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And God Seeks Our Trust Only by Showing Himself to be Trustworthy
Love is the only way of knowledge, which in the act of union answers our quest. Material aspects of life are important (hence the strong emphasis on humanitarianism and social service); matter can participate in the condition of salvation itself (as affirmed in the doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body); nature can become host to the divine (the doctrine of the Kingdom of God on Earth and, later in Christianity, the Incranation). The concept of God is something which nothing greater can be conceived (aliquid quo nihil maius cogitari possit). It is clear that greater, we mean more perfect. (Sometimes we use Melius, better, instead of maius, greater.) Since we have this idea, it follows that something than which nothing greater can be conceived at east exists in our minds (in intellectu) as an object of thought. We know God exists otherwise we should be able to conceive of something greater than that which nothing greater can be conceived—which is absurd. Therefore, something than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality. The idea of spiritual contemplation is essentially an act of the will leading to a charitable union with God. In the light of this union, it becomes clear that we live in a God created Universe. God is the entirely other: a metaphysical abyss divides him from all others beings. The Lord alone is the eternal; all the rest is temporary and mutable. #RandolphHarris 1 of 10
The World has always loved the saint as being the nearest possible approach to the perfection of God. God’s power, liberty, and independence are unlimited. The Lord’s omnipotence is not qualified by the existence of demigods. Every Angel possess infused universal ideas and forms a species apart. “I saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with are numberless consourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising God; yea, and my soul did long to be there” reports Alma 36.22. Thinking back to that day, wading Sun shined waters fast, watching time pass away. It is no good to live in the past. Tread the ground on which you stand as all life’s memories are in your hands. Shaded dawn burst to light, watch as the day lightens the light. Dreams get better all the time, and still I hope the Day will come—that Day when Sun rays will shine when God and I will be as one. Sometimes it is useful to understand that dream figures are like Angels. They look human, but their World is ratio realis, which postulates logical distinctions that are grounded in reality. However, the natural and moral laws of actual life are suspended. Each is ruled by its own laws and exigencies. Entities are not unnecessarily multiplied. Their actions may be mysterious being in themselves beautiful holy things and modes of perfection. Created spirits are composed of matter and form; humans are composed of matter and spirit; and there is a plurality of forms in corporal beings. #RandolphHarris 2 of 10
The human body is actualized by corporal matter and the formae corporeitatis before its union with the soul. The soul, although, a unity, has three partial forms—the vegetative principle, the sensitive principle, and the rational principle, which moves the other parts only through the mediation of the spiritual matter. If the rational part of the soul informed the body directly, the soul would no longer be purely active. Every substance is a wholly active and dynamic principle which continually unfolds its intrinsic forces, thus reaching perfection. This concept is applied in our psychology and our doctrine of knowledge. “And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yes, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more. And oh, what joy and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!,” reports Alma 36. 19-20. This object was considered the causa terminativa (final cause) of knowledge; it might also be considered to be a kind of causa cooperans (cooperative cause). “My limbs did receive their strength again, and I stood upon my feet, and did manifest unto the people that I have been born of God. Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of what I did taste that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost,” reports Alma 36.24. #RandolphHarris 3 of 10
That process explains the development of higher knowledge from lower connection of the potencies of the soul (colligantia potentiarum). By virtue of the unity of the spiritual matter of the soul, the act of knowledge that originated in the vegetative and sensitive parts continues in the rational part of the soul, causing a spiritual image to form there. It is primarily the dree will which elevates humanity above all other creatures and energetically is the will’s self-determination. “Yea, and now behold, the Lord does give me exceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors; for because of the word which he has imparted unto me, behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I have tasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they do know of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and the knowledge which I have is of God. And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in God, and he will still deliver me. And I know that God will raise me up at the last day, to dwell with him in glory; yea, and I will praise him forever, for he brought me by his power into the promised land; yea, and he has delivered them out of bondage and captivity from time to time,” reports Alma 36.25-29. #RandolphHarris 4 of 10
This principal contribution to philosophy is the description of the relations between the knowing subject and the object. In the field of human psychology, it is the root of religion as humanities immediate sense of the Supernatural. The primary religious awareness is not inferential but is, an institution of reality, an intercourse between a Universe, present always in all its meaning, and a spirit, responding with all its meaning, and a spirit, responding with all its understanding. By the Supernatural, it is not to be understood as the mysterious, the uncanny, nor the miraculous but a larger environment than physical nature, a special kind of environment, which has its own particular sanctions through commerce with which humans receives their characteristically human degree of independence within their natural environment. “And the Lord God does work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord does confound the wise and brings about the salvation of many souls. And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people, yea, and convinced many of the error of their ways, and brought them to the knowledge of their God unto the salvation of their souls,” reports Alma 37. 7-9. #RandolphHarris 5 of 10
The Supernatural is variously conceived in different types of religion, as is the character of redemption that the supernatural makes it possible. In primitive religion, redemption is found by seeking the Supernatural in nature as an animistic force indefinitely any and yet vaguely one. In polytheism, the Supernatural consist of individual spirits that rule different parts of nature, and redemption means the managing of nature through its many divine masters. Cosmic pantheism accepts nature in its wholeness as the Supernatural, while the acosmic mysticism of India wholly excludes nature from the Supernatural, as illusion. Religions of the ceremonial—legal type, such as priestly Judaism and Island, divide the Natural into a scared realm and a secular realm, cultivating the sacred or religious whole leaving the secular outside the sphere of redemption. Finally, for the prophetic monotheism of the Hebrew prophets and of Christianity, redemption is reconciliation to the Natural by finding within it the purpose of the one personal Supernatural. “Remember how strict the commandments of God. And the Lord said: If you will keep my commandments you shall prosper in the land—but if you keep not his commandments, you shall be cut off from his presence. God has entrusted you with these things, which are scared, which he has kept sacred, and also which he will keep and preserve for a wise purpose in one, that one may show forth the Lord’s power unto future generations,” reports Alma 37. 13-14. #RandolphHarris 6 of 10
To be reconciled to God is to accept all the experiences of one’s life as of God’s appointing, and one’s duties as divine commands. Thus, prophetic religion is intensely practical and this-Worldly. Speaking of its Ancient Testament, what determines their faith is not a theory of the Supernatural, but an attitude towards the Natural, as a sphere in which a victory of deeper meaning than the visible and of more abiding purpose than the fleeting can be won. We must emphasize that knowledge of our environment, whether the natural or the Supernatural, does not consist in the mere registering of impact, but always consists in a perception of meaning. In order to become aware of our environment, we must rightly interpret its impingements upon this. Thus, knowledge is not knowledge as an effect of an unknow external cause, but is knowledge as we so interpret that our meaning is the actual meaning of our environment. “And behold, I tell you by the spirit of prophecy, that if you transgress the commandments of God, behold, these things which are sacred shall be taken away from you by the power of God, and you shall be delivered up onto the adversary, that he and/or she may sift your as chaff before the wind. However, if you keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord does command you (for you must appeal unto the Lord for all things whatsoever you must do with them) behold, no power of Earth nor Hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all the words,” reports Alma 37. 15-16. #RandolphHarris 7 of 10
In this interpretative process, the mind exercises a degree of freedom. That degree is established by the individual frontiers of each mind, which are largely controlled from within and across which the meaning of the environment can pass only as a meaning recognized by the individual. “For God will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has made unto our fathers. For God promised unto them that he would preserves these things for a wise purpose in him that he might show forth his power unto future generations,” Alma 37. 17-18. The Supernatural presents itself to the human mind with the quality of the sacred or of absolute worth. To be aware of the Supernatural is to recognize some sacred value that lays an absolute claim upon us, even if in these early stages of human’s dealings with the Supernatural this is only an irrational taboo. “Now, these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me; therefore I shall forbear. And it may suffice if I only say they are preserved for a wise purpose, which purpose is known unto God; for he does counsel in wisdom over all his works, and his paths are straight, and his course is one eternal round,” reports Alma 37. 11-12. Religion is essential a dealing with an unseen environment of absolute worth, which demands worship. This recognition of and allegiance to the sacred frees us from the dominance of our physical surroundings: We can obtain a foundation to deal with our environment the moment we regard anything as scared, because we can say “No” and are no longer its mere creature. #RandolphHarris 8 of 10
While our sense of the Supernatural gives us a fixed point amid the evanescent and a degree of freedom in relation to the natural, we can gain this only by our exercise of our own freedom. For the peculiarity of the supernatural environment is that we cannot enter it except as we see and choose it as our own. “For behold, there is a curse upon all this land, that destruction shall come upon all those workers of darkness, accord to the power of God, when they are fully ripe; therefore I desire that this people might not be destroyed. Therefore, keep these secret plans of their oaths and their covenants from this people, and only their oaths and their wickedness and their murders and their abominations shall you know known unto them; and you shall teach them to abhor such wickedness and abominations and murders; and you shall also teach them that these people were destroyed on account of their wickedness and abominations and for their murders. For behold, they murdered all the prophets of the Lord who cam among them to declare unto them concerning their iniquities and the blood of those whom they murdered did cry unto the Lord their God for vengeance upon those who were their murderers; and thus the judgments of Go did come upon these workers of darkness and secret combinations. Yea, cursed be the land forever and ever unto those workers of darkness and secret combinations, even unto destruction, except they repent before fully ripe,” reports Alma 37. 29-31. #RandolphHarris 9 of 10
The religious person’s awareness of a larger supernatural environment, in terms of which we live, means awareness has no greater need nor possibility of philosophical justification than our awareness of the natural environment. Attempts have been made to prove the existence of a material World by other evidence than the way it environs us, but the result is no more reassuring for the reality of the natural World than for the reality of the supernatural. The insight or experience that God is the supremely personal reality, that his dealings with humans take place in the personal realm, and that the greater central Christian terms—revelation, faith, grace, sin, reconciliation—are to be understood as part of the language of personal relationship and are perverted when construed in nonpersonal ways. “And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause those should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day,” reports Alma 37.40. Religious truths are not infallibilities declared authoritatively from Heaven, but claim acceptance only because they irresistibly impress our minds as true, and God seeks our trust only by showing himself to be trustworthy. God’s works and the elements of a religious philosophy might well appeal to many today because it is consistently empiricist, being based upon what is given in human experience and because it is on a higher level of generality. #RandolphHarris 10 of 10
The Human Spirit Transcends the Self, Time, and Nature as it Opens the Door for Eternal Life
A word of hope is poured out on every generation of people by those who advocate accomplishment, an exemplary life, living up to one’s abilities, and keeping one’s commitments. Events and circumstances in the last days make it imperative for us to become more grounded, rooted, established, and settled. The journey to God allows us to come to a space where climatic revelation is disclosed. The basic purpose of our pilgrimage is to heighten our devotion to God and to reveal his will, and the practice has many beneficial ancillary effects as well. For instance, it is a reminder of the equality between humans, all distinction of rank and hierarchy is removed, and we stand before God in our undivided humanity. It also provides a useful service in international relations as it brings people from various countries together, while demonstrating that we have a common loyalty that transcends any bonds to warring kingdoms of humans. Reading and studying the scriptures make us conscious of the many conditional promises made by the Lord to encourage obedience and righteous living. The Lord made a covenant with Noah, and the rainbow became the token of that eternal covenant with all humankind that God would never flood with World again. Remember, God did not just flood a city or state, at one time he flooded the World because he did not approve of how wicked people had become. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12
Our life with our people obviously goes more smoothly if we behave morally, but if ultimate reality does not support such conduct, if our World is such that morality does not pay, we face an impasse in how to live. It is required that for a meaningful existence that immoral, vindictive, and capricious behavior must be denied. Our God possesses none of these traits. God meted out the Heavens with a span of goodness which is supposed to be from everlasting to everlasting. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and saw everything he had made, and behold it was very good.” For whatever now exists, exists for the good of the whole, and because this whole is always and everywhere equally perfect, all its parts must always exist. Hence, on the principle of the Good, every ultimate entity in the Universe is eternal. Fresh with the morning of Creation, the Earth was to be relished with zest. The abundance of good made the Promise Land a good land, a land of wheat and vines and figs which people were allowed to consume without scarceness. There is good reason to make our decision now to serve the Lord. Because we are so involved in the Universal purpose of God, others are immediately affected by our obedience to the Lord. If we choose, we can disobey God and grieve our Lord. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12
When the complications and temptations of life are somewhat removed, and when we have the time and more of an inclination to take an eternal perspective, we can more clearly evaluate what will bring us the greatest happiness in life. We should decide now, in the light of morning, how we will act when the darkness of night and when the storms of temptation arrive. True happiness is not made in getting something. True happiness is becoming something. This can be done by being committed to lofty goals. We cannot become something without commitment. We should be diligently engaged in a good cause, and do many things of our own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. Individuals should det there own goals, and goals should always be made to a point that will make us reach and strain. However, success should not necessarily be gauged by always reaching the goal set, but by the progress and attainment. In setting our own goals, we need to examine our own needs and abilities. This direction in which we are moving is more important than where we are at the moment. Goal setting should cause us to stretch as we make our way. There is no way to have any evident knowledge of any substance other than one’s own soul starting from the objects of sensation or of inner experience. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12
A divine, forgiving, and timeless love beyond history gives meaning to human life. Nothing can actually operating in human history can ever be sufficiently dominant over sinful narcissism and sensuality to deliver humans from despair, although some people attempt to conceal reality with optimistic illusions. However, if we look beyond the temporal process to transcendent being, we find, though faith, a forgiving and perfect love which gives to human life a grandeur being the reach of despair and a zeal beyond the reach of apathy. This love from beyond history has been revealed to us in Christ. We know it is from beyond history because in history this kind of love, called agape, is ineffective before the powers that rule the World. It is futile and meaningless except when, as in the Christian faith, it reveals the ultimate purpose of our existence by an evaluation which transcends all time and space. Sin arises from anxiety, although anxiety is not sinful in itself. People are rendered anxious by criticizing themselves and our World, by recognizing our own limitations and the contingencies of our existence, and by imagining a life infinitely better than what actually is. When our progress seems to be at a standstill, we must have the drive, the push, the want to will us to succeed in any field. We must also learn to employ the power of prayer. #RandolphHarris 4 of 12
It is important to learn the value of commitment, and remember to turn to God for direction, guidance, and help. If we brought it under control by trusting ourselves to God’s forgiving love and ultimate power, anxiety would not lead to sin. However, instead of this, we seek to bring anxiety under control by pretending to have power or knowledge or virtue or special favors from God, which we do not have. This pretense leads narcissism, cruelty, and injustice. Or we seek to escape anxiety by dulling the awareness of it with sensuality. All this is sin because it is a turning away from God to a self-centered existence. Sin thus induced is not inevitable, but it is Universal. Sin was in the World before humans became sinners, this prehumen sin being symbolized by the adversary. In this predicament we have to alternative. We may trust ourselves along with the whole of human history to God’s forgiving love. The other alternative is twofold: to sin into annihilating despair or to conceal our predicament with illusions that render our condition ever more desperate in the end. If we take the first alternative, we live not only for whatever love can be attained in history but also and primarily for the divine love beyond history. In this way the whole of human history takes on meaning. Otherwise we have only glimpses of meaning in developments occurring here and there but no meaning for the whole history. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12
Many people are motivated by spiritual goals. Total commitment to correct gospel principles brings joy, satisfaction, and the abundant life. If we are not in the process of becoming the person we want to be, we are automatically engaged in becoming the person we do not want to be. Transcendence is the timeless ideal of perfect love. But this love is not merely an ideal. It is a God who loves, yet is beyond time, cause and World. Self-transcendence means that the self can change into a better self. It does this by surveying past and future and by self-criticism. However, to survey past and future is to be aware of one’s involvement in time; and in self-criticism the self in retrospect is criticized by the self at a later time. However, we can predict how we might behave and the future and think about how we would like to respond to situations and therefore adjust our behavior before it happens. Humans are both bound and free, both limited and limitless; we are, and yet are not, involved in the flux of nature and time. A spirit we stand outside time, nature, World, and self, yet are involved in them. Freed of paradox, these affirmations assert that humans are free in the dimension of spirit but not in the dimension of natural existence. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12
The human spirit transcends the self, time, and nature because the individual can know oneself as an object, can judge oneself to be a sinner, can survey the past and future. The ultimate proof that the human spirit is free is its recognition that its will is not free. The unknown reality extends beyond our knowledge; but if we refuse to conceal our ignorance by superimposing religious beliefs where knowledge cannot reach, then our spirit is free, but our will will be condemned to doing evil things. And as you know, there are consequences for wicked actions. Therefore, in a sense the will is no free if we want eternal life because have are commanded to live a righteous life. Belief in God and following his commandments also relieves anxiety by providing courage and hope. Another sinful use of reason is to make it the basis of a false security, thus turning away from the one sure ground of security, which is a belief beyond the tests of reason, namely, that, God in forgiving love will overrule all evil at the end of history. Christian beliefs offer courage, hope, peace, zeal, love, sense of being forgiven, and other psychological effects resulting wen these beliefs are affirmed. These psychological effects are offered as the grace bestowed upon us by God when we affirm these beliefs with the total self. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12
Thus, we are assured that we are loved and forgiven by God, while we are sinners. However, again, there is a clause. We must repent and make a conscious effort not to repeat the same sins because at sometime it will be too late to repent and we will be held responsible by God, in a spiritual realm, for our choices, actions, thoughts, and decisions. Still, beyond all the incoherence of our existence and beyond all our rational powers we know there is an all-comprehending and perfect coherence which somehow overcomes and absorbs all the manifest incoherence that we experience. We must realize that not all of our problems can be solved at once. A commitment to solve our daily needs and the reaching of immediate lesser foals will bring meaningful success. We have to realize that God will judge us by the way we make use of all our possibilities. Humans beings cannot come together, with the pack mentality and judge us, by thinking they are the Godhead. “If we judge and condemn, how much more just will be our condemnation,” reports Mosiah 4.22. It is wise to male the most of every opportunity, but do not quit nor weep because of failure or disappointments. We can always divide huge commitments into smaller one that we can handle. Then self-esteem will grow and commitment toward goals of greater magnitude will become possible. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12
The journey of success is long and possesses a series of commitments to worthy goals. A person does not become committed to worthwhile goals just by making the declaration or decision. It must be a daily progression toward established purposes. When one is wholly committed, added strengths and talents become evident. Assistance comes from unexpected sources. Who of us has not accepted some assignment with fear and trepidation, feeling totally inadequate to take on such a responsibility? However, with concern and obedience we move forward—working hard and praying often. As the task is completed, to our surprise, we have been successful. We humbly realize that our own abilities have been added upon. What we can do, or dream we can, it is important to begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Commitment also has genius power, and magic in it. “For I know that the Lord gives no commandments unto the children of humans, without preparing a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he has commanded them,” report 1 Nephi 3.7. Our enemies are becoming more hostile with each passing week. They seem intent on not only deceiving the uncommitted among us, but also on leading astray the elect. They criticize our leaders and scoff at what they consider to be sacred. They mock ordinances and covenants we know to be true and holy. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12
The wicked delight in discovering and sharing human flaws and frailties among our leaders past and present rather than acknowledging and benefiting from the truths they taught. They go to the tree, and instead of enjoying the fruit thereof, they point out the scars discovered on the tree trunk. Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. We have no intention of quarreling or demanding equal time to refute. We invite the dissenters as well as all others to open their eyes and see the beauties and thrills available to those who walk in God’s path looking for good. There are three kinds of love: heedless love (agape), which seeks nothing in return; mutual love; and human beings by God’s grace may have it to some degree. Since it seeks nothing in return, it cannot have the intention of awakening responsive love, although this may be its unintended result. Suffering endured with intention to awaken responsive love would be calculating love. Hence God’s suffering love in Christ is not to awaken responsive love, although this may be its unintended result; but the intention is to protect God’s righteousness in forgiving sin because forgiveness without atonement would be condoning sin. To reap the full benefits of life, we must fill our days with commitment to worthy goals and principles. There is no other way. A productive life here on Earth will open the door for eternal life with our Father in Heaven. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12
In making political judgment, the individual is inevitably biased by the social positions and historical process in which one finds their security and personal identity. No one can be entirely free of this bias, but its distortions are reduced by a faith which finds its ultimate security not in any social position or historical process but in the God of love and mercy who rules supreme over the whole course of history, determining its final outcome as no plan or purpose of humankind can ever do. Such a faith in God’s power and forgiveness enables one to practice Christian realism, whereby one is able to see the evil in the self and in the historical process with which the self is identified, as well as the depth of evil in all human life. Political judgment can then be more free of the illusions generated by false pride, on the one hand, and by despair, on the other. Justice requires the coercions of government to support moral demands; and the power of opposing parties must be equalized if one is not to be subordinated unjustly to the interests of the other. Also, to have justice, freedom to criticize is required. Justice serves love by providing the social conditions required for the practice of love. Love is the final norm but cannot by itself guide political action, because every project set forth in the name of love amid the contests for political power is infected with self-interest whereby the needs of others are falsely identified with those of self. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12
With our highly developed rational powers and critical intelligence, we know that some people’s lives attract more attention from interpreters. Misrepresentations of almost every facet of an individual’s life are crucial, for they bear on an understanding of one’s significance. It is also difficult to obtain reliable information on the authenticity and relative importance of one’s work through when things are taken out of context or distorted or completely fabricated. Life is supposed to be meaningful and moving. However, where is the pleasure for people who, attending a big league baseball game, will not cheer or clap for the home run hitter who drives the winning runs, but rather would dwell upon the fact that when the start, according to their “research” out of the darkness of their mind, in grade school he was kept after school for misconduct. Woe unto those who feast on the dirt and the distasteful instead of the fruits. Contrast that attitude with that demonstrated by a senior widow acquaintance of ours who travels to the temple every morning, spend the day attending sessions, and returns home by buss tired and work just because, “I love everyone, even those I cannot see.” Her attendance records? “I go every day it is open. Sometimes when I do not feel too strong it is difficult, but I make it somehow.” The word is commitment. We all have eyes, ears, and minds to lift, lead, and love. Each day, we must be committed to lofty Christian performance because it is essential to our eternal joy and happiness. #RandolphHarris 12 of 12
Are Your Spiritual Accounts Paid Up Because Mercy Cannot Rob Justice?
It would be easier if we had come to know one another, and had that kind of trust which makes it possible to talk of serious, even sacred things. One may ask, “Aside from he influence God has had on society, what effect can the Lord have on me individually?” Well, have you ever been hard-pressed financially? Have you ever been confronted with an unexpected expense, a mortgage come due, with really no idea how to pay it? Such an experience, however unpleasant, can be in the eternal scheme of things, very, very useful. If you miss that lesson you may have to make it up before you are spiritually mature, like a course that was missed or a test that was failed. Those who have faced a foreclosure know that one looks helplessly around, hoping for someone, anyone to come to the rescue. This lesson is so valuable because there is a spiritual account, with a balance kept and a settlement due, that no one of us will escape. Even your soul can face foreclosure. To understand this spiritual debt we must speak of such intangibles as love, faith, mercy, and justice. Without being able to solve the conflict that has arisen within critical philosophy, we sometimes become convinced the progressive clarification of modern theories will lead back to a physics based on classical mechanics. We have virtues that are both silent and invisible, and we know they are real. We lean of them by processed that often silent and invisible as well. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12
We become so accustomed to learning through our physical senses—by sight and sound and smell, by taste and touch—that some of us seem to learn in no other way. However, there are spiritual things that are not registered that way at all. Somethings we simply feel, not as we feel something we touch, but as we feel something we feel. There are things, spiritual things, that are registered in our minds and recorded in our memories as pure knowledge. A knowledge of things which have been, things which are, thing which must shortly comes to pass. Abstraction (analysis of the assumptions underlying practical ethical study of value judgments) and determining, by an empirical study of value judgment, the interest of pure practical reason, ethical demands put to the human will by reason itself we can come to know of spiritual things. Each of us, without exception, one day will settle that spiritual account. We will, that day, face a judgment for our doings in mortal life and face a foreclosure of sorts. We will be justly dealt with. Justice, the eternal law of justice, will be the measure against which we settle this account. The law demands of the human will the balanced consideration of other persons’ interest affected by its actions. Justice is usually pictured holding a set of scales and blindfolded against the possibility that she may be partial or become sympathetic. There is no sympathy in justice alone—only justice! Our lives will be weighed on the scales of justice. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12
By its content justice determines the duties of the individual by the rights others have with regard to it; in this respect justice is related to communal life and thereby provides this criterion as the concept of the state of rights, by which is meant the condition of a society in which the interests of all members are protected against wrongful violation. Ethics, by this definition, is concerned with the duties of the individual; philosophy of right is concerned with the state of right. “Justice claims the creature and execute the law, and the law inflicts the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God,” reports Alma 42.22. The demands of equality for all before the law and of equality of rights are compatible with the demand to differentiate according to given circumstances; and the demands of force against injustice remain linked to those of freedom of criticism and of public justification for the legal necessity of certain coercive measures. Such coercive measures are particularly necessary when the freedom of humans to form themselves rationally within the framework of one’s own life is threatened; this freedom can be threatened because human beings true need for it is at first obscure and can therefore be mistaken and suppressed. “Despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights,” reports Proverbs 3.11-12. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12
There once was a man called Ryan who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt. Ryan had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. However, it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. Ryan was sure he could pay for it later. So he signed a contract that allowed him to pay off his purchase sometime in the future. Ryan did not worry about the cost and finance charges because the due date seemed such a long time away. Ryan had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important. However, the creditor was always in his subconscious, and Ryan made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come. However, as it always does, the contract fell due and full payment was demanded. Only then did Ryan realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well. “I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,” he confessed. “Then,” said Vince, the creditor, “We will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced. Run me my money, and you are never going to see the light of day!” #RandolphHarris 4 of 12
Ryan was absolutely drenched in sweat and feeling nervous, anxious, and stressed. The survival part of his brain had been triggered. His heart was beating faster, and his hands were trembling. “Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?” Ryan begged. “Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?” Vince, the creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?” Ryan replied, “I believed in justice when I signed the contract. It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.” Vince got upset and raised his voice, “Ryan, it is justice that demands that you pay this contract or suffer the penalty. Is you dumb, is you drunk?! Do you not hear the words coming out of my mouth? That is the law and you have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.” There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other. “If you do not forgive the debt, there will be no mercy,” Ryan pleaded. “If I do, there will be no justice,” Vince replied. A friend stepped in and pay them debt for Ryan, and set new terms for Ryan to repay his debt overtime. That way there was justice and mercy, as no contact was broken. Both laws stood fulfilled. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12
It is interest which makes value judgments possible. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied. As one can see, two basic ethical principles from these interests were highlighted: the law of the balanced consideration of all interests affected by one’s own deeds and the ideal of forming one’s own life independently, according to the ideas of the true, the beautiful, and the good. These two principles are linked by the fact that, on the one hand, the law of balanced consideration, as a categorical imperative, determines the necessary limiting condition for the ideal value of human behavior; on the other hand, the ideal of rational self-determination leads to the doctrine of the true interests of humanity and finds in these interests the standard for a balanced consideration of conflicting interests. Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us. And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended even if there is one who is both willing and able to assume our debt and pay the price and arrange the terms for our redemption. Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untampered, unsympathetic, must, absolutely must fall on us. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12
The principles demonstrated are formal and permit determination of concrete ethical demands only through their application to given circumstances as justified by experience. However, it is precisely this application of the principles of the World of experience which requires preparatory philosophical investigation if the application is to be guarded against hasty generalization of single results, in which changing circumstances are not take into account, and against opportunistic adaptation to circumstances without regard for the practical consequences of ethical principles. In the system as a whole, ethics and philosophy of right appear side by side. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be extracted from us to the uttermost farthing. However, know this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and humans, the Savior,” reports 1 Timothy 2.5.T There is no God but The God. In a single stroke, this affirmation demolished forever God’s rivals for human’s loyalty. Once for all, it toppled the innumerable idols. God lives forever. Through the Savior mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. All humankind can be protected by the law of justice, and at once each of us individually may be extended the redeeming and healing blessing of mercy. This opens the way for each of us to keep our spiritual accounts paid up. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12
Keep your life in perspective and be constant in prayer. The most important and difficult lesson humans must learn and continually relearn, the Bible assumes, is that we are not God. Creature rather than creator, humans have nevertheless an inveterate tendency to place ourselves at the center of God’s Universe and live as law to ourselves. When we do so, however, when we try to play God, everything goes wrong. Humans are creature; our life slips into place and stays in proper perspective only when we recognize this fact. When one asks, therefore, why Christians pray, a partial answer is doubtless: in response to the natural yearning of the human heart to pour forth its love and gratitude toward its Creator. However, accompanying this desire is a need to keep our lives in their proper perspective; to see it in its objective setting; to acknowledge our humanity before our creator, and to submit ourselves to the will of God as rightfully sovereign over our lives. It is one of the glories of faith, that its temples are not always made by hands, and that our prayer ceremonies and spiritual worship can be performed anywhere upon God’s Earth or under the Lord’s Heaven. Every corner of God’s Universe being equally pure, the faithful are encouraged to pray wherever they find peace. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12
You, perhaps, are among those troubled people. When you come face to face with yourself in those moments of quiet contemplation—that many of us try to avoid—are there some unsettled things that bother you? Do you have something on your conscience? Are you still, to one degree or another, guilty of anything small or large? We often try to solve guilt problems by telling one another that they do not matter. However somehow, deep inside, we do not believe one another. Nor do we believe ourselves if we say it. We know better. They do matter! Our transgression are all added to our account, and one day if it is not properly settled, each of us, like Belshazzar of Babylon, will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. Belshazzar was king of Babylon from 555 to 539 BC. Remember when King Belshazzar held a last great feast at which he saw a hand writing on wall following words in Aramaic: “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” The prophet Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the wall as God’s judgment on the king, foretold the imminent destruction of the city. And, as prophesized, King Belshazzar died after Babylon fell to the Persian general Gobyras without resistance on 12 October 539 BC, and probably before the Persian king Cyrus II entered the city 17 days later. Belshazzar was allegedly punished for his tyrannous oppression of his Jewish subjects, and because God warned him, but he did not repent. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12
There is a Redeemer, a Mediator, who stands both willing and able to appease the demands of justice and extend mercy to those who are penitent, for “He offered himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of law be answered,” reports 2 Nephi 2.7. Already the Savior has accomplished the redemption of all humankind from mortal death; resurrection is extended to all without condition. The Savior also makes possible redemption from the second death, which is the spiritual death, which is separation from the presence of our Heavenly Father. This redemption can come only to those who are clean, for no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God. If justice decrees that we are not eligible because of our transgression, mercy provides a probation, a penitence, a preparation to enter in. Although we know how poor words can be, we also know that such feelings are often carried by the spirit, even without words. At times, we all struggle under the burden of imperfections. Nevertheless, because we know that God lives, there is a supreme recurring happiness and joy. There is only one place where we are particularly vulnerable—when we know that we have abused someone, or caused them hurt, or offended them. It is then that we know what agony is. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12
Ideally, every micro-second of our lives should be lifted to God in gratitude. What happens in nature is, according to the laws of nature, dependent on the given circumstances and on the forces working through them, which are indifferent to ethical values: Under the laws of nature it is a matter of chance whether what should happen is in fact what happens or whether ethical demands are ignored. However, what ethics demands should not be subject to chance but assured by the human will. The law of character in ethics, which demands from the humans the establishment of a basic willingness to fulfill their duties, by which they make themselves independent of concrete circumstances; their inclinations and the influences on the will may or may not be in agreement with the commands of duty. There are certain postulates. These determine the forms of reciprocal action in society which alone assure just relations between individuals; among them are public justice, prosecutability, the law of contract, and the law of property. The transitions from ethics to pedagogy and from philosophy of rights to politics are made in the same spirit. Education, among the many influences on humans, should strengthen our capacity or create those elements which develop one’s capacity for good and oppose those that could weaken this capacity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12
Everything that happens in nature (including human behavior) is determined by natural laws working through existing powers, and the practical one, which presents the human will with duties that can either be violated and ignored or become humanity’s purpose. Thus, ethical standards should be maintained without compromise and we must reject the skeptical assumption that humans, as a limited creature of nature, are incapable of maintaining them; this assumption is considered a sacrifice of known ethical truth, a mere excuse for those who are able but not willing. The human will should act according to the strongest motivation of the moment, without any guarantee from nature that this motivation will direct one toward what is ethically required. Knowledge is limited to the understanding of relationships in the sphere of experience but cannot achieve absolute perception of reality itself. In the consciousness of our freedom, which is indissolubly bound to the knowledge of our responsibility, humans relate themselves by faith to the World of that which is real in itself and superior to the limitations of nature. We should critically examine our own convictions, and carry out what we recognize as just and goo in our actions. Ethics is there to be used. Redemption’s grand design is where justice, love, and mercy meet in harmony divine! #RandolphHarris 12 of 12
Strong Family Cultures Will Help Our Children Live in the World
Some families are in jeopardy of being lost. Values are the prime target of the adversary, as well are the sanctity of marriage and the central importance of families. It is the duty of parents to teach their children to keep the commandments of God. Our morals and spiritual values provide an anchor and the safe harbor of a home where each child of a loving Heavenly Father can be influenced for food and acquire eternal values. People who feel the love and support of their parents are proud of the example they have set. This makes life so enjoyable for many families that the children want to follow in the footsteps of the parents, to continue on through experiencing the same joy that had been theirs in their younger days. Some parents always find the time to take the family on vacation and they can count on fun experiences. As a result of such a solid background, the children are not able to turn from the teachings of their parents because their actions would reflect on their parents’ character. Culture is defined as the way of life of a people. There is a unique gospel culture, a set of values and expectations and practices common to all followers of God. This gospel culture, or way of life, comes from the plan of salvation, the commandments of God, and the teachings of living prophets. It is given expression in the way we raise our families and live our individual lives. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
However, so much has changed during our lifetime. The effects of childhood trauma, including emotional neglect or abuse in childhood, can have alarmingly potent effect on our psyche as we enter adulthood, event to the extent of rewiring the brain. The children of narcissistic parents, those who meet the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, know this all too well, having been raised by someone with a limited capacity for empathy and an excessive sense of grandiosity, false superiority and entitlement. Children of narcissistic parents are programmed at an early age to seek validation where there is one, to believe their worthiness is tied to the reputation of their families, and to internalize the message that they can only sustain their value by how well they can serve the needs of their parents. If given at all, they have lived an existence where love was rarely given. As the child of a narcissistic parent or parent, one is taught that they are not inherently worthy, but rather that there worth depended on what they could do for the narcissistic parent and how compliant one is. The emphasis on appearance, status, reputation is at an all-time high in households with a narcissistic parent. Due to the narcissistic parent’s grandiosity, false mask and need to be the best, children in these situations are probably part of a family that was presented in the best possible light, with neglect taking place behind closed doors. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
There is something really disturbing about parents who compete with their kids. Women who strive to be as hot as their teenage daughters. Parents threatened by the success of their adult children. Men who date girls the same age as their son’s girlfriend or daughter. And men who actually date their son’s girlfriends. Some parents even conspire with the children’s enemies to hurt their own kids because they envy them so much. So how have we gotten to this place? We all know that times have changed—and parenting is much more difficult as a result. Some parents feel like they did not have a chance to live the life they wanted so they take out their anger usually on one child who reminds them of what they would like to be. Let us take a closet look and find a way out of this madness and toward a better way to parent. Shine a light on yourself, rather than on your child. Get out of the mindset that your child is the enemy and you must win. Win what? No matter how your child behaves, you must commit to parenting from thoughtfulness, not anxiety, jealousy, and reactivity. Keep in the forefront of your mind that even at times of high stress, you are an adult and your children are supposed to learn from you. You want your children to look back and think of you as someone who loved God, followed the laws, and did everything possible to protect them, instead of sabotaging their lives and setting them up to fail. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
As adults, some people know that their parent or parents are bad and do not have their best interest at heart, but they still talk to them because they know their parents will not live forever and want to enjoy them while they are around, while secretly praying that their parent will repent and start showing them rest and unconditional love. Strong leaders focus on the preservation of their own integrity. They have a willingness to take responsibility for their own emotional well-being and do not try to make other people happy by changing their character. Being a strong leader is a quality that will actually help your child want to be led by you, rather than battle you. Remember that you are on your child’s team, not on the opposing side. You should not be sharing the personal business with their enemies who happen to be dangerous nor plotting to end the life of your own child. Some people saw that Casper the Ghost is a cautionary tale about Richie’s parents from Richie Rich killing him for insurance money. The Bible predicted that in the last days, “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law,” reports Luke 12.53. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
Lessons taught in the home by goodly parents are becoming increasingly important in today’s World, where the influence of the adversary is so wide spread. As we know, he is attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society—the family. In cleaver and carefully camouflaged ways, the wicked one is attacking commitment to family life throughout the World and undermining the culture and covenants of faithful believers in God. Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility. We must train up our children in the way he or he should go, this responsibility ultimately rests on the parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is goodly parents with the care and development of Heavenly Father’s children. Parents should also pray in earnest, asking our Eternal Father to help them love, understand, and guide the children the Lord sent to them. It is also a good idea to hold family prayer, scripture study, and family home evenings and eat together as often as possible, making dinner a time of communication and the teachings of values. Parents should also share their testimonies often with their children, commit them to keep the commandments of God, and promise the blessings that our Heavenly Father promises his faithful children. Our strengthened family cultures will be a protection for our children from the fiery darts of the adversary embedded in their peer culture, the entertainment and television news. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
If Envy Were a Fever, All the World Would be Ill!
We often hear that the love of money is the root of all evil, but it is not. The love of money, however, can be evil. If you have money you can get things and do things. Because people believe money has power, it can be incredibly difficult to stay on the right course and not lose one’s soul in the process. Many people lose sight of where they come from and make decision that satisfy their personal desires. They forget, or choose to forget who was there for them when they needed to borrow money to pay the mortgage, or when they sold a car under false pretenses, but kept the car and the money, or who shared their Christmas bonus with them. They forget about how much money they took from your family to get where they are today, and when they feel they have made it, materialistic people no longer have a use for you because they see you as inferior and your life does not matter to them. These types of covetous people will sale your secrets to your enemy. Will take bribes to set you up so they can ruin your life because they want to infect others with the pain they experienced growing up in poverty and deprivation. “For the love of money people will steal from their mother. For the love of money people will rob their own brother. For the love of money people will lie, Lord, they will cheat. For the love of money people will sell their precious body for a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight. Call it lean, mean, mean, green Almighty dollar,” (For the Love of Money by the O’Jays). #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Money talks, and it can start to define people and their respective lifestyles. The clothes you wear, the house you live in, the car you drive and the job you occupy all serve as indicators to one’s personal success. As a collection, these materials signify, in some form, who you are as a person. At least that is what materialistic people believe. However, it does not take money nor power to be a decent human being. We all know shallow people who do not care what other think of them and have done some strange things for some change. Then they start to think they are better than others because their hustling and illegal activities have allowed them to obtain luxury items, expensive cars, and lavish homes. And they forget all about the people they stole from, betrayed, and hurt to get where they are. Some people had never really experienced being financially strapped because they made the right decision in life. Get a job at a young age, go to college, and worked toward a degree. People sometimes people who had kids at an early age, where on government relief, and experienced and abusive married are jealous that someone did things the right want and want to see that person suffer. And after they bring you down and you see what poverty is like and are trying to work your way out of it, they know you need help, but instead they pretend not to know what you are going through. Because you are a forgiving person, you do not spite them, but wish them well. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
As you try hard to work your way back to success, your heart and mind will not even allow you to ask people with an ugly spirit for help. All money and not good money and although they stole from you and hurt you, it is better to struggle and try hard so when you come back up, you do not have any obligations to unholy people. People abuse their power and fail to treat others with the respect they deserve. The fundamental idea of respect is one that we can all agree upon, and it is an essential basis for solving our everyday problems. While people may spread lies and make up rumors about you, it is essential to seek first to understand before judging someone. Everyone has had different experiences in their lives that have helped shape who they are now. Growing up in a small rural community has taught me so many things. It is nearly impossible to enjoy life in a rural community without showing others respect. Our actions towards others determine our reputation, no matter what people say about us out of envy and malice. If people do not like their reputation, they can change their actions. Our actions is the one thing we can control. When it comes to overcoming being greedy, selfish, and overly indulgent, we all need more help. The worst fear many have is people will get rich in this country and forget God and his people. We will all be literally called upon to make an accounting before God concerning how we have used our resources to bless lives and build the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
No one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another. God loves us each of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. God does not want any of us to suffer, but sometimes we learn lessons as we suffer. We learn what it is like to be injured, hungry, poor, and unpopular. These are important things for some people to experience so they do not grow up to become monsters. It teaches us to be more understanding, humble, more compassionate, and show respect to people we do not know. We learn not to become a prisoner—a prisoner of sin, stupidity, and a pigsty. God does not want us to wallow with swine. People who take for granted their father and disenfranchise their family members will fall victim to a fictional affront. Even if we are not making as much money as we used to or live in a place the is rather shabby and loud, we still can be very happy with our lives. Keep in mind, wealth cannot buy health. If envy were a fever all the World would be ill. And even though you see your material lifestyles as being a shadow of what it used to be, people can still be jealous of you because of how well you are coming through the white squall they created in your life. Because envy is so far reaching—it can resent anything, including virtue and talent, and it can be offended by everything, including every goodness and joy. As we seem to grow larger in the sight of others, they feel that they are growing smaller. And they keep spending money to make themselves feel better, while you are still steadfastly focused of spiritual enlightenment and career development. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The purpose of life is learning as much as we can so that we can be ready for the gift of eternal life. There is more to come after our mortal bodies are no more. Our souls are eternal and the actions we choose in this lifetime determine how our eternal life will be. It is also better to go through this life with a clear conscience, as a guilty conscience might be worse than hell. This is a great truth. Understanding the plan for eternal life will help people keep the commandments, make better decision, and have the right motivation. The eternal perspective of the gospel leads us to understand the place that we occupy in God’s plan, to accept difficulties and progress through them, to make decisions, and to center our lives on our divine potential. Perspective is the way we see things when we look at them from a certain distance, and it allows us to appreciate their true value. We were taught this plan before we came to Earth and there rejoiced in the privilege of participating in it. Perhaps people who used you and hurt you do not understand what life is about and we should feel sorry for them that money is the only thing that matters to them because the great wicked one also has a plan, it is cunning, evil, subtle plan of destruction. It is the great wicked one’s objective to take captive the children of Father in Heaven and with every possible means frustrate the great plan of happiness. However, our Heavenly Father endowed his sons and daughters with unique traits especially fitted for their individual responsibilities as they fulfill God’s plan. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The struggle to success is a difficult one. For those of us that have a belief in God, the right combination of smarts and tenacity, we are blessed to have been cultivated in large by our actively influential surroundings. The environment we grew up in is an important factor in our upbringing and in the success that we will one day achieve. This is not to say that we are product of our circumstances entirely—there have been several people who were subject to horrific situations growing up, and through the love and guidance of God, that managed to make themselves into something and were successful in morphing their dreams into a reality. Whether we embrace our environment growing up and think back to it fondly, or remember our situation growing up and thank our lucky stars that we were able to make it out alive—the fact remains the same: our past made us who we are today and if we are happy with who we are, we cannot wish to have lived a different way. That includes where and with whom we grew up. “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect,” reports Matthew 5.48. Mortal perfection can be achieved as we try to perform every duty, keep every law, and strive to be perfect in our sphere as our Heavenly Father is in his. If we do the best we can, the Lord will bless us according to our deeds and the desires of our hearts. The Lord’s entire work and glory pertains to the immortality and eternal life of each human being. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
It is No Small Thing that Symbols Reappear in the Word of Wisdom
In darkness, there is to be found precious brilliance, our essential nature. Make a believer of everyone. All that matter is how you want to live your life. Faith is much more than passive belief. We express our faith through action—by the way we live. Our faith can lead us to do good works, obey the commandments, and repent of our sins. When the grace of God descends on us, each one of us will understand our own mistakes. The Lord has laid out different paths for different people suitable for our natures. The Lord will work mighty miracles in our lives according to our faith. When times of trial come, faith can give us strength to press forward and face our hardships with courage. Even when our future seems uncertain, our faith in God can give us peace. When it is compounded with gratitude for the goodness of this life which God’s sovereignty has effected and is continuously sustaining we have the concept of grace: God’s free and unstinted gifts to humanity not only have made our lives possible but sustain and enable it at every point along the way. Religion brushed with mystery. Authority, ritual, speculation, tradition, grace, and God’s sovereignty has important functions to perform in our lives. The angles of God can open our hearts and fill them with light. We can nurture the gift of faith by praying to Heavenly Father. As we express our gratitude to our Father and as we plead with the Lord for blessings that we and others need, we will draw near to God. We will also be receptive to the quiet guidance of the Holy Ghost. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
A desire to believe in God can lead us to the great chain of being. The vastness of nature can equally well be taken as evidence of humanity’s importance in God’s eyes. God-intended destiny of discovering the revealed word of God in planted in our hearts will allow us to begin to enlarge our souls and enlighten our understanding of this web of ambiguities in nature and provide greater precision and stability. This will strengthen our faith. As we continually nurture the word of God in our hearts, with great diligence, and patience humanity is guaranteed a position of dignity in the ladder of being. Once this happens, our enemies can do nothing to seal our hearts against the words of God. Slowly but steadily people of energy, talent, and worth become convinced of the truth in the scriptures as God works through us as standing miracles. Obedience to God’s laws, principles, and promptings leads to spiritual and temporal blessings. Individual accountability and action activate blessings, as an infallible revelation of God’s will. Please be assured that we are all children of our Father in Heaven. He loves us and will never forsake us. God knows us and is ready to extend the spiritual and temporal blessings of self-reliance. God has our best interests at heart. God has the supremacy to overshadow the entire Universe with this power and grace. The Lord is almighty, omnipotent, the Lord of Worlds, the Author of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of life and death in whose hand is dominion and irresistible power. He can deliver us from affliction. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
If we were asked to believe that all our striving is without final consequence, then life is meaningless and it scarcely matters how we live if all will end in the dust of death. According to Christianity, on the other hand, each action has vital significance. God’s grand design is life eternal for those who walk in the steps of the Savior. Here is the one grand incentive to good living, as life is seen to have purpose and meaning, people find release from despair and the fear of death. God is the Holy, Peaceful, Faithful, Guardian over his children. The Lord is Gracious, a Hearer, Compassionate, Merciful, Very-Forgiving, and his love for humanity is more tender than the most precious silk scarf. Whatever the meaning of life acquires is derived from the encounter between God and each person. The meaning thus conferred upon human life cannot be understood in terms of some finite human purpose, supposedly more ultimate than the meeting itself. For what could be more ultimate then the Presence of God? By noonday brightness, and by the night when it darkens, the Lord has not forsaken us, neither has he been displeased. Surely the future shall be better than the past; and in the end God shall be bounteous to us, and we shalt be satisfied. Did God not find the orphans, and give him and her a home and guide them and enrich them? #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Standing beneath God’s gracious skies, we can at any moment lift our hearts directly into the divine presence, there to receive both strength and guidance for the living of our days. We have such ready access to the divine because between us and God stands nothing. Is God not closer than the vein of thy neck? Thou need not raise thy voice, for God knows the secret whisper, and what is yet more hidden. God knows that is in the land and in the sea; no leaf falls but God knows it; nor is there a grain in the darkness under the Earth, nor a thing green or sere, but it is recorded. God, then, is one, immaterial, all-powerful, all-pervading, and benevolent. God deliberately created the Heavens and the Earth. The World of matter is completely real. It is dependent to be sure on God as its creator, but once originated it is as real as anything there is. Being the handiwork of a God who is both great and good, the World of matter must likewise be basically good. No defect can we see in the creation of the God of mercy; repeat the gaze and you will see no flaw. God’s supreme accomplishment lies in the fact that he created human beings. And one of the most important things to note about humanity’s view of being is an appreciation of both the ultimacy and value of individuality. The human soul is also eternal, for once created the soul lives forever. Value, virtue, goodness, and spiritual fulfillment come by expressing one’s unique self by virtue of which one is different from anyone or anything else. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
This inexplicable finite center of experience is the fundamental fact of the Universe. The soul is always attached to life in some way. Its suffering initiates a move toward increased spirituality. All life is individual; there is no such thing as a Universal life. God himself is an individual: The Lord is the most unique individual. So intense and vivid is the Bible’s feel for God’s power and sovereign will that some interpreters have concluded that it eclipses human’s freedom. However, whoever gets oneself a sin, gets it solely on his or her own responsibility. Whoever goes astray, one oneself bears the whole responsibility of wandering. This belief in humanity’s freedom and responsibility leads directly to the doctrine of the afterlife. For life on Earth is the foundation of an eternal future. It will be followed by a day of reckoning which is foreshadowed in the most awesome term. When the Sun shall be folded up, and the stars shall fall, and when the mountains shall be set in motion and the seas shall boil, then shall every soul know what is has done. On that day of judgment each individual will be accountable for the way he or she has lived. Every person’s actions have we hung around their neck, and on the last day shall it be laid before him or her a wide-open Book. For the scriptures tell us, seven times they report to us, that no unclean thing may enter the presence of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
In mortality people are free to choose, and each choice begets consequence. Depending on how it fares in this accounting the soul will then repair either to Heaven or Hell. Heaven abounds in deep rivers of cool, crystal water, lush fruit and vegetation, boundless fertility, and beautiful mansions with gracious attendants. Pearly gates and streets of gold. Hell is at times equally graphic with its account of molten metal, boiling liquids, and the fire that splits everything to pieces. Some of these signs are firm—these are the basis of the book—and others are figurative. Also, supporting the non-materialistic interpretation of paradise is that God wants us to see his face night and more as it is felicity which will surpass all the pleasures of the body, as the ocean surpasses a drop of sweat. From this view, the joy of joys consists in the beatific vision in which the veil which divides humans from God will be rent forever and his Heavenly glory disclosed to the soul untrammeled by its Earthly raiments. The belief that unites us all concerning the afterlife is that each soul will be held accountable for its actions on Earth with one’s happiness or misery thereafter dependent upon how well one has observed God’s laws. If punishment is the charge repentance asks, it comes at a bargain price. Consequences, even painful ones, protect us. So simple a thing as a child’s cry of pain when his or her finger touches fire can teach us that. Except for the pain, the child might be consumed. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
How supernally precious freedom is; how consummately valuable is the agency of humanity. Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful. King of the day of Judgement, we worship you and as you for help. Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom you have favored, not the path of those who incur your anger nor of those who go astray. Why the straight path? One meanings is obvious; a straight path is undevious, neither crooked nor corrupt. The straight path is one that is straightforward, direct, and explicit. We know where we stand. We know who we are and who God is. We know what our obligations are and if these are transgress we know what to do about it. There would be no peace, neither happiness nor safety, in a World without repentance. Atonement was made. Every and always it offers amnesty from transgression and from death if we will but repent. Repentance is the escape clause in it all. Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from the inside. We hold that key within our hands, and agency is ours to use it. We look up, and in the Universe we see the handiwork of God and measure things by epochs, by eons, by dispensations, by eternities. The many things we do not know we take on faith. However, this we know! It was all planned before the World was. Events from the creation to the final, winding-up scene are not based on chance; they are based on choice. It was planned that way. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
God is the Lonely Cosmic Dancer Whose Routine is All Creatures and All Worlds
We know the current state of things is not right. It has been brought about by a script for what supposedly constitutes a successful nation that has been playing out particularly the past few years. While it is granted that there are inevitable tragic aspects of life, knowledge of existence and nature is to be preferred to illusions. America is no longer a population building country and some might even say that it is overpopulated, which is why housing, cars, clothes, food, medical care, and legally assistance is so expensive. The symbols that used to guide our minds, hearts, and souls no longer sustain us as a people. We are waking up from illusion of material reality. People want things to go back to the way they used to be in the past when a person could work at a supermarket and could afford a brand-new house, car, and support a family on one’s salary. Because the United States of America has, in modern times, been outsourcing jobs and production to other countries, so that companies can earn more profits from lower labor cost, it has hurt America by creating huge deficits and suppressing the wages of American workers. The economy consists of millions of people engaged in many activities—buying, selling, working, hiring, manufacturing and so on. A closed economy is a self-contained economic unit that has no business or trading relations with anyone outside of that unit. This model is why the United States of America used to be so innovative and produced a large number of scholars and Academics, as we had to solve our own problems and produce future leaders, so people took education more seriously. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
A closed economy does not engage in international trade in goods and services, nor does it engage in international borrowing and lending, which is why generations of the past could keep the national deficit low and traditional jobs, not just professional ones allowed people to ability to afford to live in their communities, as the closed system was characterized by a small amount of exposure to external markets, as opposed to the relatively open economy. As a nation, our economy used to follow the circular-flow diagram, where firms produced goods and services using inputs such as domestic labor, and capital (buildings and machines). These inputs are called the factors of production. Households own the factors of production and consume all the goods and services that the firms produced. Self-reliance means that the country does not have to worry about the global economy. A closed region is independent from other regions, so there is no fear of coercion nor interference. A direct result of not relying on other countries and regions is that the closed economic region is independent. An open economic region, or one that depends on importing and exporting, is susceptible to external demands that could weaken the region’s infrastructure, much like when OPEC manipulated that gas prices to cause fuel to cost three or four times as much as it used to, while you are still making the same wages before the cost of fuel skyrocketed. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
Market manipulation in an open economy means you have less money to spend on others bills and goods and services, which could hurt your bottom line, or even cause your lifestyle to become unaffordable. This also may force businesses to sell good at extravagant prices just to cover transit, which can lead to weak sales. Much like how consumers and businesses now have to pay taxes on items they buy online, along with shipping, which will make the items much more expensive than the ones they buy in the store. Because of the increased costs, more consumers might return to shopping in the physical stores in the material World, which is the point, but this will also add to more cars on the road, and more people waiting in line at the stores, and that is a major disadvantage because time is money. When prices increase, it also may keep people from obtaining goods necessary for living, which can weaken the economy. Closing such regions economically eradicates high transit costs, leaving more money for the internal economy. This is why President Trumps is placing tariffs on foreign goods because many American companies are being shut down, as they cannot compete with more cost-effective products coming from other countries. Because we are importing so many goods and services, much of our money is being sent overseas, helping other nations develop faster, and is causing a national security problem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The catch up effect, alternatively called the theory of convergence, demonstrates how poor or developing economies grown faster compared to economics with a higher per capita income and gradually reach similar high levels of per capita income. Basically, poorer nations are grow much faster because of higher possibilities of growth and over time catch up with the richer countries in terms of per capita income such that the divide between the two gets minimized. And that is why the trade deficit and national debt is a matter of national security. Because of opportunities of growth available for developing economics like access to technological know how from the developed Word and increasing returns to capital, they may one day become a World power, which puts the status of the United States of America in jeopardy. The US trade deficit is $46.2 billion, and the US national debt is $21.2 trillion. If America loses its status as a World power, we could be occupied by another government and subjected to human rights violations, slave wages, loss of private property, slavery and more. Empirical evidence suggests that while some developing economics have been able to effectively tap the available advantages to grow faster and catch up with robust economies, this has not been true for a large part of the developing World, but with the United States going into so much debt and borrowing so much money for foreign sources, we are weakening America as a nation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Mr. Desmond Townsend
Also, if we had a closed economy, we would have already figured out how to produce cars that run on other types of fuel, besides oil. And face it, no one, especially the youth wants to sit around charging a car for hours. We are already experiencing an over consumption of electric, which is why we had rolling blackouts a few years ago and the very reason power companies are asking you to use major appliances at night and not heat nor cool your homes as desired. As a result of high demand on electricity, the California Energy Department is placing restriction of all new homes three stories and less that they have to have solar panels, which will increase the cost of your home by at least $10,000.00 and there is no cap on that expense. As you know, prices of technology can rise overtime. And the federal government plans to hike interest rates four times this year to keep up with inflation, so the cost of the mortgage will rise even higher, making homes even more expensive than they are. People are demanding more homeownership, family, and financial security. A desire for community and authenticity is strong and growing. Many individuals want what is real, and not just regularly scheduled programming and the constant onslaught of fame, wealth, greed, social propaganda, and survivalist tendencies it celebrates, and that is why we have to support goods and services produced domestically. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
If you want your wages to rise to keep up with inflation, we have to start supporting American made goods and services, which will cost us more in the short term. However, as costs keep rising and more money is being spent in our domestic economy, in the long term it will also cause wages to rise so people can afford to buy the goods and services. However, if we keep sending our money overseas and buying foreign products, other nations will have caught up to America and surpass us, while we decline and the cost of living increasingly becomes unaffordable. Already, 43 percent of Americans are struggling, and experiencing food shortages, economical insecurity, and unstable households. Some people worry each month about paying their bills and as the bills keep going up and their wages are not, they fear they are being priced out of their homes, or eventually will be. Decreases in the money supply, cuts in government spending, and increases in taxes lead to lower inflations, but higher unemployment. Because we have been outsourcing labor, wages are suppressed. How many people do you know who can live off $10-$15 an hour, when rent for a one-bedroom apartment is on average $1,505.00 a month? An economist actually reported if minimum wage were keeping up with inflation, it would be about $28.00 an hour. And with the mandated increase in minimum wage to $15 an hour, many skilled workers will experience pay deflation, so something really needs to be done to correct this unstable market. It is not fair to work your way up to $20 an hour and a new employee with no experience comes in making $15.00. #RandolphHarrris 6 of 8
Because of how stressful life and the economy are for many is the reason a lot of people do not watch the news. No one wants to be reminded daily that they are being priced out of a country they and their ancestors helped build. However, when we feel far from God, we need only to make the decision to turn from sin and face the Savior, where we will find the Lord waiting for us, with his arms outstretched. God is here to guide us, and we are just one prayer away from receiving the guidance again. On matters of such supreme moment, the truth rather than fiction is the more fitting ideal of rational people. The power of God awaits our demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its wisdom. What an incomparable gift comes to those who put their faith in God. That gift is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s power in action, his active force. It is the vital, or animating, force in living creatures. God sends out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish his will. The Holy Spirit inspires us, empowers us and guides our understanding. The Spirit touches our hearts and transforms us, renewing the image of God in which we were created. God wants us to have the Spirit’s gifts to build up the Lord’s kingdom. Miracles will be wrought, the infirmary will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. The Spirit is, as well, the ultimate solution for all our maladies and problems. Those who respond to the Spirit the Lord renews and transforms into the image of God. Guilt, stress, hostility, and a host of other problems melt in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Father, son, and the Holy Ghost are one Spirit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Some may think we should not expect daily guidance from the Spirit. However, to live by the Spirit is a high privilege. It brings a sense of cam and certainty as well as the products of the Spirit such as love, joy, and peace. In many situations, being familiar with the voice of the Holy Ghost is a matter of spiritual life and death. Whoso will hearken unto the word of God, and hold fast unto it will never perish; neither can the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Following the feet of the people ahead of you on the path is not enough. We cannot just do and think what others are doing and thinking; we must live a guided life. We must each have our own understanding of faith. Then we may go to the Lord with humble confidence, knowing that he shall lead us by the hand, and give us answers to our prayers. Then we will achieve a realistic outlook on the World and will be freed from the knows of the heat and the identification of the self with the Spirit. Thus liberated we will perform our royal duties efficiently, like an actor on the stage. Following this example and the teachings in the scriptures, we will no longer be motivated by temptations and they will no longer possess us. Like a child playing alone, God is the lonely cosmic dancer whose routine is all creatures and all Worlds. From the tireless stream of the Lord’s cosmic energy these flow without end as God executes his graceful, repetitious movements. #RandolpHarris 8 of 8
Give Me Something to Desire
Conditions that work against happiness may work for, not against, the developing, trying, and testing of the moral fiber. Love is not primarily a relationship to specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the World as a whole, not toward one object of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of society, his or her love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarge sense of pride. When we reflect on the tragedies or our own loves, when we slowly find our way through their miseries, we are being initiated into the mysterious ways of the soul. Love is the means of entry and our guide that keeps us on our path. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and direction we would have never predicted or desired, then we are on the way toward discovering the true meaning of soul, where honor and value reveal themselves meticulously and paradoxically. This is the shortest path to divine realization. It requires a rare combination of rationality and spirituality. Life is not motored so much by reason as by emotion, and of the many emotions that crowd a person’s life, the most powerful and pervasive is love. Even hate can be interpreted as a rebound from the thwarting of this impulse. Moreover, we tend to become like that which we love, and God lies at the base of every heart. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
If we shift our attachment to God, we will reach him in no time. The moral life is not a mere conforming to given static principles and rules but it is directing the moral agent along certain paths of self-development. There is development within the moral ideal: We discover tomorrow that today’s ideal has more in it than we had supposed. Our goal is to adore God with every element of our being. The normal object of human love is personality, however exalted its attributes of wisdom, compassion, and grace may be. All we have to do is to love God dearly—not just say we love him but love the Lord in fact; love him only (loving other things because of him), and love our Lord for no ulterior reasons (not even from the desire for liberation) but for love’s sake alone. Insofar as we succeed we will know joy, for no experience can compare with that of being authentically and fully in love. Moreover, every strengthening of our affections toward God will weaken the World’s grip. The stain may, indeed will, love the World far more than the addict, but one will love it in a different way, seeing in it the reflected glory of the God one adores. How is this love of God to be developed? Obviously the task will not easy. The things of this World clamor for our affection so incessantly that it may be marveled that a Being who can neither be seen nor heard can ever become their competitor. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
However, we must keep our faith and yield our hearts to God. When we open ourselves to the Spirit, we learn God’s way and feel his will. These magnificent symbols and rituals keep turning night and day like a never-ending prayer wheel. As our trust in God grows, we open our hearts, seek to do the Lord’s will, and wait for answers that will help us understand. And the Lord will forgive our sins that are due to our human limitations. Purposeful, valuable activity produces an extension of our conscious present; it delivers us from the dullness of one thing after another. The value of faith lies in the power to recall our minds from the World’s distractions to the thought of God and thereby progressively to his love. In singing God’s praises, in praying to him with wholehearted devotion, in meditating on his majesty and glory, in reading about him in the scriptures, in regarding the entire Universe as his handiwork, we move our affections steadily in his direction. The cause in this development is well expressed by the account of eternity—the complete and simultaneous fruition of life without bounds. Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good. This does not mean all things are good, but for the meek and faithful, things—both negative and beneficial—work together for good, and the timing is the Lord’s. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
We wait on God, sometimes like Job in his suffering, knowing that God makes the sore bind itself: one who is wounded, God will make whole. A meek heart accepts the trail and the waiting for that time of healing and wholeness to come. When we open ourselves to the Spirit, we learn God’s way and feel the Lord’s will. When we are yielded and still, our minds can be directed to something more we may need to change—something that is reducing our capacity to receive spiritual guidance or even healing and help. For example, perhaps I have a carefully guarded resentment toward someone. When I ask if there is more to confess, that secret comes clearly to my memory. In essence, the Holy Ghost is whispering, “You honestly asked if there was more, and here it is. Your resentment diminishes your progress and damages your ability to have healthy relationships. You can let this God.” Oh, it is hard work—we may feel quite justified in our animosity—but yielding to the Lord’s way is the only way to lasting happiness. The healing of our heart begins when we submit to and worship God. When our hearts are right, that is when true worship begins. What is our heart condition today? Paradoxically, in order to have a healed and faithful heart, we must first allow it to break before the Lord. “You shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit,” the Lord declares. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The result of sacrificing our heart, or our will, to the Lord is that we receive the spiritual guidance we need. This frequent service of the will becomes a constant, warming presence that imperceptibly becomes a genuine appeal of the heart and soul. Keep the faith in God spinning in the midst of all your activities and one day you will see your wildest dreams come true. It will be a lot like playing the slot machine in Vegas, when all the symbols come together and you win the jackpot when you least expected it. When the full bounty of the Lord is poured out in your life, the light will come back into your eyes, your soul will shine, and you will have a sense of well-being that you had not experienced since you were a child. These verbal droplets of faith and aspiration will soak down into the subconscious, turning the total self towards the divine. We come finally to worship God in the form of one’s chosen ideal. The more sense is also an influencing motive in our pursuit of virtue and our avoidance of vicious behavior. With a growing understanding of the Lord’s grace and mercy, we find that our self-willed hearts begin to crack and break in gratitude. In our brokenhearted reaching and yoking, we receive new hope and fresh guidance through the Holy Ghost. God’s way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the World to come. We believe in the providence of God, the immortality of human’s soul, and divine retribution in a future life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Virtue consists in pursuing what seems to be in accordance with right reason, but both our capacity to discover what actions accord with reason and our inclination toward those actions flow from a sort of forth dimension: a body which contains a spirit and has a certain spissitude, or density of substances. Some many think that they have failed too many times and feel too weak to change sinful acts or Worldly desires of the heart. However, as a covenant with God, we do not just try and try on our own to change. If we earnestly appeal to God, the Lord will take us as we are—and makes us more than we ever imagined. A healthy longing to improve balanced with the spiritual assurance that in and through the Savior, we are going to make it. With such an understanding, we can honestly say to the Heavenly Father: So trusting my all to thy tender care, and knowing thou loves me, I will do thy will with a heart sincere: I will be what you want me to be. The removal of all struggle and all insecurity would logically and psychologically lead to the prayer: give me something to desire. The term pleasure embraces everything from scratching an itch to enjoying eternal bliss with God. With God, pleasure is a state ad pleasure is a motion. Hence health is a true pleasure. We belittle neither the joy arising from conferral of benefit, not the testimony of a good conscience as the reward for deeds, nor the importance of mental pleasures. Pleasure be natural so that no pain follow the pleasure of the chosen, and that no greater pleasure be lost, and that no social harm results. #Randolphharris 6 of 6
The Idea of a Universe without God is Effroyable–True Beauty is to Behold and Reflect the Beauty of God
The soul exits beyond our personal circumstances and conceptions. We must always keep in mind that God’s greatest gift is eternal life. If you want peace, yours is the responsibility to obtain it. There can be no real happiness without peace, yet honest men and women in all parts of the World are seeking personal peace and know not where to find it. It is the peace that makes us really appreciate mortal life and enables us to bear heartbreaking tribulations. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God,” reports Matthew 5.9. Aesthetics and psychology are closely related. There is a clear distinction between beauty and metaphysical perfection: beauty is an inferior, subjective kind of perfection. Metaphysical perfection consists in unity in a multiplicity. Aesthetic perfection arises out of the limits of human understanding. Humans are unable to conceive, as God can, the real, supreme unity in the enormous variety of things. They must therefore content themselves with introducing an artificial unity (uniformity) into some objects in order to be able to perceive them as wholes; and this is beauty. A beautiful object is not necessarily perfect in itself, but must be perfect in its capacity to be perceived. We all vibrate sympathetically like different octaves of the same tone, our human hearts pulsing in the same rhythms as those of the material and spiritual World. The perception of beauty strengthens the representative activity of the soul and makes it more perfect, thus causing a feeling of pleasure. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
God created the World to put his beauty of display. The perception of beauty causes intuitive knowledge; in its highest stage it becomes the aesthetic illusion in which, for example, fable appears as reality. If we subject it to a process of analysis and definition, the beauty of an object escapes us; therefore, experience of the beautiful cannot be an object knowledge. Even if we do not possess the object, a beautiful object gives us aesthetic pleasure; thus, the approval of beauty must be distinct from desire. The aim is to portray psychological states that everyone experiences. Beauty is not produced by genius. Genius does not imitate nature, but idealizes it; that is, it exhibits natural objects as God would have created them if his aim had been aesthetic and not metaphysical perfection. Genius is independent of rules because it establishes its own rules. A genius’ procedure is instinctive. Because we were created in God’s image, we were made to notice and desire beauty because God is the architect of beauty. Therefore, the beauty of God is as pervasive and practical as the glory of God. If we admire the glory of God, we are admiring God’s beauty. The existence of God and the immortality of the soul can be demonstrated because it is the radiance of the glory of God. The soul is a simple substance and therefore indestructible. Terms such as eternal, simple, and immaterial can be univocally predicated of God. Thee soul might nevertheless lose its consciousness, but the divine wisdom and goodness of God would not allow this to happen. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
Whenever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed. Spirit testifies unto you even so we should do all holiness of heart, walking up right, and considering the end of our salvation, doing all things with thankgiving and prayer that we may not be seduced by evil spirits nor the doctrines of the wicked. God created the glory of light, he prefigured what he would do in the new creation of human hearts. God said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” and it has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the World. In the new creation, we see the beauty of God in our daily lives. In the old creation, we see the beauty of God in the Heavens and the Earth. The body is not just an object among objects; nor is it just a contingent fact that our perceptual experience is specially conditioned by what occurs in one particular sector of the physical World. Instead, it is precisely because consciousness has a locus within the World that our knowledge of that World has the perspective and uncompletable character. The function of the human body itself, at least at its higher levels, can be understood only is we attribute to it the intentional structures that are reserved for pure consciousness. God is the cause of good in each genus, he called be called by the name of the perfection in these good. God is to human beings as the shepherd is to his or her sheep. Religious language is symbolic, and in fact all statements about God are symbolic, except one—that God id being itself or ground of being. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Metaphysics is an analogical way of thinking, which generalizes from some form of intellectual or spiritual relationship judged to be significant. You cannot pick up the celestial massage, the bread of life, the word of God, with rabbit ears on your human mind, your human body; the message ill not be clear. Metaphysics must be vitally metaphorical; that is, it must preserve the stereoscopic vision necessary to creative thought, if it is to overcome such puzzling dualism as mind-body, without losing the identity of the terms. It is important to keep the mind clear and focused on the Heavenly message. It takes time to plan and install in the human heart and mind an antenna to pick up spiritual revelation and inspiration from God. We must be in tune. If we are out of tune, we are out of harmony, and static and wrong impression come from the wicked adversary and Worldly sources. We can receiver eternal life and salvation from knowing the only true God. Many believe that there is a God, many say that they know there is a God, but many do not act like they know God. There is a great difference in believing or knowing that God is there and in knowing God. When we claim that we know God, it bears great responsibility. And hereby of we keep his commandments, we do know that we know God. People who say that they know God, and keep not his commandments, are liars, and the truth is not in there. One that says he or she abides in God ought himself or herself also should obey God and be righteous. “Thou believe that there is one God; thou does well; the wicked also believe, and tremble, reports James 2.19. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
The weight of the testimony required must depend on the apparent credibility of the events reported. If the events are in some way marvelous and rare, then the testimony for them has to be treated with more circumspection than the witness to everyday occurrences. Knowing God is related to keeping his commandments. Knowing God must come by direct revelation from God. We cannot know by the power of flesh and blood. If anyone shall say that miracles can never be known for certain, or that the divine origin of the Christian religion cannot properly be proved by them: let him or her be cast out (si quis dixerit aut miracul certo cognosci numqum posse nec iis divinam religionis christianae originem rite probari: anathema sit. The Lord has indicated that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against revelation from him to anyone of his children who desires to know the living God. This is available by divine commitment and by divine will, that for anyone desiring to know God the Eternal Father, God is under commitment and the gates of Hell cannot prevail against that commitment and it will be revealed through the power and principle of revelation direct from God to the one desiring to receive that information. Nature is the will of God and hence that a portent is not contrary to nature, but contrary to our knowledge of nature (Protentum ergo fit non contra naturam, sed contra quam est nota natura. Knowing God does not solve all of life’s problems, but it gives purpose and strength to master them. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
In order to know God the Eternal Father, we must receive that knowledge through the program of the scriptures. This logic is based on ancient authority and rational or experimental grounds. The light of life is divine light that permeates and radiates in the human soul and brings out the Godlike qualities and attributes of righteousness. The light of life is love. The light of life has within it the glorious promises from God of eternal life in his Heavenly kingdom. The light of life will bring divine truth and happiness and peace into a troubled heart. The light of life brings divine light into the problems and troubles of this life and helps to turn life’s problems into steppingstones to eternal progression and developing Godlike character. “Light is to come into the World, and some people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, least his or her deeds should be reproved. However, one who does truth comes to the light, that his or her deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrong in God,” reports John 3.19-21. To know God, we must walk in the light of life. To know God as a living child of God, we should know our relationship to him, our divine potential, and we should know that in knowing God there is a great responsibility to respect and love and follow his counsel and his doctrines and his commandment and to grow as a child to become more Godlike. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
If bad money finds wide circulation, good money will go into hiding. The fake person can do anything: he or she can sin, and can atone for it, but sinning makes one no worse and atoning no better. “One who remains and dies in sin receives the wages of everlasting punishment,” reports Mosiah 2.33. The World demands that we be responsible to it, not to ourselves. A political system which seeks freedom through force can easily get stuck halfway; whereas that which seeks license through liberty always attains its goal. The idea of a Universe without God is effroyable. The loving creator has a purifying program and law for cleansing the human mind and body from weakness, imperfection, and sin. Repentance makes it possible for us to progress toward God’s greatest gift, the gift of salvation and eternal life. Repentance is a refining influence, a principle provided through the atonement and the sacrifice of the Savior to help us purify our mortal minds and bodies and to bring out our divine nature and Godlike qualities and character so that we can live in the presence of God in his celestial kingdom. In addition, research has proven the people who believe in God, on average, life four years longer than those who do not because Christian principles, well engraved in the minds of the people, is far more conducive and honorable. It is not possible to choose God’s way of life and to know God unless we know his program. “Blessed are the people who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God, reports Luke 14.15. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Present Effects on Human Happiness with an Inquiry Into Our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils Which It Occasions
Evil exists in the World not to create despair but activity. Dreams which are to be understood as fulfillments of wishes is not new, but has long since been recognized. Many girls and boys dream of growing up and one day getting married and having a home of their own, a career, children and at least two automobiles. However, evenless pessimistic observers have emphasized the fact that in our dreams pain and disgust are more frequent than pleasure. Research indications that 58 percent of dreams are disagreeable, and only 28 percent have a been beneficially pleasant. Besides those dreams that convey into our sleep the many painful emotions of life, there are also anxiety-dreams, in which this most terrible of all the painful emotions torment us until we wake. Now it is precisely by these anxiety-dreams that children are so often haunted. The anxiety-dream does really seem to preclude a generalization of the thesis that dreams are wish-fulfillments, and even to condemn it as an absurdity. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to parry these apparently invincible objections. It is merely necessary to observe that our doctrine is not based upon the obvious dream-content, but relates to the thought-content, which, in the course of interpretation is found to life behind the dream. It is true that there are dreams the manifest content of which is the most painful nature. However, has anyone ever tried to interpret these dreams—to discover their latent thought-content? #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
The decay of the family has long been a favourite them of social alarmists. Looking back on the conventions which in their own early days were held to be sacred, whether or not they were actually observed, seniors exclaim on the bankruptcy of those marriage conventions today and the consequence dissolution of home life. Even under modification, there has always been some form of marriage, and the home in some shape has still persisted. It is, therefore, only the shallow and the ignorant who can mistake the changes that take place in their own little day and environment for the obliteration of great landmarks—that is, when we have put aside those well-meaning people who like to pay with the idea of the bankruptcy of marries in order to startle their fellows into a more lively concern with social problems. It is not only a truth for the human species that marriage is omnipresent; it is also found among other beings. As a matter of fact, marriage, so far from dying out, tends in various countries of the West to increase in frequency. Dr. Malinowski reports that the elements of soundness and truth in rival doctrines that procreative institutions of humankind are more or less transformation into culturally socialized forms. What mainly concerns us here to observe is that, whatever view of the family we adopt, we are still constrained to admit that, under all changes of forms, it has always persisted, so that its existence may even be said to be woven into the texture of the species. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Obedience to the law of chastity will increase our happiness in mortality and make possible our progress in eternity. Why is the law of chastity so important? The law of chastity is a moral code that only allows intimate, adult relationships between a man and a woman who are legally and lawfully wedded as husband and wife. The eternal importance of chastity can only be understood within the overarching context of our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness of the Lord’s children. “For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of men and women,” reports Jacob 2.28. All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of Heavenly parents, and has a divine nature and destiny. All men and women lived with God as the Lord’s spirit children before coming to the Earth as mortal beings. The Father’s plan enabled his spirit sons and daughters to obtain physical bodies, to gain mortal experience, and to progress toward exaltation. The fundamental principle is that unfreakish human populations possess a power of multiplying in a geometrical possession. The next step is to urge that this power always is and must be checked by countervailing forces; for, on the most optimistic supposition, means of subsistence could in the long run at best be increased only in an arithmetical progression. However, no human population ever does achieve its full multiplicative potential. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Do not allow yourself to be alone and walk in the darkness without light. The problem of the origin of species in natural selection is that there is constantly a struggle for existence because our inordinate power of multiplication is bound—sooner or later, and usually sooner—to run up against the inexorably constricting walls of scarcity. All measures of intended amelioration which directly or indirectly encourage an increase of population that outstrips resources—and most do—will, in the not very distant end, merely multiply the number of bearers of misery and agents of vice. These harsh and gloomy conclusions were only modified, not upset, by the belated recognition of the option of moral restraint. For it was, and remains, hard to cherish high hopes from the preaching of such prudence; and in any society which did generally accept such preaching all but the richest would have to marry women nearing the evening of their reproductive powers. In the school of mortality, we experience tenderness, love, kindness, happiness, sorrow, disappointment, pain, and even the challenges of physical limitations in ways that prepare us for eternity. Simply stated, there are lessons we must learn and experience we must have while we are human. The means by which mortal life is created is divinely appointed. The power of procreation is spiritually significant. Misuse of this power subverts the purpose of the Father’s plan and our mortal existence. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
It is perfectly impossible to conceive that any creatures of God’s hand can be condemned to eternal suffering. Could we once admit such an idea, all our natural conceptions of goodness and justice would be completely overthrown, and we could no longer look on God as a merciful and righteous Being. Eternal death means eternal death and not eternal life in torment. The doctrine of life and immortality which was brought to life by the gospel is the doctrine that the end of righteousness is everlasting life, but the wages of sin are death. What that means is when you are sinning and hurting people and you know it is wrong, you will be repaid by eternal death and will not go to Heaven with all the good people. So, even if you think you are getting away with doing bad and appear to be doing well in this life, remember, God sees everything. Specific guidelines for the proper use of the ability to create life are vital elements in the Father’s plan. How we feel about and use that supernal power will determine in large measure our happiness in mortality and our destiny. The power to create mortal life is the most exalted power God has given his children. Its use was mandated in the first commandment, but another important commandment was given to forbid its misuse. The emphasis we place on the law of chastity is explained by our understanding of the purpose of our procreative powers in the accomplishment of God’s plan. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Intimate relations are proper only between a man and a woman in the marriage relationship prescribed in God’s plan. Such relations are not merely a curiosity to be explored, an appetite to be satisfied, or a type of recreation or entertainment to be pursued selfishly. They are not a conquest to be achieved or simply an act to be performed. Rather, they are in mortality one of the ultimate expressions of our divine nature and potential and a way of strengthening emotional and spiritual bounds between husband and wife. We are agents blessed with moral agency and are defined by our divine heritage as children of God—and not by sexual behaviors, contemporary attitudes, or secular philosophies. Contraception is one kind of preventive check; none at all would be required if the multiplicative power was not still there to be checked. Catastrophe does not have to be a tendency—not if people can be persuaded to employ the means which science has and will put into our hands. No plan for social improvement can be complete, unless it embraces the means both of increasing production, and of preventing population making a proportionate advance. We are here on Earth to develop Godlike qualities and to bridle all of the passions of the flesh. The Father’s plan is designed to provide direction for His Children, to help them become happy, and bring them safely home to him with resurrected, exalted bodies. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
Randolph Harris II International Institute 