheat, and to make myself contemporary with past ages. I read to be taught, because what is written is beyond my own power to have produced.

George Macdonald wrote, “As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other, you will find what is needful for you in a book.” I hope this book will be useful in your search for truth.

For additional information: http://www.americasgranddesign.com

The Big Ideas of Life and Liberty

In Search of What Can Unite Us

Nations have boundaries, but there is no limit to the sphere of ideas. Big Ideas control the world; they are mightier than armies. Big ideas lift civilizations.

Big Ideas spring from noble and great souls, from those who contemplate God’s works, feel a generous concern for the good of humankind, exhibit sincere humility.

Our first parents were instructed in two Big Ideas: “multiply and replenish the earth” and “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”

Champions of Big Ideas, Abraham is the father of nations. Moses is the great lawgiver. Isaiah saw the transcript of God, and in language both poetic and prophetic, wrote of the Messiah and of “a marvelous work and a wonder.”

The rise of the Greeks brought the Big Ideas of the Classical Age which influenced western civilization more than any other people. The Romans spread Greco-Roman ideas across the world.

With immortal words, “Do unto others, as you would have others do unto you,” Jesus brought forth the ultimate in Big Ideas: the sacred covenant of eternal society, thus connecting the visible and invisible worlds in a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born. Inspired by this Big Idea, Thomas Jefferson declared that each and every soul has “the right to life.”

The thousand years of darkness was a period of decline in spiritual learning and scriptural literacy. The term “Dark Ages” is directly linked to the efforts of medieval church leaders to keep the Big Ideas of the Bible out of the hands of the people and to mediate spiritual enlightenment through priests and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.

The ages of Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, Discovery, Colonization, and Independence are testimonials to the power of Big Ideas. Beginning with the printing of the Bible and culminating with the ratification of the United States Constitution, the underpinnings of Western civilization were put in place by courageous and visionary individuals who fought against ecclesiastical overreach, scholastic intimidation, and the divine right of kings in pursuit of their civil and religious liberties.

In the ongoing effort to maintain our freedoms, we must value “the sacred right of conscience,” another Big Idea. The Founding Fathers concluded that only with careful cultivation of the soul, with attention to “the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” and with the uplifting assistance of family, church, and local community, America’s citizens could learn to control their passions and act worthy to receive the blessings of liberty.

The ages of Romanticism and Restoration are also testimonials to the power of Big Ideas. Encouraging emotion and creativity, Romanticism emphasized our relationship with the natural world and the sublime.

Among the Big Ideas presented in the Book of Mormon is that there is an opposition in all things, that this life is the time to prepare to meet God, that we should mourn with those that mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort, and stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.

Building on the premise that we are being tested as a nation by small ideas that divide us, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw shared his unique perspective on how Big Ideas over the past several decades united us and shaped what he called the American century.

These Big Ideas included our defense of freedom against Nazi and Sino aggression, creation of the GI Bill, establishment of minority rights, unleashing science and technology through the vision of going to the moon, emphasis on conservation, new opportunities for girls and women, opening relations with China, confronting and defeating the value system of the Soviet Union, knitting civilization back together after the fall of the Berlin Wall, improving the world through the gifts, influences, and inspiration of talented and visionary individuals and ordinary women and men. Summarizing his list of Big Ideas, Mr. Brokaw wondered where America would be today without them.

Against this backdrop, I pose the question: what are the Creator’s plans for the human family? My answer is based on the Big Ideas embedded within scripture, reason, and modern revelation.

At the dawn of creation God gave us freedom of choice, informed us that this earth would be created for us, and told us that we would be given physical bodies. Our reaction was stunning: “. . . the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). We are on earth to prove ourselves, to grow, to build relationships, and to gain experience.

Explained Joseph Smith, “At the first organization in heaven we were all present and saw the Savior chosen and appointed and the plan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it.” The Prophet further declared, “The great plan of salvation is a theme which ought to occupy our strict attention and be regarded as one of heaven’s best gifts to mankind.”

The contention in heaven was that Jesus said there would be certain souls that would not be saved; and the devil said he would save them all. When the grand council gave its vote in favor of Jesus Christ, the devil rose up in rebellion against God thus beginning the war in heaven.

“The war in heaven over free agency is now being waged here on earth, and there are those today who are saying, ‘Look, don’t get involved in the fight for freedom. Just live the gospel.’ That counsel is dangerous, self-contradictory, unsound” (Ezra Taft Benson).

Big Ideas illustrate that we are on earth for a purpose, that a divinity stirs within us. Accompanying this certainty is another Big Idea, declared by Cicero, “There is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence.”

Another Big Idea, we are all born for a higher destiny than that of earth. “Divine wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come” (Mad. de Stael).

The ultimate in Big Ideas puts everything into perspective as we contemplate where we came from, why we are here, and where we go when we die. Searching for answers to our spiritual and intellectual concerns on the boisterous sea of liberty, the words of our Maker, the Great Governor of the Universe, ring out, “This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

To learn more, please go to: http://www.americasgranddesign.com

Religious Freedom: Cornerstone of Peace

Holy Bible King James Version

The current divisions in the United States are distressing, complex, and increasing in intensity. In the main, they spring from differences between the religious and secular.

As a result of these differences, signs abound that the great battles of the future will occur over the free exercise of conscience, religion, and free expression. Because obedience to the law and political toleration are fundamental to peace and prosperity, if there was ever a time for religious influence to be re-examined, that time is now.

Such a refocus is essential because religious freedom is at the core of what America is and what it stands for. Yet, it is under fire from those who openly ask whether religion belongs in American public life at all.

“For the first time in nearly 300 years, important forces in American society are questioning the free exercise of religion in principle–suggesting that free exercise of religion may be a bad idea, or at least, a right to be minimized” (Douglas Laycock).

With no sense of history, some claim that religious people and institutions violate the constitutional separation of church and state if they bring their beliefs into the public square. A few scholars have even gone so far as to argue that religion does not deserve to be tolerated, much less receive special protection.

The intent of this blog is to promote shared interests and values for the good of society. It is put to forth ideas which will serve the needs of the people and the common good.

It is my belief that those who question the value or legitimacy of religious liberty do not understand that religious freedom is woven into the very soul of America. It is “the cornerstone of peace in a world with many competing philosophies” (D. Todd Christofferson). It is a cherished heritage we must defend.

Explained by historian Perry Miller, “When the English undertook to plant colonies in America, they commenced . . . not with propositions about the rights of man or with the gospel of wealth, but with absolute certainties concerning the providence of God.”

Our nation was founded as an experiment in human liberty: “It was religion, which, by teaching men their near relation to God, awakened in them the consciousness of their importance as individuals. It was the struggle for religious rights, which opened their eyes to all their rights. It was resistance to religious usurpation which led men to withstand political oppression. It was religious discussion which roused the minds of all classes to free and vigorous thought. It was religion which armed the martyr and patriot in England against arbitrary power, which braced the spirits of our fathers against the perils of the ocean and wilderness and sent them to found here the freest and most equal state on earth” (William Ellery Channing).

Religious purpose connected the Puritans of Massachusetts and stirred Virginia’s first colonists, with both groups looking to God for their success. William Penn (Pennsylvania) and Roger Williams (Rhode Island) established colonies dedicated to the principle of religious liberty.

Furthermore, the principal influence in public debates leading up to the American Revolution was the King James Bible. Indeed, America’s War for Independence cannot be understood without taking into account the religious teachings that motivated patriots to action.

Believing that no provision in our Constitution ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience, Thomas Jefferson defined freedom of thought as the most critical goal of the American Revolution. As the grand architect of our Founding Charter, Jefferson was firm in his conviction that without the freedom to live and practice what we believe, the other freedoms are irrelevant. These are the truths that called Americans to action and upon which this nation was founded.

Religious liberty is a fundamental right. “In a pluralistic society, promoting one’s values for the good of society is not imposing them on others–it is putting them forward for consideration along with others. Societies will choose and decide. Someone’s values will prevail in the end, and all of us have the right–and duty–to argue for what we believe will best serve the needs of the people and most benefit the common good” (Christofferson).

Religion and religious freedom are deeply connected to both the formation of America and our ongoing effort to form a more perfect Union and establish justice. Drawing upon our noble heritage as Americans, this is our moment to defend our fundamental freedoms. As Winston Churchill said on the eve of the Second World War, let us “arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”

For further information, I invite you to visit: http://www.americasgranddesign.com