Appendix: “Be Ye Transformed by the Renewal of Your Mind”

Brigham Young University–Idaho Devotional

Elder Robert S. Wood

May 13, 2003

When I was sixteen years old I remember returning home early one evening from a social activity, very much awake and not ready to go to bed. I thought of going outside to bounce the basketball but knew that the neighbors would not appreciate this activity, as they probably were in bed. I also thought I might play some music on my phonograph but knew my parents would object to this as their bedroom was below mine!

Lying on my bed stand was a copy of the Book of Mormon that my mother always placed there in the hope that I would read it. At that time, I had read in the Book of Mormon but had not really read the Book of Mormon. Indeed, the only phrase I certainly remembered from the book was, “I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents.” That evening, having not much motive beyond having nothing better to do, I began to read the Book of Mormon.

The next morning at 11:00 a.m., being Saturday, my parents thought I was sleeping in as I did not have to be at work until that afternoon. I was, however, very much awake. I was reading the concluding words of Moroni, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourself of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourself of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you” (Moroni 10:32). After having read the concluding invitation and farewell from Moroni, I knelt by my bed and put to the test the promise he made earlier: “And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Moroni 10:4).

That Saturday morning I asked for the witness of the Holy Ghost, and I received it more clearly and powerfully than any experimental conclusion or rational deduction that I have ever made. It became the foundation from which the most important convictions arose.

The following Monday morning at school, I met a good friend, not a member of the Church, with whom I had many discussions about the gospel. He said to me that he had a list of 50 anachronisms in the Book of Mormon that demonstrated that the Book of Mormon is not based upon a[n] ancient text but was a nineteenth century invention. (An anachronism refers to a person or event or thing that is chronologically out of place, a bit like saying that Julius Caesar drove his SUV into Rome.)

Well, I told my friend that he was too late, for I had a certain witness of the Book of Mormon! But, I said to him, “Give me your list and I will keep it.” I did keep that list and over the years, and as more research and study were done by various analysts and academics, one item after the other dropped off the list. Finally, a few years ago, I was speaking to a group at Cornell University and mentioned my list and noted that after these many years only one item remained—but I could wait. After my presentation, a distinguished professor came up to me and said, “Well, you can remove your last item, for our studies indicate that it is not an anachronism.”

Think for a minute what my life would have been like had I withheld my conviction of the Book of Mormon until I had resolved all the questions that my friend had given me. I have often said that, when it comes to the most fundamental truths, I have no doubts, although I may have some questions! There are some things for which we must have a certitude that transcends our incomplete understanding and immediate questions. Moroni pointed the way to receive real knowledge both of the most fundamental questions and the most sublime truths.

On January 11, 2003, in the First Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called upon our leaders to “measure everything you learn about your ordination and calling against fundamental truths” and outlined those truths. Among them are the divine mission of Jesus Christ and the Church He established; the loss of the precious truths of the gospel, the changing of the ordinances, and the loss of the apostolic keys in the Apostasy; the Restoration under the direction of the Father and the Son and through the Prophet Joseph Smith of that which had been lost; and the persistence of the apostolic and priesthood keys in the Church today.

President Packer pointed to the Holy Ghost as the sextant that each individual receives at baptism in order to discern and establish in our lives these truths. Elder Neal A. Maxwell, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, similarly addressed our responsibility to receive personal revelation that each of us may have a sure witness of those most fundamental truths.

What exactly is the nature of the truth of revelation and the witness of the Spirit?

From Information to Knowledge

We are said to be in the midst of an information revolution—computers; information storage, analysis, and retrieval systems; networks; artificial intelligence; communication satellites; television and telephone systems. Though we are inundated with information, many are drowning in ignorance. Indeed, even within the context of this great secular revolution, a key issue is how we translate information into knowledge—how we fit the bits and pieces, the data, into such patterns that we can actually say that we know something. Once having integrated information into knowledge, how do we know that what we know is accurate or complete? Scientist and philosophers alike agree that, in a fundamental sense, we don’t. All empirical knowledge is provisional, subject to further information and different interpretive models.

Sometimes, however, we confuse our provisional knowledge with the things known. In a headline in the New York Times, it read “Mass Found in Elusive Particle; Universe May Never Be the Same” (5 June 1998). The article suggested that now that scientists know that neutrinos have mass, this will slow the expansion of the universe. Somehow I think the universe is the same today as it was the day before the scientific community revised its theories!

It is possible, therefore, to know without knowing. In fact, it is written that in the Council in Heaven, Satan, who certainly had lots of information, “knew not the mind of God … wherefore he sought to destroy the world” (Moses 4:6). Paul spoke of those who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). Amos predicted that in our day there would be a famine of knowledge, and Moroni spoke of a veil of unbelief that causes men to remain in the blindness of their minds (Ether 4:15).

On the other hand, the Lord has commanded that we serve him with all our minds (Doctrine and Covenants 4:2) and that we seek learning by study and by faith (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118). He has counseled us to search after knowledge of countries and of kingdoms, of history and of nature, of things past, of things present, and of things to come (Doctrine and Covenants 88:79; 93:24, 53). He has promised that the veil will be taken from our mind (Doctrine and Covenants 10:1) and that it will be enlightened by the Spirit (Doctrine and Covenants 11:13). As a consequence, we shall be both free and holy (Helaman 14:30; Doctrine and Covenants 20:31). We shall know the truth, and the truth will make us free (John 8:32).

Free of what? Ignorance, sin, and the pangs of death. “If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal” (Doctrine and Covenants 42:61).

The Character of Spiritual Knowledge—The Divine Paradigm

In every field of human intelligence, almost every proposition can be subjected to the question “why?” Every parent understands this. But, after a lengthy regression of “whys,” you reach a point where the only answer is, “Well, that’s just the way it is!” In effect, we are saying that is just the way the world is put together. We also know that at times even these “basic truths” are overthrown by additional evidence. Such are the revolutions in the history of science. Is there nothing that cannot be finally established without awaiting further experience? Yes.

There are in this life certain truths so fundamental that they must be established so firmly in our minds and hearts that no further proof of their veracity is required. To meet the tests of mortality, our Heavenly Father has provided a certain witness of those crucial understandings within which we can fit the additional light and knowledge we may later receive. We may not know all the answers; indeed, we may not comprehend all the questions—but we will have established in our lives a certain framework of understanding that will provide not only an unshakeable intellectual and spiritual foundation but [will also] transform our very lives.

What is this witness that give[s] us understanding that transcends the understanding of the senses? The witness of the Holy Ghost. The understanding received from the Holy Ghost has three [key] aspects: first, it concerns the most critical and transcendent truths; second, it is definitive in its certitude; and third, it changes behavior.

The understanding borne of the witness of the Holy Ghost provides, in the first place, an architecture of knowledge—rooms within which additional knowledge can be fit. Another way to put it is that the Holy Ghost provides us with an understanding of the first premises of wisdom. You recall that the Proverbist declared that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said that there were three certitudes necessary for a man or woman to endure the trials of life: A knowledge that God is; an understanding of His nature, attributes, and perfections; and a conviction that the course of life we are pursuing is in accord with His will.

As a student in college, I learned that the original premise or proposition of a syllogism or logic train is critical. One may work through marvelously sophisticated and complex lines of reasoning, which seem compelling enough at each step in the logic, but, if the premises be faulty or incomplete, the whole line of reasoning will also be flawed, no matter how brilliant the deductions.

For instance, if we begin with the premise that life arose by chance and that its development is largely random, we will interpret physical, biological, and social information or data in a certain way—a way that will distort and fragment our understanding. Such thoughts will have consequences for how our society operates and how we act. If, on the other hand, we begin with the premise that mortal life arose by design and will develop according to eternal law, we will understand the bits and pieces of our information in a different way—we will see the interconnectedness and wholeness of life. We will grasp the hierarchy of truth; we will see patterns and purpose where others see disorder and chance. Job grasped the criticality of the original premise when, even in the depths of his misery, he declared:

“But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? … And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding” (Job 28:12, 28).

The scope of human reason is impressive—itself of eternal and divine origins and illuminated at birth by the light of Christ—but let us not underestimate the narrowing of perspective arising from pursuing truth apart from God. I am increasingly struck by the limits and dangers of what Paul would call “carnal” psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, literature, drama, music, physics, chemistry, and biology.

We must not be trapped by theoretical constructs or explanations that prevent us from “overstepping the limits of time.” We must reject the premise of random and purposeless causality that impel us to ask the wrong questions, focus on the transitory at the expense of the enduring, make improper inferences, and suggest incomplete or inappropriate recommendations. In sum, we risk preaching for established truth the transitory doctrines of men, seeing, as Paul expressed it, “only puzzling expressions in a mirror,” whereas we are summoned by our Heavenly Father to see Him “face to face.” As Paul wrote, “My knowledge now is partial, then [when illuminated by the revelation of the Holy Spirit] it will be whole, like God’s knowledge of me” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

All of this is why the prophets have counseled us to plumb the depths of the scriptures and the words of the living prophets in faith and prayer. In very deed, the scriptures, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, constitute the true “guide to the perplexed.”

Second, as already suggested, this knowledge is definitive. Although our experiences, observations, and rational faculties may lead us to certain conclusions, they can never compel the conviction that dispels doubt and motivates endurance. Jesus said to Peter that “neither flesh nor blood” led him to understand that Jesus is the Christ but his “Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). As Paul wrote, “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Can you see why it is a fearful thing to deny the witness of the Holy Ghost? Unlike other evidence, it ends argument. Such verification by the Spirit carries a certitude unknown in any other area of thought. There may be many philosophical demonstrations relative to the existence of God or the divine sonship of Jesus, or the truthfulness of the Restoration, but they remain in the arena of speculation, no matter how convincing.

Once one has sought and received the witness of the Holy Ghost, one assumes a life-changing obligation. This suggests the third characteristic of this understanding of the Spirit. It is transforming. Paul wrote that he had “the mind of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:16), and the people of King Benjamin declared that they had “no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2). Having received the witness of the Spirit, they were called by and responded to the Spirit. Knowing Christ through the Spirit, we love Him and keep His commandments—and we are further comforted and taught by the Spirit, until, as Mormon declared, “when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure” (Mormon in Moroni 7:48; see also 1 John 3:1–3).

In his epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote:

“And be not conformed to [the] world: but be ye transformed by the renew[al] of your mind, that [you] may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

Paul distinguishes between a human nature distorted by disobedience and false beliefs and one subject to God and renewed by the Holy Spirit. Only when this renewal begins to take place do we even know what the right questions are and know for what we should pray. (See Romans 8:6–8, 26–27) As the Spirit works in us, we have a “readiness of mind” prepared to discern truth and may attain “the mind of Christ” (Acts 17:11; 1 Corinthians 2:14, 16).

Alma argues that as we submit our will to the Father through faith in Christ, our understanding “doth begin to be enlightened and [our] mind doth begin to expand” (Alma 32:34). In latter days the Lord has said that He “requireth the heart and a willing mind” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:34) and counseled us to “treasure up in [our] minds continually the words of life”(Doctrine and Covenants 84:85), sanctifying ourselves that our “mind become single to God, and the day will come that [we] shall see Him; for He will unveil His face unto [us]” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:68).

The transforming power of spiritual knowledge is not limited to the individual. As Paul observed, as we as a people bend our will to God and make our minds single to His, the community of the saints will be made perfect, so that there will be no division among us and we will be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement” (1 Corinthians 1:10, see also Romans 14:1, 5, 19).

The Requirements for Obtaining Spiritual Knowledge

How do we attain to such comprehensive, definitive and transforming knowledge? Let us consider four aspects of the requirements for obtaining spiritual knowledge: first, an urgent search for the truth; second, a willingness to obey the truth so discovered; third, a disposition to bear witness to the truth in all places and at all times; and, fourth, a motivation to serve others in truth.

Receptivity and Diligent Learning: A Form of Humility

First, then, we must be open to teaching and diligent in our pursuit of the learning of the Spirit. Such a pursuit requires a sense of our own need and more than a casual interest in the answers we seek. The Lord has declared that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled with the Holy Ghost (Matthew 5:6; 3 Nephi 12:6), but He also said, “Woe unto you that are full! For ye shall hunger” (Luke 6:25). The Lord declared to John the Revelator that He would reject those who are lukewarm, being neither cold nor hot, having the feeling that they are self-sufficient and have need of nothing (Revelation 3:16–17).

There is a story that a young man once came to Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, asking to be taught wisdom. It is reported that Socrates immediately grabbed the young man and thrust in and held his head under the water of a[n] adjacent brook until he finally let him up, gasping for breath. Socrates then said, “When you want wisdom as badly as you wanted air, then I can teach you.”

In the words of Robert Frost, we must be far out and deep into the water of our commitments if anything lasting is to be achieved. The Prophet Joseph Smith attached the search for true understanding to sacrifice and counseled that one can know the truth only if one is prepared to sacrifice all things (Sixth Lecture on Faith).

Contrary to such hungering and thirsting is what the prophets call “hardness of heart,” an inability to see what really is, to hear what is truly being said, and to feel with an openness of heart. C. S. Lewis in his final volume of the Narnia tales, The Last Battle (“How the Dwarfs Refused to Be Taken In,” 143–48), accounts how, after the forces of the White Witch had been defeated by Aslan the Lion (and representation of Christ) and his followers, the prisons and chains with which she had bound so many disappeared. Within a prison stable had been chained in a circle a group of dwarves. Suddenly, the stable and their chains disappeared, and they were free. But they refused to believe their own liberation and stayed within their closed circle, not feeling the fresh air, nor seeing the sun, nor smelling the flowers. Even as Aslan roared in their ears to arouse them, they mistook the roar for thunder or a trick. As Aslan observed, they had become so afraid of being taken in that they could not be taken out of the prison that was now of their own mind. Aslan observed on another occasion, “Oh, Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourself against all that might do you good” (C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew). As Nephi so plaintively wrote:

“And now I, Nephi, … am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be” (2 Nephi 32:7).

Many cannot hear the whisperings of the Spirit or find the truth because their explaining of apparently miraculous events becomes explaining away. Many studies of Christ seek to explain His mission and influence by explaining away His divine sonship, and others seek to explain the Prophet Joseph Smith by explaining away his prophetic calling. As Jacob so wisely observed, it is foolish to repose too much confidence in our limited observations and understanding and to reject the wisdom that comes from the Holy Ghost. But, he concludes, “to be learned is good if [we] hearken unto the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 9:28–29).

To be taught wisdom by the Spirit, we must be prepared to invest everything we are in its pursuit, a study accelerated by much prayer and fasting. It is said that Alma “fasted and prayed many days” in order to know (Alma 5:46). It requires, then, not only diligent and prayerful study but the sacrifice of things that may be precious to us, even our own sins, those elements of our “life style” that impede learning. We must do as the father of Lamoni declared of his desire to know God, “I will give away all my sins to know thee” (Alma 22:18). Jacob’s last words give the whole sum of the matter: “O be wise; what can I say more?” [Jacob 6:12].

Obedience

Having pursued the truth with diligences, we must then be prepared to obey the truth. Alma speaks of awakening and arousing our faculties (that is, our heart and mind) so as to experiment upon the word (Alma 32:27). Surely this refers not to passive learning but active doing. The Apostle John decried those who say that they know Christ but fail to follow His counsel, “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). As the Lord declares in the Doctrine and Covenants, “And no man receiveth a fulness [of truth] unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:27–28).

Such seeking and following may also require patience, waiting upon the Lord, who said, “Behold, ye are little children, and ye cannot bear all things now, ye must grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth” (Doctrine and Covenants 50:40). And as Elder Neal A. Maxwell has observed, “Striking a balance between seeking and being content to wait for further light and knowledge would appear to be no small task!” (We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1984, 93).

Diligent seeking, learning, and following, accompanied by patient waiting was well expressed in the words of John Henry Newman: “I do not ask to see the distant scene—one step enough for me” [Hymns, no. 97]. As we follow the truth in obedience, the channels of truth open ever wider to our view, and we grow in our image into the truth. There is profound meaning in Christ’s utterance “I am the truth” coupled with His summons to become even as He is.

Witnessing and Serving

Finally, if we are to acquire spiritual knowledge, we must be prepared to witness to the truth to which we have attained and be willing to serve and edify others in the truth, having, as Enos, “a desire for the welfare of [our] brethren” (Enos 1:9).

In his invitation to the people of King Noah to enter the waters of baptism in covenant with the Lord, Alma the elder marvelously expressed the logical connection of witnessing and serving to the truth discovered in Christ and through the Holy Ghost. The fruits of the truth discovered are a willingness to comfort and bear one another’s burdens and to “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things” (Mosiah 18:8–9). Moreover, the integrity demonstrated in such a life of truth-speaking and well-doing opens ever wider the horizons of truth. The promise of the Lord is then fulfilled in our life: “Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:45–46).

Sanctified by the things that we know, we attain the certitude that banishes doubt and fear and, with the Apostle Paul, may confront the challenges of life with the “perfect brightness of hope” that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (2 Nephi 31:20; Romans 8:39).