Hundreds of Brigham Young University–Hawaii students sang the beloved hymn “True to the Faith” (Hymn No. 254) to welcome Elder James R. Rasband, a General Authority Seventy and Church commissioner of education, to the podium Tuesday, June 5.
Speaking in the Cannon Activities Center on the Laie, Hawaii, campus, Elder Rasband centered his remarks around the well-known phrase in John 8:32: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Highlighting a “profoundly important” teaching, Elder Rasband explained to students that the verse “helps explain part of the reason your Heavenly Father is surely pleased that you are pursuing an education,” he said. “He wants you to learn truth so that you can be free, so that you can be powerful leaders, and, in Lehi’s words, so that you ‘might have joy.’”
Though the John 8 scripture is well-known, its message about being made free by truth is easily misunderstood, Elder Rasband explained.
Education will make one free
“Sometimes when we talk about being free, we may think too narrowly about the meaning of freedom,” he said. Rather than the absence of any restraint or restrictions, the freedom Elder Rasband referred to is the God-given agency to choose good from evil.
“If the only freedom we enjoy is freedom from someone else dictating our choices, we are not very free,” he continued. “When the Savior talked about being “free” in John 8, He was teaching a much richer conception of freedom."
As an example, Elder Rasband invited students to imagine him on Ehukai Beach with a surfboard in hand, looking out towards the Banzai Pipeline as large waves crash down. Not a very experienced surfer himself, Elder Rasband asked students to then imagine a talented surfer standing next to him with an identical board.
The two surfers standing next to one another are both absolutely free to paddle out and surf the pipeline.
“But who is really more free?,” Elder Rasband asked.
“In the abstract, I’m free. I can paddle out. No one is restraining me. But the reality is that I’m not really free to surf Pipeline. But the expert surfer is free,” he explained. “It is his knowledge of all these truths that make him free to ride one of Pipeline’s famous waves.”
In the same way, Elder Rasband taught that educational truths students are learning at BYU–Hawaii are meant to free them “for a joyful and purposeful life.”
An education allows students to avoid deception, exercise wiser judgment and serve others more effectively.
Gospel knowledge will make you free
Even less clear than the implications of freedom is that gospel truths, including Heavenly Father’s commandments, work in the same way as secular truths – they also “set you free.”
“Gospel truths are intended to make us free, powerful and joyful,” Elder Rasband said.
He then invited students to return to the scene at Ehukai Beach, with himself and an experienced surfer standing on the sand with identical boards. In this scenario, there is a sign that warns surfers about dangerous waves and currents. Elder Rasband carefully looks at the highway, scans the trees across the street and looks up and down before carefully asking the other surfer, ‘See any cops?’
“Surely, you’d think, ‘Why in the world is Elder Rasband concerned about the police? He should be worried about the waves,’” he taught.
Through this analogy, Elder Rasband explained to students that commandments are not limits imposed by a “cosmic police officer who is looking to catch us and make us an offender.” More accurately, commandments are created by Heavenly Father to make His children free from the consequences of sin.
“In sum, just like the academic truths that you are studying make you free, so too do the gospel truths you are learning in your religion classes, in your scripture study and through your experience of striving to live the gospel,” he said.
In closing his remarks, Elder Rasband invited students to be diligent in their pursuit of truth through studying in classes, studying the scriptures and striving to be guided by the Holy Ghost.
“The truths you learn will make you free. And if the blessings from some truths are not immediately apparent, may I invite you to follow President [Dallin H.] Oaks’ counsel to wait patiently upon the Lord, trusting that our Heavenly Father’s plan really is a plan of happiness,” Elder Rasband testified.
In his last few moments at the podium, Elder Rasband left students with one truth, which he says needs to be understood above all other truths: “No matter how shackled or imprisoned we feel because of our ignorance or our mistakes, through the Savior and His atoning sacrifice, we can be made free indeed,” he said. “I testify this is true.”
Sister Mary W. Rasband, preceding her husband in the devotional, bore her testimony of a loving Heavenly Father and His selfless Son, Jesus Christ.
“Most importantly, I know we have a Heavenly Father who loves us deeply and eternally,” she said. “I believe that it is because of His love for us that He sent us here to earth to live and to learn and to become more like Him.”
