THE WEAK LINK

The years I had the privileged of teaching covered the major part of the majority of my days. There were some days when either my presentation or the subject matter made it difficult for the students to keep their minds from wandering or their eyelids from drooping. There was always one subject that I knew that no matter how inept my presentation might be there would be no difficulty holding the attention of the class members.

The transfixing subject could go by many titles: Signs of the Times – The Second Coming – The Reign of the King of Kings – When He Comes Again – The Marvelous Millennium, etc., but the increased attention level was always evident.

In my early years I found myself, when teaching this subject, titillating students by stressing the carnal, contentious and evil conditions which would spread across the nations making the destruction of one third of life on the planet justifiable. As the years passed and with the changes which come from the maturation of aging and experience, I found my emphasis shifting toward what the two thirds who would survive the events when He comes again would need to be like in order to be spared the devastation
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It has become increasingly evident that the activities of the world’s populace long ago crossed the line of being evil enough to qualify for the cataclysmic conditions which are prophesied to accompany His return to reign.
The problem doesn't seem to be that there isn't enough wickedness; the problem seems to be the lack of a righteous generation among whom He could dwell and could move towards becoming worthy to live while He reigned for that joyful 1,000 years.

Neither does the problem seem to be that He has set the standard for that righteous generation so high that it is unattainable. He isn't requiring that perfection be reached; He just needs a people who have put off their telestialness and put on terrestrialness, or in other words, a people who have repented of their evil ways and desire to become good and honorable.

The number requirement doesn't seem to be overwhelming either. He isn't requiring that 100% or even 75% become good and honorable, but has set what seems to be an attainable 66%.

Many people read the climactic chapters in the Book of Mormon (Third Nephi) when the Savior comes among the descendants of Lehi in the same way I taught this subject in my early years. They put an emphasis on the wickedness of the people who were destroyed at His coming and allow that part of the story to overshadow the important part of the story about those who were left to hear His wonderful message and what they had done to qualify for the privilege of sitting at His feet and hearing His words.

If the Book of Mormon is really the book, as Joseph Smith Jr. proclaimed, which would bring us closer to Jesus Christ than any other book, surely the emphasis must be put on those people who were consumed with the desire to prepare to be good and honorable enough to be in His presence and not on those whose desires were to be carnal, criminal and contentious and who were on the road leading to destruction.

Latter day scriptures refer to the best of the good and honorable in those Last Days as a Zion People, a people who have reached a level of righteousness compatible with having the Son of God living among them. They are not a group of perfected people, but a people who no longer desire to do evil and desire to do good continually. Not a people who have overcome all, but who have planted their feet firmly on the path leading to the Tree of Life and who hold firmly to the Rod of Iron to help them remain steadfast in their quest.

The record of those who greeted the Savior in the Americas as recorded in the Book of Mormon indicates there was a great variation in the degree of goodness and honorableness of those who were safely maintained during the devastating destruction whose history was recorded on those golden plates. There will likewise be a great variation in the degree of goodness and honorableness among those which will attend His second coming in the Last Days.

We are assured that those who listened to the Savior’s words in the Americas had not completed the perfection process. After the Savior returns to dwell with His father we find in Fourth Nephi that the process of repentance or becoming righteous enough to dwell with God continued.

As Elder Bruce R. McConkie was fond of stressing, it is not as important as to where we are on the path towards perfection as to the constancy of our positive progression on that path. As Nephi of old proclaimed we must be pressing forward.

A brief examination of the process of pressing forward would find us striving to enlarge our hope, expand our faith and increase our charity. The Sermon on the Mount on the Plains and at the Temple in Bountiful all make us aware that being good and honorable would include amplifying the attributes of humility, empathy, thirsting for righteousness, meekness, mercy, purifying our hearts and being peacemakers. An examination of the mini-Zion society in Fourth Nephi in the Book of Mormon adds dealing justly, living in a universal spirit of kinship, honoring everyone’s right to the blessings of freedom, equalization of the goods of the world so that no one wants, adherence to the laws and ordinances of the Lord and having the love of God in our hearts.

Their continual striving and the desire for positive progression on the path which leads to the Tree of Life resulted in the development of a people who were happier than any who had been created by the hand of God.
Like the proverbial chain which can be no stronger than its weakest link. The preparation of a people prepared with the continual desire to be righteous will only come to pass as each of us presses forward in an effort not to be that weak link.

Who knows, maybe there are 65.99% of the world’s population who already have their feet firmly fixed on the path and are holding hard to the rod of iron and who continually desire to be good and honorable and are only waiting for me to enter the group so that the long promised day might come when we too will enjoy all the promised fruits of happiness.