"The Church does not accept the doctrine that a mere murmured belief in Jesus Christ is all that is essential to salvation," said President David O. McKay, then a counselor in the First Presidency, in an April 1938 general conference address.
"A man may say he believes but if he does nothing to make that belief or faith a moving power to do, to accomplish, to produce the soul growth, his protestation will avail him nothing. Work out your own salvation' is an exhortation to demonstrate by activity, by thoughtful obedient effort the reality of faith. But this must be done withfear and trembling;' that is, with a consciousness that absolute dependence upon self may produce pride and weakness that will bring failure. . . ."However, to work out one's salvation is not to sit idly by, dreaming and yearning for God miraculously to thrust bounteous blessings into our laps. It is to perform daily, hourly, momentarily, if necessary, the immediate task or duty at hand, and to continue happily in such performance as the years come and go, leaving the fruits of such labors either to self or to others to be bestowed as a just and beneficent Father may determine.
"I am not unmindful of the scripture that declares . . . by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God.' (Eph. 2:8.) That is absolutely true, for man in his taking upon himself mortality was impotent to save himself. When left to grope in a natural state, he would have become, and did becomecarnal, sensual and devilish by nature.' But the Lord through His grace appeared to man, gave him the Gospel or eternal plan whereby he might rise above the carnal and selfish things of life and obtain spiritual perfection.
"But he must rise by his own efforts and he must walk by faith."
'Work out salvation with fear and trembling'
Paul, in one of his letters to the early Church, counseled the saints at Philippi to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." (Philip. 2:12.)
President Harold B. Lee treated the topic of working out one's salvation in one of his books, Stand Ye in Holy Places: "We hear much from some persons of limited understanding about the possibility of one's being saved by grace alone. But it requires the explanation of another prophet to understand the true doctrine of grace as he explained in these meaningful words:
" For,' said this prophet,we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.' (2 Ne. 25:23.) Truly we are redeemed by the atoning blood of the Savior of the world, but only after each has done all he can to work out his own salvation."
President Lee explained that one of the distinctive principles in the plan of salvation was the provision that "all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." (Article of Faith 3.)
President Lee further wrote:
"[The] promise of the glory which awaits those who are faithful to the end was plainly portrayed in the Master's parable of the Prodigal Son. To the son who was faithful and did not squander his birthright, the father, who in the Master's lesson would be our Father and our God, promised this faithful son: `Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.' (Luke 15:31.)
"In a revelation through a modern prophet, the Lord promises to the faithful and obedient today: ` . . . all that my Father hath shall be given unto him.' " (D&C 84:38.)
Applying the scriptures
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul - We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." (Article of Faith 13.)
"That article of our faith is one of the basic declarations of our theology," said President Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency in the concluding address of the April 1983 general conference.
"I wish that every family in the Church would write out that article of faith and put it on a mirror where every member of the family would see it every day. Then, whenever we might be tempted to do anything shoddy or dishonest or immoral, there would come into our minds with some force this great, all encompassing statement of the ethics of our behavior. There would be less rationalizing over some elements of our personal conduct which we try to justify with one excuse or another."
Elder James E. Talmage, in his book The Articles of Faith, wrote: "Within the pale of the Church there is a place for all truth - for everything that is praiseworthy, virtuous, lovely, or of good report. The liberality with which the Church regards other religious denominations; the earnestness of its teaching that God is no respecter of persons, but that He will judge all men according to their deeds; the breadth and depth of its precepts concerning the state of immortality, and the gradations of eternal glory awaiting the honest in heart of all nations, kindred, and churches, civilized and heathen, enlightened and benighted, have already been set forth.
"We have seen further that the belief of this people carries them forward, even beyond the bounds of knowledge thus far revealed, and teaches them to look with unwavering confidence for other revelations, truths yet to be added, glories grander than have yet been made known, eternities of powers, dominions, and progress, beyond the mind of man to conceive or the soul to contain."
