Satan Diverts Faithful Zeal to the Wrong Causes: Wise Counsel Relevant to the Contemporary Political Situation©

Satan Diverts Faithful Zeal to the Wrong Causes:
Wise Counsel Relevant to the Contemporary Political Situation© 

Introduction:

Today, while researching a specific gospel topic I encountered an article from my deceased friend Stephen Robinson, former religion instructor at BYU.  It is a wonderful article from back in 1993 about the gospel concept of “enduring to the end.”  In the course of his remarks, Steve addressed three hazards to enduring to the end which the Savior taught. His comments about the second one–deception–struck me as some of the finest counsel I have read from a member of the Church that has direct application to the political situation we have been experiencing in America for a couple of decades or more.  I’m thinking of the issue where some in the Church seem to be more committed to their political philosophy, party, and beliefs than they are to the Church.  

As some of you know I recently got embroiled in a brief controversy when I expressed my displeasure about Donald Trump when the Capitol was attacked.  In the course of that discussion I was accosted by several people, all of whom I consider good friends, because of my position. Some of them were so committed to their party and its man, that suddenly I seemed to be the enemy. Suddenly things seemed to be totally black and white for them and I was on the wrong side.  Suddenly, it seemed to me their politics were more important than the Gospel, no matter how hard they tried to weld the two together. I wanted to say more about the situation, but I didn’t.  Today, I discovered that back in 1993 Stephen Robinson gave voice to principles and doctrines that I believe bring the issue to crystal clarity. I commend the entire article, but I have reproduced below his comments I just mentioned because they are so profound and so relevant.  They merit serious study and profound pondering. Please enjoy.

Stephen Robinson:

In Matthew 24:9–13, the Savior’s promise to those who endure includes a warning against three specific hazards. These are affliction, deception, and iniquity. [Matt. 24:9–13]

...

The Savior warned of a second hazard to our endurance, perhaps even more relevant to today’s Saints than affliction. This is the hazard of deception: “For in those days, there shall also arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if possible, they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant.” (JST, Matt. 24:23.)

If Satan can’t intimidate us with physical trials, he’ll sometimes try to fool us with substitute programs. He would like us to invest our time, talent, and energy in causes that are not the cause of Zion, in the hope they may ultimately replace our commitment to the gospel. Often, these other concerns are valid and worthwhile. The deception comes in giving them a higher priority than our covenants. Those who are fooled in this way usually feel the Church is not doing enough in the area of their pet concerns. They may become disenchanted with the program of the Church and begin to follow “alternate voices.”

These members do not lack zeal; indeed, they are often strong enough to endure tremendous trials. But Satan has diverted their zeal to the wrong causes, and they don’t perceive their shifting loyalties as unfaithfulness. Generally, they do not feel that they are rejecting Christ; they just decide to interpret his will differently or to serve him in different ways according to new standards and values. Consequently, their original commitments take a back seat to their new agenda. But the bottom line is still that they couldn’t be trusted to hold their original course and keep their original commitments. They didn’t endure.

Again and again the Lord has warned the Church about following other voices. (See, for example, D&C 43:1–6.) Right now, there are many alternate voices vying for the attention of the Saints—social voices, intellectual voices, political voices, and other voices. In our premortal life, all of us rejected Satan’s persuasions to subscribe to a plan alternate to the Father’s. Now in mortality, we must do it again. If we are to endure, we must avoid alternate religious “special interest” groups.

I know a man who is going through a difficult time. He is politically intense and is particularly worried about what he sees as events leading up to the end of the world. He sees conspiracies in government and society, and he can’t understand why the Church isn’t as intense and as concerned as he is about these perceived threats. He spends a great deal of time trying to warn other members of the Church whom he believes to be asleep, and he privately wonders if some in leadership positions aren’t also asleep. Basically, his thinking runs like this: “My Church and my politics are telling me two different things, and I know that my politics are true … so there must be something wrong with the Church.” He does not consider the other logical possibility, nor does he recognize the reversal of loyalty evident in his thinking.

There may be some truth in some things he says, but that is not the point. The point is that he is listening to other voices and has transferred his highest loyalty to programs other than the Lord’s. Tragically, his politics have become the idol to which all else in his life must bow—even his commitment to the Church.

For all of us, our main defense against Satan’s deceptions must be a strong and abiding testimony that the Church is true. All may not be well in Zion (which is what the prophets said would be the case), but the Church is still true. It’s not anemic; it doesn’t need supplements. It’s not true if, and it’s not true but, and it’s not true except. It’s just true! Moreover, the Church is not off course; it’s not going too slow, and it’s not going too fast. Its leaders are not asleep, and they don’t need any uninvited help from the passengers to steer the boat.

Some protection from the hazard of deception may be found in the principle of “more or less”: “And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;

“And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.” (D&C 93:24–25; see also 3 Ne. 11:39–40; 3 Ne. 18:13–15; D&C 10:67–68; D&C 98:6–7.)

In the context of the gospel, truth is what God has actually said, what he actually directs, what he actually requires—no more and no less. On a strait and narrow path (see D&C 132:22), it doesn’t matter whether we fall off to the right or to the left, we are in trouble either way. It doesn’t matter whether we are “liberals” or “conservatives,” whether we believe “too little” or “too much”—that is, if Satan can’t get us to abandon the principles of the gospel, he is content that we should live them obsessively or as fanatics. One is less than the will of the Lord; the other adds human requirements to his will. Either puts us in the territory of the wicked one. There are those today who are embarrassed that God and his servants have said so much on some things and who go about trying to discredit the Brethren and neutralize the revelations and commandments. We have others who are embarrassed that God and his servants have not said more on other things and who go about preaching principles and programs the Lord has not revealed. One takes words out of God’s mouth; the other puts them in. Each preaches a “new, improved” gospel inspired by that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning, the very first alternate voice.

It requires discipline to embrace as gospel and to teach as gospel exactly what the Lord has revealed, no more and no less, and to avoid revising the gospel to suit ourselves. But those who can do it will know things as they really are (see Jacob 4:13) and will avoid deception.(1)

Let’s think together again, soon.

1.  Stephen E. Robinson, “Enduring to the End,” Ensign (October 1993):15-16.