The Seven Deadly Heresies
BRUCE R. MCCONKIE
Bruce R. McConkie was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside address
was given at Brigham Young University on 1 June 1980.
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I have sought and do now seek that guidance and enlightenment which comes
from the Holy Spirit of God. I desire to speak by the power of the Holy Ghost so
that my words will be true and wise and proper. When any of us speak by the
power of the Spirit, we say what the Lord wants said, or, better, what he would
say if he were here in person.
I shall depart from my normal and usual pattern and read portions of my
presentation because I want to state temperately and accurately the doctrinal
principles involved and to say them in a way that will not leave room for doubt
or question. I shall speak on some matters that some may consider to be
controversial, though they ought not to be. They are things on which we ought to
be united, and to the extent we are all guided and enlightened from on high we
will be. If we are so united--and there will be no disagreement among those who
believe and understand the revealed word--we will progress and advance and grow
in the things of the Spirit; we will prepare ourselves for a life of peace and
happiness and joy here and now, and for an eventual eternal reward in the
kingdom of our Father.
There is a song or a saying or a proverb or a legend or a tradition or
something that speaks of seven deadly sins. I know nothing whatever about these
and hope you do not. My subject is one about which some few of you,
unfortunately, do know a little. It is "The Seven Deadly Heresies"--not the
great heresies of a lost and fallen Christendom, but some that have crept in
among us.
Now I take a text. These words were written by Paul to certain ancient
Saints. In principle they apply to us:
I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. [1 Corinthians 11:1819]
Now let me list some axioms (I guess in academic circles we call these
caveats):
--There is no salvation in believing a false doctrine.
--Truth, diamond truth, truth unmixed with error, truth alone leads to
salvation.
--What we believe determines what we do.
--No man can be saved in ignorance of God and his laws.
--Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge of Jesus Christ and the
saving truths of his everlasting gospel.
--Gospel doctrines belong to the Lord, not to men. They are his. He ordained
them, he reveals them, and he expects us to believe them.
--The doctrines of salvation are not discovered in a laboratory or on a
geological field trip or by accompanying Darwin around the world. They come by
revelation and in no other way.
--Our sole concern in seeking truth should be to learn and believe what the
Lord knows and believes. Providentially he has set forth some of his views in
the holy scriptures.
--Our goal as mortals is to gain the mind of Christ, to believe what he
believes, to think what he thinks, to say what he says, to do what he does, and
to be as he is.
--We are called upon to reject all heresies and cleave unto all truth. Only
then can we progress according to the divine plan. As the Lord has said,
Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will
rise with us in the resurrection.
And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through
his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in
the world to come. [D&C 130:1819]
Please note that knowledge is gained by obedience. It comes by obedience to
the laws and ordinances of the gospel. In the ultimate and full sense it comes
only by revelation from the Holy Ghost. There are some things a sinful man does
not and cannot know. The Lord's people are promised: "By the power of the Holy
Ghost ye may know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5). But if they do not
seek the Spirit, if they do not accept the revelations God has given, if they
cannot distinguish between the revealed word and the theories of men, they have
no promise of gaining a fullness of truth by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Now may I suggest the list of heresies.
Heresy one: There are those who say that God is progressing in knowledge and
is learning new truths.
This is false--utterly, totally, and completely. There is not one sliver of
truth in it. It grows out of a wholly twisted and incorrect view of the King
Follett Sermon and of what is meant by eternal progression.
God progresses in the sense that his kingdoms increase and his dominions
multiply--not in the sense that he learns new truths and discovers new laws. God
is not a student. He is not a laboratory technician. He is not postulating new
theories on the basis of past experiences. He has indeed graduated to that state
of exaltation that consists of knowing all things and having all power.
The life that God lives is named eternal life. His name, one of them,
is "Eternal," using that word as a noun and not as an adjective, and he uses
that name to identify the type of life that he lives. God's life is eternal
life, and eternal life is God's life. They are one and the same. Eternal life is
the reward we shall obtain if we believe and obey and walk uprightly before him.
And eternal life consists of two things. It consists of life in the family unit,
and, also, of inheriting, receiving, and possessing the fullness of the glory of
the Father. Anyone who has each of these things is an inheritor and possessor of
the greatest of all gifts of God, which is eternal life.
Eternal progression consists of living the kind of life God lives and of
increasing in kingdoms and dominions everlastingly. Why anyone should suppose
that an infinite and eternal being who has presided in our universe for almost
2,555,000,000 years, who made the sidereal heavens, whose creations are more
numerous than the particles of the earth, and who is aware of the fall of every
sparrow--why anyone would suppose that such a being has more to learn and new
truths to discover in the laboratories of eternity is totally beyond my
comprehension.
Will he one day learn something that will destroy the plan of salvation and
turn man and the universe into an uncreated nothingness? Will he discover a
better plan of salvation than the one he has already given to men in worlds
without number?
The saving truth, as revealed to and taught, formally and officially, by the
Prophet Joseph Smith in the Lectures on Faith is that God is omnipotent,
omniscient, and omnipresent. He knows all things, he has all power, and he is
everywhere present by the power of his Spirit. And unless we know and believe
this doctrine we cannot gain faith unto life and salvation.
Joseph Smith also taught in the Lectures on Faith "that three things
are necessary in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise
faith in God unto life and salvation." These he named as--
1. The idea that he actually exists;
2. A correct idea of his character, perfections, and attributes; and
3. An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is
according to the divine will.
The attributes of God are given as knowledge, faith or power, justice,
judgment, mercy, and truth. The perfections of God are named as "the perfections
which belong to all of the attributes of his nature," which is to say that God
possesses and has all knowledge, all faith or power, all justice, all judgment,
all mercy, and all truth. He is indeed the very embodiment and personification
and source of all these attributes. Does anyone suppose that God can be more
honest than he already is? Neither need any suppose there are truths he does not
know or knowledge he does not possess.
Thus Joseph Smith taught, and these are his words:
Without the knowledge of all things, God would not be able to save any
portion of his creatures; for it is by reason of the knowledge which he has of
all things, from the beginning to the end, that enables him to give that
understanding to his creatures by which they are made partakers of eternal life;
and if it were not for the idea existing in the minds of men that God had all
knowledge it would be impossible for them to exercise faith in him. [As
quoted by Bruce R. McConkie in Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft, 1966), p.264]
If God is just dabbling with a few truths he has already chanced to learn or
experimenting with a few facts he has already discovered, we have no idea as to
the real end and purpose of creation.
Heresy two concerns itself with the relationship between organic evolution
and revealed religion and asks the question whether they can be harmonized.
There are those who believe that the theory of organic evolution runs counter
to the plain and explicit principles set forth in the holy scriptures as these
have been interpreted and taught by Joseph Smith and his associates. There are
others who think that evolution is the system used by the Lord to form plant and
animal life and to place man on earth.
May I say that all truth is in agreement, that true religion and true science
bear the same witness, and that in the true and full sense, true science is part
of true religion. But may I also raise some questions of a serious nature. Is
there any way to harmonize the false religions of the Dark Ages with the truths
of science as they have now been discovered? Is there any way to harmonize the
revealed religion that has come to us with the theoretical postulates of
Darwinism and the diverse speculations descending therefrom?
Should we accept the famous document of the First Presidency issued in the
days of President Joseph F. Smith and entitled "The Origin of Man" as meaning
exactly what it says? Is it the doctrine of the gospel that Adam stood next to
Christ in power and might and intelligence before the foundations of the world
were laid; that Adam was placed on this earth as an immortal being; that there
was no death in the world for him or for any form of life until after the Fall;
that the fall of Adam brought temporal and spiritual death into the world; that
this temporal death passed upon all forms of life, upon man and animal and fish
and fowl and plant life; that Christ came to ransom man and all forms of life
from the effects of the temporal death brought into the world through the Fall,
and in the case of man from a spiritual death also; and that this ransom
includes a resurrection for man and for all forms of life? Can you harmonize
these things with the evolutionary postulate that death has always existed and
that the various forms of life have evolved from preceding forms over
astronomically long periods of time?
Can you harmonize the theories of men with the inspired words that say:
And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen,
but he would have remained in the Garden of Eden. And all things which were
created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were
created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.
And they [meaning Adam and Eve] would have had no children;
wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for
they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.
But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all
things.
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the
children of men from the fall. [2 Nephi 2:2226]
These are questions to which all of us should find answers. Every person must
choose for himself what he will believe. I recommend that all of you study and
ponder and pray and seek light and knowledge in these and in all fields.
I believe that the atonement of Christ is the great and eternal foundation
upon which revealed religion rests. I believe that no man can be saved unless he
believes that our Lord's atoning sacrifice brings immortality to all and eternal
life to those who believe and obey, and no man can believe in the atonement
unless he accepts both the divine sonship of Christ and the fall of Adam.
My reasoning causes me to conclude that if death has always prevailed in the
world, then there was no fall of Adam that brought death to all forms of life;
that if Adam did not fall, there is no need for an atonement; that if there was
no atonement, there is no salvation, no resurrection, and no eternal life; and
that if there was no atonement, there is nothing in all of the glorious promises
that the Lord has given us. I believe that the Fall affects man, all forms of
life, and the earth itself, and that the Atonement affects man, all forms of
life, and the earth itself.
Heresy three: There are those who say that temple marriage assures us of an
eventual exaltation. Some have supposed that couples married in the temple who
commit all manner of sin, and who then pay the penalty, will gain their
exaltation eventually.
This notion is contrary to the whole system and plan that the Lord has
ordained, a system under which we are privileged to work out our salvation with
fear and trembling before him. If we believe and obey, if we enter the waters of
baptism and make solemn covenants with the Lord to keep his commandments, we
thereby get on a strait and narrow path that leads from the gate of repentance
and baptism to a reward that is called eternal life. And if we traverse the
length of the path going upward and forward and onward, keeping the
commandments, loving the Lord, and doing all that we ought to do, eventually we
will be inheritors of that reward.
And in exactly and precisely the same sense, celestial marriage is a gate
that puts us on a path leading to exaltation in the highest heaven of the
celestial world. It is in that highest realm of glory and dignity and honor
hereafter that the family unit continues. Those who inherit a place in the
highest heaven receive the reward that is named eternal life. Baptism is a gate;
celestial marriage is a gate. When we get on the paths of which I speak, we are
then obligated to keep the commandments. My suggestion in this field is that you
go to the temple and listen to a ceremony of celestial marriage, paying
particular and especial attention to the words, and learn what the promises are
that are given. And you will learn that all of the promises given are
conditioned upon subsequent compliance with all of the terms and conditions of
that order of matrimony.
Heresy four: There are those who believe that the doctrine of salvation for
the dead offers men a second chance for salvation.
I knew a man, now deceased, not a member of the Church, who was a degenerate
old reprobate who found pleasure, as he supposed, in living after the manner of
the world. A cigarette dangled from his lips, alcohol stenched his breath, and
profane and bawdy stories defiled his lips. His moral status left much to be
desired.
His wife was a member of the Church, as faithful as she could be under the
circumstances. One day she said to him, "You know the Church is true; why won't
you be baptized?" He replied, "Of course I know the Church is true, but I have
no intention of changing my habits in order to join it. I prefer to live the way
I do. But that doesn't worry me in the slightest. I know that as soon as I die,
you will have someone go to the temple and do the work for me and everything
will come out all right in the end anyway."
He died and she had the work done in the temple. We do not sit in judgment
and deny vicarious ordinances to people. But what will it profit him?
There is no such thing as a second chance to gain salvation. This life is the
time and the day of our probation. After this day of life, which is given us to
prepare for eternity, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no
labor performed.
For those who do not have an opportunity to believe and obey the holy word in
this life, the first chance to gain salvation will come in the spirit world. If
those who hear the word for the first time in the realms ahead are the kind of
people who would have accepted the gospel here, had the opportunity been
afforded them, they will accept it there. Salvation for the dead is for those
whose first chance to gain salvation is in the spirit world.
In the revelation recently added to our canon of holy writ, these words are
found:
Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without
a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been
permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;
Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would
have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom;
For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to
the desire of their hearts. [D&C 137:79]
There is no other promise of salvation than the one recited in that
revelation. Those who reject the gospel in this life and then receive it in the
spirit world go not to the celestial, but to the terrestrial kingdom.
Heresy five: There are those who say that there is progression from one
kingdom to another in the eternal worlds or that lower kingdoms eventually
progress to where higher kingdoms once were.
This belief lulls men into a state of carnal security. It causes them to say,
"God is so merciful; surely he will save us all eventually; if we do not gain
the celestial kingdom now, eventually we will; so why worry?" It lets people
live a life of sin here and now with the hope that they will be saved
eventually.
The true doctrine is that all men will be resurrected, but they will come
forth in the resurrection with different kinds of bodies--some celestial, others
terrestrial, others telestial, and some with bodies incapable of standing any
degree of glory. The body we receive in the resurrection determines the glory we
receive in the kingdoms that are prepared.
Of those in the telestial world it is written: "And they shall be servants of
the Most High; but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without
end" (D&C 76:112).
Of those who had the opportunity to enter into the new and everlasting
covenant of marriage in this life and who did not do it, the revelation says:
Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given
in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven; which angels are ministering
servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding,
and an eternal weight of glory.
For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged,
but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition,
to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever
and ever. [D&C 132:1617]
They neither progress from one kingdom to another, nor does a lower kingdom
ever get where a higher kingdom once was. Whatever eternal progression there is,
it is within a sphere.
Heresy six: There are those who believe or say they believe that Adam is our
father and our god, that he is the father of our spirits and our bodies, and
that he is the one we worship.
The devil keeps this heresy alive as a means of obtaining converts to
cultism. It is contrary to the whole plan of salvation set forth in the
scriptures, and anyone who has read the Book of Moses, and anyone who has
received the temple endowment, has no excuse whatever for being led astray by
it. Those who are so ensnared reject the living prophet and close their ears to
the apostles of their day. "We will follow those who went before," they say. And
having so determined, they soon are ready to enter polygamous relationships that
destroy their souls.
We worship the Father, in the name of the Son, by the power of the Holy
Ghost; and Adam is their foremost servant, by whom the peopling of our planet
was commenced.
Heresy seven: There are those who believe we must be perfect to gain
salvation.
This is not really a great heresy, only a doctrinal misunderstanding that I
mention here in order to help round out our discussion and to turn our attention
from negative to positive things. If we keep two principles in mind we will
thereby know that good and faithful members of the Church will be saved, even
though they are far from perfect in this life.
These two principles are (1) that this life is the appointed time for men to
prepare to meet God--this life is the day of our probation; and (2) that the
same spirit which possesses our bodies at the time we go out of this mortal life
shall have power to possess our bodies in that eternal world.
What we are doing as members of the Church is charting a course leading to
eternal life. There was only one perfect being, the Lord Jesus. If men had to be
perfect and live all of the law strictly, wholly, and completely, there would be
only one saved person in eternity. The prophet taught that there are many things
to be done, even beyond the grave, in working out our salvation.
And so what we do in this life is chart a course leading to eternal life.
That course begins here and now and continues in the realms ahead. We must
determine in our hearts and in our souls, with all the power and ability we
have, that from this time forward we will press on in righteousness; by so doing
we can go where God and Christ are. If we make that firm determination, and are
in the course of our duty when this life is over, we will continue in that
course in eternity. That same spirit that possesses our bodies at the time we
depart from this mortal life will have power to possess our bodies in the
eternal world. If we go out of this life loving the Lord, desiring
righteousness, and seeking to acquire the attributes of godliness, we will have
that same spirit in the eternal world, and we will then continue to advance and
progress until an ultimate, destined day when we will possess, receive, and
inherit all things.
Now I do not say these are the only great heresies that prevail among us.
There are others that might be mentioned. My suggestion, relative to all
doctrines and all principles, is that we become students of holy writ, and that
we conform our thinking and our beliefs to what is found in the standard works.
We need to be less concerned about the views and opinions that others have
expressed and drink directly from the fountain the Lord has given us. Then we
shall come to a true understanding of the points of his doctrine. And if we
pursue such a course, we will soon find that it proceeds in a different
direction than the one that the world pursues. We will not be troubled with the
intellectual views and expressions of uninspired people. We will soon obtain for
ourselves the witness of the Spirit that we are pursuing a course that is
pleasing to the Lord, and this knowledge will have a cleansing and sanctifying
and edifying influence upon us.
Now, in order to have things in perspective, let me identify the three
greatest heresies in all Christendom. They do not prevail among us, fortunately,
but they are part of the gross and universal darkness that covers the earth and
blots out from the minds of men those truths upon which salvation rests.
The greatest truth known to man is that there is a God in heaven who is
infinite and eternal; that he is the creator, upholder, and preserver of all
things; that he created us and the sidereal heavens and ordained and established
a plan of salvation whereby we might advance and progress and become like him.
The truth pertaining to him is that he is our Father in heaven, that he has a
body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's, that he is a literal person, and
that if we believe and obey his laws we can gain the exaltation that he
possesses. Now that is the greatest truth and the most glorious concept known to
the human mind, and the reverse of it is the greatest heresy in all Christendom.
The Christian heresy, where God is concerned, is that Deity is a spirit
essence that fills the immensity of space; that he is three beings in one; that
he is uncreated, incorporeal, and incomprehensible; that he is without body,
parts, or passions; that he is a spirit nothingness that is everywhere and
nowhere in particular present. These are concepts written in the creeds had in
the churches of the world.
The second greatest truth in all eternity pertains to the divine sonship of
the Lord, Jesus Christ. It includes the eternal verity that he was foreordained
in the councils of eternity to come to earth and be the redeemer of men, to come
and ransom men from the temporal and spiritual death brought upon them by the
fall of Adam. This second greatest truth is that Christ worked out the infinite
and eternal atoning sacrifice because of which all men are raised in immortality
and those who believe and obey are raised also unto eternal life.
Now the second greatest heresy in all Christendom is designed to destroy the
glories and wonders of the infinite and eternal atonement. It is that men are
saved by some kind of lip service, by the grace of God, without work and without
effort on their part.
The third greatest truth known to mankind is that the Holy Spirit of God is a
revelator and a sanctifier, that he is a personage of spirit, that his assigned
ministry and work in the eternal Godhead is to bear record of the Father and of
the Son, to reveal them and their truths to men. His work is to cleanse and
perfect human souls, to burn dross and evil out of human souls as though by
fire. We call that the baptism of fire.
Now the opposite of that is the third greatest heresy in all Christendom. It
is that revelation has ceased, that God's mouth is closed, that the Holy Ghost
no longer inspires men, that the gifts of the Spirit were done away with after
the death of the ancient apostles, and that we no longer need to follow the
course they charted.
I simply name these things; I think you will want to weigh and evaluate what
is involved. I think you will want to ponder and wonder and search the
scriptures. After Jesus had been teaching the Nephites as a resurrected person,
giving them as much truth as in his wisdom he felt they could absorb at one
time, he counseled them to go to their homes, and to ponder in their hearts the
things he had said, and to pray to the Father in his name to find out if they
were true, and then to come again on the morrow and he would teach them more.
Now that gives us the pattern by which we should operate in the Church. We
come together in congregations, seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
studying the revelations, reading the scriptures, and hearing expressions of
doctrine and counsel given by those who are appointed. These teachings ought to
be delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit. They ought to be received by the
same power. And if they are, then the speaker and the hearer will be mutually
edified, and we will have true and proper worship.
Then when the meeting is over, the "amen" should not end it. We should go to
our homes and to our families and to our circles, and we should search out the
revelations and find out what the Lord has said on the subjects involved. We
should seek to get in tune with the Holy Spirit and to gain a witness, not
solely of the truth and divinity of the work in which we are engaged but also of
the doctrines that are taught by those who preach to us. We come into these
congregations, and sometimes a speaker brings a jug of living water that has in
it many gallons. And when he pours it out on the congregation, all the members
have brought is a single cup and so that's all they take away. Or maybe they
have their hands over the cups, and they don't get anything to speak of.
On other occasions we have meetings where the speaker comes and all he brings
is a little cup of eternal truth, and the members of the congregation come with
a large jug, and all they get in their jugs is the little dribble that came from
a man who should have known better and who should have prepared himself and
talked from the revelations and spoken by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are
obligated in the Church to speak by the power of the Spirit. We are commanded to
treasure up the words of light and truth and then give forth the portion that is
appropriate and needful on every occasion.
I do not think that the heresies I have named are common in the Church. I
think that the great majority of the members of the Church believe and
understand true doctrines and seek to apply true principles in their lives.
Unfortunately, there are a few people who agitate and stir these matters up, who
have some personal ax to grind, and who desire to spread philosophies of their
own, philosophies that, as near as the judges in Israel can discern, are not in
harmony with the mind and will and purpose of the Lord. It is incumbent upon us
to believe the truth. We have the obligation to find out what is truth, and then
we have the obligation to walk in the light and to apply the truths that we have
learned to ourselves and to influence others to do likewise.
Now the glorious and wondrous thing about this whole system of revealed
religion that the Lord, our God, has given us is the fact that it is true. There
isn't a grander, a more glorious, a more wondrous concept than the simple one
that the work in which we are engaged is true. And because it is true it will
triumph and prevail, and the knowledge of God and his truths will roll forth
until it covers the whole earth as the waters cover the sea. We do not expect to
have a perfect society among us until the millennial day dawns. But that is not
far distant. And when that day comes, we will all, as the scriptures say, see
eye to eye and speak with one voice, and the Lord himself will dwell among us.
He could not dwell among us now because we are divided and we are not living in
that perfect harmony and unity and with that devotion that prevailed among the
Saints in the city of Enoch.
God grant that we may be wise in what we do, that we may seek truth, that we
may live in harmony with the truth, that we may bear testimony of the truth, and
that we may, as a consequence, have joy and peace and happiness here and now and
be inheritors, in due course, of eternal reward in our Father's kingdom. This is
my prayer for myself and for all of you, and for all of the members of the
Church, and for honest truthseekers everywhere, and I offer it in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. |