Honor God's pattern
Nourish self spiritually- Have faith, patience
Warning against supplanting divine revelation with human reasoning, Elder Neal A. Maxwell encouraged members to honor "God's pattern of revelation including the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which needed anchoring and personal verification can come."
In his Saturday morning address, Elder Maxwell of the Council of the Twelve traced the history of major apostasies and described their impact, beginning with fallings away in ancient Israel.
He noted that after the Savior taught the fulness of the gospel, a major falling away occurred after the death of the apostles. "The New Testament epistles clearly indicate that serious and widespread apostasy - not just sporadic dissent - began soon.
Another apostate force at work during that period was the cultural Hellenizing of Christianity. Elder Maxwell quoted historian Will Durrant as saying, "The Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual."
Continuing, Elder Maxwell said,"Reason, the Greek philosophical tradition, dominated, then supplanted reliance on revelation. . . .
"However, the early apostles, including Peter, spoke hopefully of a distant day, the long-awaited `times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.' " (Acts. 3:21.)
Elder Maxwell noted that after this time of restitution of all things, there would never again be a collective falling away, only individual apostasy.
"The glorious things restored in the nineteenth century included the calling of a Prophet, Joseph Smith, who heard God's own voice, received angelic revelations and also the Holy Apostleship and priesthood keys," testified Elder Maxwell.
In the restoration of all things, "revelation thus replaced the long and inordinate reliance on reason," said Elder Maxwell.
He encouraged members to learn from the past and be wary about "accommodating revealed theology to conventional wisdom. Let us lovingly nourish ourselves, our families, and Church flocks spiritually, so that we are not `wearied and faint in [ourT minds.' "
He said that the days ahead will be filled with commotion as "complex and converging world conditions will bring both trials and opportunities."
"So let us have patience and faith, as did Lehi who saw pointing fingers of scorn directed at those who grasped the iron rod, which rod, ironically, some of those same fingers once grasped."
He concluded by encouraging members to develop a more full love for all of mankind, and to become more like the Savior. "By so living, ours will not then be a mere appreciation of Jesus, nor a modest admiration of Him. Rather, ours will be an adoration of Jesus expressed by our emulation of Him."
