Thomas Griffith Wonder of Scripture Lecture

Transcript

Thomas Griffith: I want to start with a concession that you need to know about me. I am a skeptic. When you tell me that you pray to find your lost keys, I roll my eyes. Of course, when I lose my keys, I pray. I'm not claiming that I'm consistent. Skepticism has served me well. It was the playwright Wilson Mizner who observed that “doubt gets you an education.” My scriptural hero. Heroes are Doubting Thomas, my name’s sake, and Peter. You know the story of Thomas, but maybe you have overlooked something about Peter. I noticed it only this week. In Luke's telling of the story of the first Easter, the other apostles reaction to the women's story of the empty tomb seemed to them just stupid, useless talk into rights translation. But Peter was curious, or, I might say, skeptical, both of the women and of the apostles who rejected their testimony. Rather than accept or reject the women's witness based on their earnest words alone, Peter got up and ran to the tomb to see for himself. He needed evidence.

My two heroes of skepticism from church history are Elder M. Russell Ballard and Martin Harris. Several years ago, Elder Ballard told the gathering of the church's Seminary and Institute teachers that when he had questions about church history that he couldn't answer, he would go to the experts, to the scholars, and he challenged those teachers assembled to quote, “know like the back of your hand, the work of faithful LDS scholars.” Skeptics, seek out scholars. About Martin Harris, fearful of being duped, and not willing to rely on his feelings alone, traits that we skeptics value, Martin Harris tested and probed Joseph's recovery of the Book of Mormon in a variety of ways, including a resort to scholars. Only then was Martin willing to risk his fortune to publish the Book of Mormon. Without Harris' skepticism, where would we be? Bravo Martin, you did just what Elder Ballard urged. Three cheers for skeptics. We get the job done.

Now by skepticism, I don't mean the cynical, nihilistic and sometimes performative and self indulgent pose that lacks curiosity and rejects out of hand anything that doesn't fit into a carefully curated paradigm that often leads to despair. Eugene England rejected this approach “reality,” he wrote, “is too demanding for me to feel very safe in the appalling luxury of utter skepticism. By skepticism, I mean a constructive, studied, arduous and careful search for the truth that,” in England's World, words, “reality demands. This search for truth challenges assumptions, demands evidence and requires reason and logic.” The skepticism I have in mind is best modeled by the university. It's hard to think of an institution over the last 1000 years that has been more successful than the university. Much of our scientific, cultural, intellectual and even spiritual progress has been the product of the university, and the university runs on skepticism. I agree with President Henry B. Eyring that quote, “the university is about a good way that we know of to find truths.” Close quote. I was trained to be a skeptic as an undergraduate at BYU studying the liberal arts, and then as a law student at the University of Virginia, founded by one of the nation's great skeptics Mr. Jefferson. Such training can give one an invaluable set of skills that are needed now more than ever in an age filled with misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories packaged attractively in digital forms. T

The value of the skills of skepticism are best captured in the words of the Oxford Don given to a newly arrived group of students in 1914, here's what he said, “You are now about to embark on a course of studies which will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But I would like to remind you of an important point, nothing that you will learn in your course of studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in your life after university, save only this–that if you work hard and intelligently, you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot. And that” he said, “in my view, is the main, if not the sole purpose of education.” I want to know when a person is talking rot. I don't want to be fooled. I'm haunted by the novel, the remains of the day in which the protagonist had no way to know that his life was built on a lie while he was confined to the small world of the manor, he served so diligently as a butler. It was only when he ventured beyond the manor that he was able to learn the truth. I don't want my thinking to be confined to the manor. I believe that my skepticism is a gift from God, as Jacob Neusner, the distinguished Rabbi scholar, explained in a forum address in BYU way back in the day, quote, “skepticism and critical thinking are friends, not enemies of religion. Man is made in God's image, and that part of man which is most might God is the mind. When we use our minds,” according to Neusner, “we not only serve God, we also act white God in seeking reason and order,” Neuser concluded, “we serve God.” I am a committed, believable Latter-day Saint because of my skepticism, not despite it. Let me explain.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat made this insightful observation about Christianity. “The Christian story,” he wrote, “is not a theological treatise. The Christian story recounts a series of events that, if real, tell us something profound about the nature of God and His relationship to His creatures.” That's the end of that's quote, if real, if real. That's the rub. At the heart of Christianity is the claim that Jesus lived, died and was resurrected as God. If that claim is real, Christianity tells us, in Douthat’s words, something profound about the nature of God and his relationship to His creatures. Let's extend the argument at the heart of the updated version of the Christian story that Latter-day Saints proclaim, is a story that an angel delivered gold plates to Joseph Smith, which he translated miraculously as a modern witness of Christ to a secular age. Like the New Testament story, the Latter-day Saints story, In the words of Douthat, “recounts a series of events that if real, tell us something profound about the nature of God in His relationship to His creatures.” But once again, are those events real?

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell was perhaps the most oft quoted and influential atheist of the 20th century to a journalist who asked what Russell would say to God when he met him after death, the professor replied, “You should have given me more evidence!” Well, we skeptics resonate with Russell's complaint, but I believe that the Lord has given us evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, upon which the truth claims of Christianity depend, and the miracle of the Book of Mormon, upon which the truth claims of Latter-day Saint Christianity rely. Because my focus today is on Latter-day Saint Christianity I'll say only this about the truth claims of Christianity, more generally. Eyewitness accounts of the bodily resurrection of Jesus fueled the faith of the earliest Christians. It was not a lifestyle, it was not a view of the nature of reality. It was not even promises of salvation. No, it was the eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus that fueled their faith, people they trusted, reported that they saw, heard, touched, and even had a meal with the risen Jesus over a 40 day period. This was not the stuff of visions. It was tangible, material, physical witness of a miracle. And the New Testament Christians lived out their lives consistent with that miraculous experience. In the words of David Bentley Hart, they believed that, quote, “history had been invaded by God in Christ in such a way that nothing could stay as it was. All terms of human community and conduct had been altered at the deepest levels by this historic event–Jesus’s is bodily resurrection from the dead.”

For us skeptics, there are three possible explanations for the way the new New Testament disciples lived. First, they could have been lying. You know, people do that. People lie about all sorts of things. I'm gonna stop right there, because I'm tempted, to resist that temptation. But people lie about all sorts of things. Second, they could have been deluded. People are deluded all the time about things. Or they could have been reacting to real events. I'm betting on this last possibility, because a careful study of the four Gospels, what we know of the lives of the New Testament disciples suggests that something real and miraculous happened on Easter Sunday. The same tension exists with respect to Latter-day Saints. At the heart of our story is the claim of another miracle with a tangible, material, physical component, an angel gave Joseph Smith gold plates from which this unlettered man miraculously produced the Book of Mormon. As with the New Testament Christians, Latter-day eyewitnesses claim that this miracle is a historical reality. The gold plates were not the stuff of a mystical vision or the ineffable, they were tangible, material, physical, they were seen, touched, hefted and examined by people who, just as the New Testament Christians believed that history had, once again, in the words of the words of Hart, “been invaded by God and Christ in such a way that nothing could stay as it was.” And while we know little about the ancient New Testament witnesses, we know much about the eyewitnesses to the gold plates, who left abundant records of their lives. And of course, we have the text of the Book of Mormon to study and to critique. There is little doubt that the gold plates real. Historians of all stripes acknowledge that the gold plates were real, in the church outside the church. I want to emphasize this point.

In recent years, a number of non believing scholars have come around the conclusion that too many people saw the plates and handled them to think that their existence was mere fantasy. All of the movements and the actions of the many people involved in the recovery in the Book of Mormon point in one direction–the plates were real. The next question, however, is what was on the plates? And a careful study of the text derived in the place supports the claim of Joseph Smith that this was a record of an ancient people who encountered the risen Christ. Book of Mormon scholarship the last several decades is remarkable, and also points largely in one directory in one direction–The book is an ancient record cobbled together by multiple authors and editors. There are arguments to the contrary, I know, but I cannot come up with a more possible explanation for the origin of the Book of Mormon than Joseph Smith's claim, which is shocking to us skeptics, that an angel gave him a record written by ancients upon gold plates that he translated through miraculous means in the presence of other people over a 90 day period. The book is simply too complex, too sophisticated, too profound, and bears too many markings of the ancient world. For skeptical me to believe that It could have been the product of the fertile imagination of anyone living in the 19th century, especially a modestly literate farm boy. As Hugh Nibley once observed, quote, “it would have been a greater miracle for the unlettered Joseph Smith to have created the Book of Mormon than it was for an angel to bring it to us.” Close quote. No skeptic should dismiss this view without first having read Terryl Given’s By the Hand of Mormon, Grant Hardy's Understanding the Book of Mormon, both published by Oxford University Press. Royal Scousen’s work with the original dictated Manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Kent Brown's description of the Near Eastern setting for its opening scenes, the outpouring of publications from Jack Welch and Joe Spencer and the Maxwell Institute's remarkable brief theological introductions to the Book of Mormon, which introduce us, the lay readership, to a new generation of talented scholars who take the Book of Mormon seriously.

Years ago, Terryl Givens gave a masterful talk at BYU in a forward assembly. It is, in my view, the best talk given at BYU by someone not named Holland or Kimball. Terryl talks about faith as a choice between two competing and reasonable views of reality. There are good reasons to believe in God and the Restoration of the gospel. There are also good reasons not to believe. “The conflicting reasons,” he said, “are in equipoise, and our choice to believe one over the other is actually a moral decision about the kind of universe we choose to embrace.” That's a powerful insight that seems right to me. But after his talk, I asked Terryl if he thought that framing applied to the Book of Mormon. Are there good reasons to believe that Joseph's account of a miraculous translation of claims delivered by an angel and under equally good reasons to believe the Book of Mormon is not that? Are those competing claims the equipoise? Terryl’s response was immediate and forceful. No way. No way. In other words, while it is true that there is evidence on both sides of the question, the arguments are not in equipoise, the evidence the Book of Mormon as an ancient text, far outweighs the evidence against. The Book of Mormon itself is evidence of something else, namely that there are spiritual realities beyond that which we can see, touch or measure. As Richard Bushman notes, “a belief that the place where what Joseph Smith claimed, makes a big difference in one's outlook on the world. With the plates comes an angel and divine intervention in ordinary lives. The plates, the plates,” he said, “imply a world where God is an active agent in human affairs, in opposition to the skepticism that has eroded religion for the past 200 years.”

The historian Tom Holland recently observed about his journey from agnosticism to faith. Quote, “the moment you accept that there are angels, then suddenly the world just seems richer and more interesting.” Because I find there's a compelling argument that the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be my skeptical mind must acknowledge that there may be a spiritual world beyond the material world that I can see, touch and measure, and when I give myself over to the reality of that spiritual world, something wonderful happens. I feel the love of my Heavenly Parents. I experience Christ's healing power in my own life, and I'm better able to help others feel and experience that too. And I recommit myself to making the church a place that more clearly reflects a Christ like love for humankind than we have yet achieved. My life must account for the possibility, or is it the probability, that the miracle of the Book of Mormon is just as real as the bodily resurrection of Jesus, that history has been invaded by God in Christ, in our time in such a way that nothing can stay as it was, and that these real events teach us something profound about the nature of God and His relationship to us. The only way I have figured out how to do that is to give my life to the custodian of that miracle, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day, saints.

Now, what does that look like? It was Eugene England's classic essay why the church is as true as the gospel, or as I call it, Doctrine and Covenants, section 139, I've played in my private canon. It was in brother England's classic essay that pointed out the brilliance in the way the Latter-day Saint Ward works, according to England, there are two features of the ward that work in tandem to create a laboratory for Christian living that can transform us. First, we don't get to choose the Ward we attend. Now, I know that doesn't quite apply to YSA, but it's supposed to be that way, It's supposed to be that way. You don't get to choose the ward that you that you attend. If you live in this part of town, you go to this ward, live over there, and you attend church elsewhere. In other words, you don't get to choose the people you attend church with, which means that you may end up sitting beside someone who you would never want to take the lunch because you don't like her music, her politics or the way she dresses. That's the first feature. Second feature, because there's no paid clergy in the ward, everyone's got a call away, which means that not only do you have to sit next to that person you don't really like, but now you have to work with him in the primary, in the Sunday school, or with the youth. But that's how the miracle starts. As you work side by side with this person you once thought deplorable, something miraculous happens. You start to like him, and over time, you come to realize that the Lord loves him every bit as much as the Lord loves you. That's the beginning of wisdom. And then you start to love that person.

May I offer three pieces of counsel to my fellow skeptics about how to love church. How to love your experience at church. Counsel number one, make partaking the sacrament of the Lord's Supper the primary reason you go to church, make that experience the most important thing you do each week, prepare for it, come forward, reflect on it afterwards. Years ago, I stumbled on a powerful practice while presiding over campus stake at BYU here with Cardell Jacobson. In a general conference talk about the atonement of Christ Elder Boyd K. Packer taught, quote, “The Atonement of Christ is the very root of Christian doctrine. You may know much about the gospel as it branches out from there, but if you only know the branches and they are not connected to that root, if they had been cut free from that tree, though,” Elder Packer says “there will be no life, no substance, no redemption in them.” Did you get that? If you teach a principle in the gospel and it's not directly connected to the Atonement [of Jesus Christ], you don't teach how it's connected to the Atonement. Elder Packer, who could say strong things, “I occasionally said, your teaching might be funny, might be motivational, might have all sorts of things to attract people's interests,” But he says “your teaching has no life nor substance, no redemption.” Well, we decided to test that test in that. As a state presidency, we took Elder Packer to the heart and instructed every bishop and every teacher in the state that all talks in sacred meeting and all lessons in class would be about the Atonement of Christ in a direct and an express way. For example, if the bishop were to assign a talk on food storage in our stake, that talk would be food storage and the Atonement of Christ. If the Relief Society lesson called for a discussion of tithing in our stake, the lesson would be tithing and the Atonement of Christ. And this meant more than just invoking the phrase Atonement, Atonement, Atonement. It meant more than talking about and reflecting upon Christ's suffering in Gethsemane on Calvary. It meant explaining how the principle being taught draws us closer to God–that's the vertical pull of the Atonement of Christ–and closer to others–that's the horizontal pull of the Atonement of Christ.

God's work is the work of at-one-ment. If we are to learn how to be like our Heavenly Parents, we need to do their work, and their work is at-one-ment. If you can't make a connection between the principle we taught and the Atonement of Christ, either you haven't thought about it enough, or you're speaking to a topic better addressed just elsewhere, but not in church. In church, we talk of Christ, we preach of Christ, and we rejoice in Christ,” As Elder Robert Daines recently taught us in general conference, before we speak or act in church, ask ourselves quote, “will this help people see the love of Jesus Christ? If not, try something else. If you want to make your church experience more meaningful, make everything you do at church flow out of the experience of remembering the power and purpose of the Atonement Christ in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.” Council number two. So first one, you make a sacrament. We're gonna make the sacrament the center of our lives.

Here's the second bit of counsel, President Eyering teaches that the primary way the Lord's

seaks to us is through leaders and teachers and our church meetings. That's an astounding principle in a church run at the local level by volunteers with no formal training and theology, it means that we should be on the edge of our seats during every talk and lesson, because the Lord might say something to us through the speaker or teacher. It also teaches us that the Lord will engage in what Elder Kearon calls “His relentless pursuit of us,” not only when we are alone, but when we are in church. We need both our sacred groves and our crowded chapels to hear to speak to us.

Number three, President Eyering also teaches us that we have a misguided view of spirituality. The spirituality of a disciple of Jesus is not created only by the things we avoid. That's important, but there's much more than that. True spirituality comes from becoming a person whose primary purpose in life is looking for ways to help other people. Who can I help? How can I help them? Are prayers that capture the essence of spirituality, those prayers, Who can I help? How can I help them? Sincerely offered will always be answered, because they are the prayers the Lord is most desirous that we ask and a temple recommend is not required to ask them. So when you come to church to partake the sacrament, walk through the chapel doors praying, who can I help? How can I help them? It will be answered. This is how to do church. Come to take the sacrament in remembrance of what Christ has done for us and what he's doing still. Come to hear the Lord speak to us through the words of others, and come to have the Lord tell us who to help. That type of church experience never gets old. It never gets boring. In fact, we will never be more alive.

Over a decade ago, I came up with a really good idea, pat myself on the back on this one, I was concerned about people I knew and loved who were letting go of the iron rod and stepping away from the church primarily because of questions over church history and policy. I'm sure that you have family members and friends who have done that. Maybe that's even you. I helped put together a group of believing, Latter-day Saint scholars who spoke in firesides around the church about why they remain committed to the church, fully aware of the vexing issues. We put on scores of events with Richard and Claudia Bushman and Terryl and Fiona Givens, Spencer Fluhman, Patrick Mason, Adam Miller, Paul Reeve and others. Having spent years in this space, I've noticed two elements that are common to many of the stories of faith crisis that I've encountered over the years. First, many of the people I know who have stepped away from church activity aren't aware of the outpouring of excellent scholarship on the recovery of the Book of Mormon and its contents. Many of them grew grew up reading the Book of Mormon in their homes and in church classes, and have good feelings about it, but in neither of those settings were they introduced to the scholarship that takes the Book of Mormon seriously as an ancient and profound word. It turns out it's pretty easy to dismiss those good feelings that you had as wish fulfillment or confirmation bias, if you don't understand the strength of the claims about the miraculous origins of the Book of Mormon.

Second thing I notice many of these good people had based their commitment to the church on the idea that for all practical intents and purposes, the leaders of the church are infallible in their teachings and administration and nearly perfect in their personal discipleship. But neither of those is true, and has never been true in any dispensation. The most casual study of church history reveals that, any observation of church governance shows that, in fact, the Lord warned us about building our testimonies on such a sandy foundation in the very first revelation he gave to the restored Church in D&C 21 given on April 6, 1830, the day the church was organized. The Lord commands us to follow the Prophet, “Thou shalt give heed unto all his words and commandments which he shall give unto you as he receive it then walking in all holiness before me for his word, ye shall receive, as if from my own mouth.” We know that, that's a principle we taught. Well, we even have a wonderful, memorable primary song in a minor key that makes the point powerfully. We all remember that. But did you notice that I didn't quote the entire phrase, and now, borrowing from my experience as a jurist, Ruth Bader Ginsburg taught that “the first rule in interpreting a text is keep reading.” And when we keep reading D&C 21 we see that the Lord warns us that following the Prophet takes quote, “all patience and faith.” Why? Because our leaders are imperfect, and there are times when it will require patience and faith to hear the Lord's voice through them. As George Handley has written, “the real challenge is to hear transcendent truth expressed through a frail, weak, particularized human, that is the miracle of revelation” he says “it is challenging in a fulfilling work to see and even love the human and weak vessels to call the inspirational cones.” End of quote.

Even though it's a foundational principle so important that it was included in the first revelation the Lord gave it to the restored Church. We have not taught this principle well. Now some of our leaders have. Elder Holland for one, the April 2013 General Conference. Quote, “this is a divine work in process, so please don't hyperventilate, if from time to time, issues arise that need to be examined, understood and resolved be kind regarding human frailty, your own, as well as that of those who serve the church serve with those who serve in a church led by volunteer mortal men and women, except in the case of his only perfect begotten Son, imperfect people of all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to him, but he deals with it. So should we?” President Uchtdorf made the point even more strongly in the october 2013 General Conference. Quote, “we openly acknowledge that in nearly 200 years of church history, there have been something said and done that could cause people to question. To be perfectly frank,” he says, “there have been times when leaders in the church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that we're not in harmony with our values, principles or doctrine. God is perfect, but he works through us, his imperfect children and imperfect people make mistakes.” He concludes “this is the way it has always been and will be until the perfect day when Christ Himself reigns personally upon the earth, patience and faith, which we are called upon to exercise, take hard work,” but as former young Women general President Susan Tanner taught us so well, “we can do hard things.”

A final observation that might be helpful. For the last few years, I've been involved in projects that have given me opportunities to work closely with some members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of 12 Apostles, as well as other general authorities of the church. Here's what I've seen. First, they really believe–that shouldn't come as a surprise, but is deeply moved this skeptic who has been influenced by a life in the hardball world of politics and governance in Washington, DC, to see up close that these leaders really believe that they have been called by the Lord to help prepare the church, to prepare the world for the second coming of Christ. Second, they know that we have much work to do because the church is not yet all that it can be, and they examine everything we do in the church to figure out how we can do it better. As I heard one of them say, “we have got to do a better job getting the gospel down into the hearts of our people. What are you going to do about it?”

And how did they go about sizing up what we were doing and trying to make things better? Well, I imagine that they spend a great deal of time in prayer, but I know that they spend a great deal of time analyzing data. They analyze issues from every angle, relying on evidence, they’re spiritual to be sure, but from what I can tell, there isn't a mystic in the group. They are pragmatists doing their best to make the church better, to get the gospel down into the hearts of our people. Do they always get it right? Of course not. Sometimes they get it right. Other times not. That's how revelation works, step by step and not always forward. Some of us look at that process and lose faith, but in my view, such a faith misapprehends how the Lord works with his fallen children. “It's always been a messy process,” as Melissa Inouye reminded us “all true human history is mostly a hot mess. Latter-day Saints believe the hot mess is the whole point.” The perfecting of the church, what we might call the ongoing restoration, is an urgent task, and I believe that it's the most exciting enterprise in the world today. Elder Neal A. Maxwell got it right when he spoke of the high adventure of orthodoxy. My hope is that those frustrated by the gap between what the church now is and what it yet may become will stay and put their shoulders to the wheel in this audacious project. I am convinced based on my reason, my experience and the persistent witness of the Spirit, the Church is connected to the powers of heaven in a real way.

So please stay committed and involved in the unfolding wonder of the restoration. Quite simply, you need the church. You need the connection with the spiritual world that is available through the ordinances and covenants and the gospel. You need the links that are made by covenant with family and members and that are forged through loving service. You need the ongoing apostolic witness that Jesus is the Christ, but the church also needs you. The church needs thoughtful people to help steer its course and help it can help it become when it can be, but it's not yet. The Church needs your commitment to become a place that more clearly reflects a Christlike love for humankind that we have yet achieved a place that embodies what Elder Holland calls, quote, “The first great truth of all eternity, that God loves us with all his heart, might mind and strength, that love,” he says, “is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily light.” How do we experience that love? In the words of my favorite evangelical praise song, “the one who knows you best is the one who loves you most.” How do we experience that love? Elder Danes explains, and I'll finish with these words. “God's work is a river of love. Headed your way to serve God in this church is to join a work party people with picks and shovels trying to help clear this channel for the river of God's love to reach his children at the end of the road, single, married, gay, straight, black, white, brown, or anything, educated or not, money or not, employed or not, every race, every class, every person, every political party, mentally or physically ill, there's room for you in God's worth. Grab pick and shovel and join the team.”

I’m persuaded that the gold plates were real. That's the easy part. The more intriguing and important issue is raised by the possibility that the gold plates and the complex and profound texts that emerged from their translation were part of a modern miracle. If so, they are a marker that there may be much more to reality that what I can see, touch, feel and measure the reality of the gold plates prods the skeptic, skeptic to allow for the possibility that reality includes God and Christ and Holy Spirit and angels and moral laws that shape and mold us into different types of beings that we might otherwise be, and that to then be, as undertaken in this church, a major project for all the world and our time. When I choose to accept that reality, my life is different and better, and when my vision of that reality becomes blurry, I recall the gold plates, the eyewitnesses to their reality, the texts they contain, and the miracle they present to a skeptical world and to a skeptical me, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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