President Ezra Taft Benson's opening address at the 159th Annual General Conference on Saturday, April 1, echoed Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants warnings against pride.
At President Benson's request, the address he had prepared was read to the congregation by his first counselor in the First Presidency, President Gordon B. Hinckley.Pride, observed the Church leader in his address, felled Lucifer in the premortal council, and at the end of this world will cause many to be "burned as stubble."
He noted that pride is a misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. In the scriptures, he reminded the conference, there is no such thing as righteous pride.
President Benson declared the heart and core of pride is enmity - "hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition" - toward God and fellowmen.
Enmity toward God has certain labels: rebellion, hard-heartedness, stiff-neckedness, unrepentant, puffed up, easily offended, and sign seekers.
Enmity toward others is manifest in daily temptations to "elevate ourselves above others and diminish them."
The prophet cited scriptural examples of the consequences of pride: the destruction of the Nephite nation and the city of Sodom; the plotting of Christ's death; Saul's becoming an enemy to David; the sentencing to death of Abinadi and John the Baptist by prideful rulers who wanted more to win approval of others than to follow their own consciences.
He spoke of the roles that disobedience, selfishness, and contention have in pride. He referred to scriptural passages in which the proud are easily offended and hold grudges (1 Ne. 16:1-3), do not receive counsel or correction easily, (Prov. 15:10; Amos 5:10), and are defensive to justify and rationalize their frailties and failures. (Matt. 3:9; John 6:32-59.)
President Benson cautioned that pride affects all relationships - with God and His servants, husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, teacher and student, and all mankind.
Unity is impossible for a proud people, he emphasized, "and unless we are one we are not the Lord's."
President Benson urged Church members to think of what pride has cost in the past and what it is now costing; of the repentance that could take place with lives changed, marriages preserved, homes strengthened if pride did not keep individuals from confessing and forsaking their sins.
"Think of the many who are less active members of the Church because they were offended and their pride will not allow them to forgive or fully sup at the Lord's table.
"Think of the tens of thousands of additional young men and couples who could be on missions except for the pride that keeps them from yielding their hearts unto God.
"Think how temple work would increase if the time spent in this Godly service were more important than the many prideful pursuits that compete for our time. . . .
"Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. . . . The antidote for pride is humility - meekness, submissiveness. It is the broken heart and contrite spirit. . . .
"God will have a humble people. We can either choose to be humble or we can be compelled to be humble."
President Benson said members can choose to humble themselves by conquering enmity toward others, receiving counsel and chastisement, forgiving others, rendering selfless service, going on missions and preaching the word that can humble others, going to the temple more frequently, and by confessing and forsaking sins and being born of God.
"We can choose to humble ourselves by loving God, submitting our will to His, and putting Him first in our lives," he said.
The concluding remarks of President Benson's message reflected the urgency that members conquer pride: "We must prepare to redeem Zion. It was essentially the sin of pride that kept us from establishing Zion in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. It was the same sin of pride that brought consecration to an end among the Nephites.
"Pride is the great stumbling block to Zion. We must cleanse the inner vessel by conquering pride."
Elements of pride
"The central feature of pride is enmity - enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen."
Other elements of pride:
Self-centeredness
Conceit
Boastfulness
Arrogance
Haughtiness
