Human reason is an adequate instrument for dealing with Earthly affairs, that is, the maintaining of physical subsistence (ooeconmia) and the regulation of life in society (politia). Keeping the needs of others and nature in mind is at the heart of a successful life. Once we stop looking at the World from what is called a subject-object perspective (in which we are the subject and the World exists only as it relates to us) and begin to see it from a subject-subject viewpoint (wherein the World, and everything in it, is a living entity worthy of respect), we will begin to see how our personal growth can contribute to the betterment of the World. The justice of God in Romans 1.17, is not a divine attribute expressed in punishment and reward, but is the activity by which God makes people just (justifies them). This justice of God is identical with his grace: it is not conditional upon human merit, but is received by faith alone (faith itself being a work of God in humans). The sacrament is like preaching, a form of the divine Word, by which God offers humans his justice and creates the response of faith. By being the first in your family to accept the gospel, you become the first generation, a chosen generation through which generations past, present, and future may be blessed. The Law of God can only demand and condemn; it cannot be used by humans as a means of self-salvation through strict obedience. The security of human beings before God is firmly in the Gospel, with its word of free forgiveness. “Ask in sincerity of heart that God will forgive you,” reports 1 Moroni 6.8. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

The World and other people inevitably fail to satisfy our boundless needs. We learn very quickly that we can get some of our needs met if we separate ourselves from our own desires, delay the gratification of our needs, deny some potentials and capitalize on others. In some cases, we split off our needs and potentials from our awareness completely. The World tames us, dictating how we ask, when we ask, and, to some degree, what we ask for. Many of the radicals sought to establish communities in which the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount should be sole rule of social conduct. However, just as it is wrong to place Law between God and the conscience, so it is wrong to regulate society by the Gospel. The conscience needs the gospel of forgiveness, but society can only be founded upon the law of retributive justice (though Law should always be the agency of love). The two realms or kingdoms, of Heaven and Earth—this is, the two ways in which God rules over the World of humans—are not to be confused. Our faith and testimonies are a great strength and blessing to others. Through experience and exposure, we gain a deeper understanding of gospel principles and our testimonies are strengthened. We add great strength to the Church when we use our testimony, talents and abilities, and energy to build the Kingdom of God. We reach out in kindness to those around us, lifting and blessing them through inspired service. As we live the gospel of God at home, those around us will feel the Savior’s love through us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

People know that we are engaged in something good, even if they do not understand it or have enough faith to accept it. We must be patient and kind, pray each day to know how we can serve them, and the Lord will help us and bless us to influence or family for good. By being consistently good and upright, we will establish patterns of faithfulness and righteousness. Those patterns will shape our life, but more importantly, they will become a standard for our family and posterity. Through the process of selective satisfaction, delayed gratification, denial of pleasures of the flesh, and repression of sinful pride, we give birth to our divine nature. Not only do we separate our social self from our personal self, we also maintain our sense of separateness from the World at large. We still operate in what some call a subject-object dynamic, in which the person (subject) interacts with the World and others in it (objects) for the self-serving purpose of getting needs met and realized potentials, but we are also the key to opening the Lord’s blessings to family members who passes away without hearing the gospel and receiving saving ordinances. Ours is the unique privilege to begin this work on their behalf. These ordinances will bind us to our ancestors and bring great spiritual power into our life. The power of human’s decision for God is located in the Gospel itself, and in the secret influence of the Holy Spirit. God does not act coercively, thereby doing violence to human’s will, but God is sovereign over the will and can direct it to his ends. People act voluntarily (that is, as God wills) even in matters that concern their salvation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

However, the will itself is controlled by God. It cannot change itself from an evil to a good will: it must be changed under the influence of the Spirit. The greatest of God’s gifts are the inventress and mistress of all the arts, of medicine and law, of whatever wisdom, power, virtue and glory people possess in this life. Reason sets people apart from the brute beasts and give them dominion over the World. In adulthood growth occurs and we continue to mature, we soon become aware of the potential of Unified Self. It is self serving and World-serving in its striving to meet needs and realize potentials. We attempt to merge the personal and social self into one congruent, unified source of personhood. Once we operate as a largely Unified Self, we finally become capable of forming deep bonds with others, nature, and the World at large. This connection is the ultimate cure of our sense of alienation that creates such profound discontent. Can you see now why the first generation is so important? Can you understand the position you occupy and the influence you can have for good? Please never underestimate who you are and the power that you have to affect others. The adversary understands who you are and will do all possible to entice you to make wrong choices. At times, despite our best efforts, we all make mistakes. Fortunately, Heavenly Father has prepared a way for us to overcome them through repentance and reliance on the Atonement. If you make mistakes, do not make mistakes. #RandolpHarris 4 of 8

Make a habit of thinking of the needs of everyone and everything with which you come into contact. Repenting and continuing to press forward are perhaps the most important patterns to develop in the first generation. Be patient and move forward in obedience. Live each day meeting the challenges of family, work, and faith. Live good, ordinary lives and be faithful serving the Lord and blessing your families. When we fall down, we get back up and move on. Now, those of us who are descendants of people who follow God look back with reverence and gratitude for their faithfulness. Make proper choices and people with honor you. Past and future generations will admire you. However, most importantly, God will celebrate your for being faithful. In spiritual affairs reason has no understanding of what it is that commends human to God. Therefore God has given his Word (in the Scriptures), and reliance upon reason could, in this realm, only be perverse and presumptuous. The way of salvation could never have been thought out by rational enquiry, for all God’s work and words transcend reason. The Word of God is apprehended, not by reason, but by faith. However, this does not mean that reason must be totally excluded from theology. There is a possibility to tame reason’s presumptuous. It then becomes a handmaid of faith. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Reason as illuminated by faith, is regenerated, or born new. It regenerates reason as the human capacity for orderly thought being exercised upon material provided by the Word. Perhaps this is the correlation of Scripture and reason, as it gives one the ability to be persuaded either by direct Biblical citations or by plain inferences from them. Yet, this certainly does not mean that we set reason beside Scripture as an independent and supplementary source of theological knowledge. We have to distinguish between natural reason, ruling within it own domain (the Earthly Kingdom); presumptuous reason, encroaching on the domain of faith (the Heavenly Kingdom); and regenerate reason, serving faith in subjection to the Word of God. Still, reason can be the greatest of God’s gifts in the Earthly Kingdom and an excellent instrument of Godliness in the Heavenly Kingdom. It is necessary, however, to carry the analysis further and show the invective against reason is focused upon a quite specific blunder than reason makes when it trespasses, unregenerate, upon the domain of faith. It then appears that the sacrificum intellectus cannot be understood simply as epistemological doctrine, but rests upon a more strictly theological (or soteriological) concern. This expresses the colorful invective against reason because its constant astonishment at the heart of Gospel: the unconditioned character of God’s. Reason must be terminated because it cannot comprehend the miracle of divine forgiveness, and therefore stands in the way of human’s receiving the justice of God. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

Reason is identified with the religious attitude of the natural (that is, unregenerate) human, who can conceive only of a strictly legalistic relationship to God. Ratio becomes virtually synonymous with a definite opinio, and it is by no means accidental that two words can be found side by side in several passages. Nor, of course, was is this usage wholly eccentric, since Lewis and Short’s Latin-English dictionary reports as one of the meanings of ratio a “view or opinion resting upon reasonable grounds.” And we fully acknowledge a certain reasonableness about the assumption that a just God must require good works as the precondition of communion with him. Consequently, the proclamation of an unconditioned grace—which demands nothing, save the acceptance of faith—can be greeted by reason only with incredulity. What needs to be sacrificed, therefore, is not human rationality, without qualification, but rather the legalistic mentality of the natural human. Grace must take us out of ourselves, and we must learn to rise above reason. The concept of reason is not formal, but material. Ratio is a concrete attitude rather than the faculty or structure of reasoning. When the natural human turns one’s thoughts to religion, one carries over into the Heavenly Kingdom presuppositions, which, however appropriate in dealing with social existence in the Earthly Kingdom, no longer apply. For the Kingdom of God is a realm, not of law, but of grace (das Reich der Gnaden). #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

 The continuity between nature and grace, as presented in the classical scholastic scheme, is broken. There is no rational preamble to faith, because reason is not a neutral instrument for the discovery of objective truths; it is misled by its own bias and even corrupted by sin—that is, by the egocentricity of the understanding of humans. For humans in sin actually prefers a God law, upon whom one can establish a claim. Revelation does not confirm or supplement reason: it stands in contradiction to reason, until the natural human is born anew. The religion of reason is not merely insufficient or imperfect, but perverted and erroneous. We do not deny that a limited knowledge of God is available to reason; but the egocentricity of humans in sin is a fatal defect, productive of idolatry and superstition. Reason makes God as it wills him to be, and turns this natural knowledge into idolatry. The god of reason is a false God. “And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles. And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of humans is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust. Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in God, doubting nothing, whatsoever one shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted one; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the Earth,” reports Mormon 19-21. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8