The following is from a talk I gave in church yesterday:
It's All Revelation
Christian Asplund, September 2013
In April, 1829,
during the translation of the Book of Mormon, Olivery Cowdery, who was serving
as scribe asked Joseph Smith if they could switch roles. In D&C 8, the Lord approved this
experiment instructing Oliver, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart,
by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your
heart. Now, behod, this is the
spirit of revelation.” After
unsuccessful attempts at translating, Joseph Smith received a revelation
directed at Oliver that became section 9 of the D&C, in which the Lord
explains why Oliver was not able to translate: “You have not understood; you
have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was
to ask me. But, behold, I say unto
you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be
right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you;
therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have a stupor of thought
that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot
write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.”
This scripture
rightly has a very special place among the Latter-day Saints. I dare say it, and others like it, sets
us clearly apart, certainly from our modern Euro-American culture. This is the culture that has described and harnessed the
physical world in such spectacular ways but is equally distinguished in its
inability to describe and harness the spiritual world or, indeed, even
acknowledge its existence. This
scripture goes far beyond attesting to the existence of a spiritual realm. It gives instructive and specific
details as to how to access information from divine sources while living in the
physical world.
I don’t believe Oliver
was being told that he should have figured it out all on his own. I don’t believe anyone has to figure
anything out without any divine aid, and in fact, I don’t think it’s possible. Oliver’s situation, moreover, was an
extreme one, as he was faced with the task of translating a language the
knowledge of which had been completely lost to the world. Oliver couldn’t translate by
himself. Nonetheless, the Lord
gave the instruction to study “it” out in his mind. What exactly was Oliver to study out as he looked at an
unfamiliar script? I believe that
God was directing Oliver to a different, perhaps more subtle kind of
revelation, the revelation that comes from reflection, listening, mental
exertion applied to a problem or a paradox. I think it points to the idea that revelation comes in many
forms, tailored to the needs at hand.
I think it also illustrates a microcosm of our pursuit of truth, or
really anything of value. We have
to work, to apply ourselves actively.
Certainly we need to apply the powers of our senses and of our brain’s
ability to reason, to make associations, and to interpret sense data. In fact, scientists attempting to map
it suggest that the human brain is by far the most complex thing in the
universe, perhaps more complex than the universe itself. But ultimately everything we have,
including our knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, is a gift. The Lord said at the end of this lesson
to Oliver that “you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from
me.” As Hugh Nibley said,
“Work we must, but the lunch is free”.
Through Oliver’s
experience and instruction, the Lord is telling us that intelligence, or light
and truth, is all around us and in us.
It has already been placed in our minds, in fact, it’s been there
eternally. It is also available to
any person who is willing to study, to meditate, to ponder and to take
advantage of the myriad means of accessing light and truth.
We need a much
more expansive view of revelation.
We are divine beings. That
part of us that is spiritual has existed for much longer than that part of us
which is physical. Our physicality
is a fairly new addition. We think
of the spiritual realm as the anomaly, when, in fact, the physical is more new
and anomalous, an add-on, an appendage, an accessory to our eternal spiritual
existence.
Brigham Young had
a lot to say on this subject.
For instance, he said, posing a question often addressed to him:
Have you had revelations 7
" Yes, I have them all the
time, I live constantly by the principle of revelation.
To Brigham Young, revelation was a natural part
of everyday thought and action. He
also said that:
The Spirit of the Lord
enlightens every man that comes into the world.
at another time he said
I do not believe for one moment
that there has been a man or woman upon the face of the earth, from the days of
Adam to this day, who has not been enlightened, instructed, and taught by the
revelations of Jesus Christ.
As a composer, I
am lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it, in that I depend on what I
believe is divine inspiration to be able to compose. I believe that anybody involved in creation or discovery
depends on divine inspiration, whether they are aware of it or not. To quote Brigham Young again:
There are men [and women] of
talent, of thought, of reflection, and knowledge in all cunning mechanism, they are expert…, though
they do not know from whence they receive their intelligence… it reveals unto
them, instructs them, teaches them, and guides them even in… how to construct
rail-roads and all manner of machinery, they understand cun-ning workmanship,
etc. ; but that is all revealed to them by the Spirit of the Lord, though they know
it not
The flash of inspiration, the sense
that something is right or whole, these are essential to mathematicians,
scientists, scholars and artists.
I believe they are also a kind of revelation and come from a divine
source.
President Young goes further by saying that:
No person receives knowledge
only upon the principle of revelation
OPTIONAL
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President Young goes yet a step further, stating
that real, lasting knowledge is only obtainable through spiritual faculties:
how do you know anything? Can
you be deceived by the eye ? You
can, you have proved this; you all know that there are men who can deceive the sight of the eye, no matter how closely you observe their
movements. Can you be deceived in
hearing ? Yes; you may hear sounds but not understand their import or whence they come. Can you be deceived by the touch of the
finger ? You can The nervous
system will not detect everything. What will? The revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of truth
will detect everything, and enable all who possess it to understand truth from
error, light from darkness, the things of God from the things not of God It is
the only thing that will enable us to understand the Gospel of the Son of God,
the will of God, and how we can be saved.
He goes even further by saying:
Instead of considering that
there is nothing known and
understood, only as we know and understand things naturally, I take the
other side of the question, and believe
positively that there is nothing known except by the rev- elation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
whether in theology, science, or art. 12 :207.
This is why Latter-day Saints, in a way that can
be annoying to some, can bear testimony that they “know” certain things that
are unprovable, or even preposterous according to conventional
perceptions.
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Returning to
section 9, the process the Lord describes to Olievr integrates thought and
feelings in a holistic way. The
mental flash of inspiration, followed by the burning feeling of rightness are
thus dual witnesses. The Lord then
tells Oliver that there were two reasons for his failure. First that he was ignorant of this
process. Second, that he
feared. After this, he assures
Oliver that he is not condemned in the least for his failure. There is so much that we can learn from
this. We need not fear the pursuit
of revelation. We are under no
condemnation for seeking guidance, truth, or confirmation from the Lord. And we should learn from scripture and
the examples of others how to obtain revelation and apply it persistently, to
experiment, as Alma says. The
search for revelation can become a creative act in which all of our faculties
are brought to bear. Moreover,
everything we do can become inspired or informed by revelation.
