Question
Gramps,
Are there any doctrines kept from the members and if so why?
Bernie
Answer
Hi Bernie,
During his mortal ministry, the Lord made it clear how and to whom the deep and hidden things of the gospel would be revealed:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
This principle, repeated with identical wording in Matthew 7:8 and Luke 11:10, is the foundation upon which all gospel learning is built. The Lord will give us all we seek for. Truth is always taught to them who ask, but only to them who ask.
Bernie, you can learn all things — all things — through this power and this principle. In fact, this is the only possible way to gain such knowledge as you need for your own salvation and the salvation of those you love. Ask in humility and seek diligently, and in the Lord’s time and wisdom you will learn all such “secret” things of the kingdom. Nothing is withheld from him who asks with a sincere heart.
This is a doctrine of power, showing us in effect how to gain spiritual fire. But like a child playing with fire, we can be badly injured if we misuse this principle of asking and receiving. In some cases, the Lord simply will not give us the knowledge we seek, because our hearts are not pure in our request. The apostle James taught that “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3).
More ominously, we may actually receive that for which we ask. The prophet Jacob, speaking of the wicked among the Jews, warned:
…[they] sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it.
Commenting on this, Elder Quentin L. Cook, then of the First Quorum of Seventy, remarked:
Today there is a tendency among some of us to “look beyond the mark” rather than to maintain a testimony of gospel basics. We do this when we substitute the philosophies of men for gospel truths, engage in gospel extremism, seek heroic gestures at the expense of daily consecration, or elevate rules over doctrine. Avoiding these behaviors will help us avoid the theological blindness and stumbling that Jacob described.
Let us follow the admonition given by the great prophet Nephi at the end of his famous “psalm” of 2 Nephi 4:
Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.
Gramps