In this time of confusion being sown by many in LDS related discourse, I thought that perhaps I would take a page from Adam S. Miller and give you this “urgent paraphrase” of a classic talk given in the April 1969 General Conference by Ezra Taft Benson, titled “To the Humble Followers of Christ.”  I will be quoting liberally from then Elder Benson’s remarks, and would direct the interested to check the linked PDF to see which parts I have lifted and which are paraphrased. This talk is more relevant today than it was when delivered.

One of the grand promises which the Lord made when he restored his Church in these latter days was that the Church should never again be taken from the earth nor given to another people. This is reassuring, for no matter how much individual apostasy we may see occur among Church members, the Church itself shall endure and remain intact. Our task, then, is to see that we personally endure to the end in faithful fellowship with the Church.

The Lord distinguishes between the Church and its members. He said he was well pleased with the restored Church, speaking collectively, but not individually. (D&C 1:30.) During his ministry on earth, the Lord spoke of the gospel net drawing in fish. The good fish, he said, were gathered into vessels, while the bad were cast away.

It is important to realize that while the Church is made up of mortals, no mortal is the Church. Judas, for a period of time, was a member of the Church—in fact, one of its apostles—but the Church was not Judas.

Sometimes we hear someone refer to a division in the Church. The news, blogs, facebook discussions and twitter exchanges suggest that there is wars and infighting within the leadership of the Church, as evidenced by the manner in which issues surrounding the Honor Code at BYU has been handled. I find it more plausible that the leadership of the Church is united, but far too many of the BYU community are not on the same page as the brethren. Just as no individual is in the Church, neither is BYU the Church, and certainly not BYU’s administrators. 

In reality, the Church is not divided. It simply means that there are some who, for the time being at least, are members of the Church but not in harmony with it. These people have a temporary membership and influence in the Church; but unless they repent, they will be missing when the final membership records are recorded. 

It is well that our people understand this principle, so they will not be misled by those apostates within the Church, or at BYU, who have not yet repented or been cut off. But there is a cleansing coming. The Lord says that his vengeance shall be poured out “upon the inhabitants of the earth. . . . And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me. . ..” (D&C 112:24-26.) I look forward to that cleansing; its need within the Church and BYU is becoming increasingly apparent.

The Lord strengthened the faith of the early apostles by pointing out Judas as a traitor, even before this apostle had completed his iniquitous work. So also in our day the Lord has told us of the tares within the wheat that will eventually be hewn down when they are fully ripe. But until they are hewn down, they will be with us, amongst us.

Yes, within the Church today there are tares among the wheat and wolves within the flock. As President Clark stated, “The ravening wolves are amongst us, from our own membership, and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing because they wear the habiliments of the priesthood. . . . We should be careful of them. . . .” (Era, May 1949, p. 268. See also Conference Report, April 1949, p. 163.)

The wolves amongst our flock are more numerous and devious today than when President Clark made this statement, and they seem to have multiplied in numbers and voice since this talk was first given.

Not only are there apostates within our midst, but there are also apostate doctrines that are sometimes taught in our classes and from our pulpits and that appear in our publications. These apostate ideas appear to be promulgated in classes and by administrators at BYU, even within BYU’s Honor Code Office. And these apostate precepts of men cause our people to stumble. As the Book of Mormon, speaking of our day, states: “. . . they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.” (2 Ne. 28:14.)

Christ taught that we should be in the world but not of it. Yet there are some in our midst who are not so much concerned about taking the gospel into the world as they are about bringing worldliness into the gospel. They want us to be in the world and of it. They want us to be popular with the worldly even though a prophet has said that this is impossible, for all hell would then want to join us.

Through their own reasoning and a few misapplied scriptures, they try to sell us the precepts and philosophies of men. They do not feel the Church is progressive enough—they say that it should embrace the social and socialist gospel of apostate Christendom.

They are bothered that the Church has remained committed to the truths taught in the Family Proclamation, and have remained steadfast in asserting that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, and that anything that does not leave itself open to the possibility of an eternal marriage is damning to those who participate.

They attack the Church for not being in the forefront of the movement to normalize and celebrate any number of beliefs and assertions generally accepted in the world relating to sexuality and gender.  They are embarrassed over some Church doctrine, and as Lehi foretold, the scoffing of the world over this and other matters will cause some of them to be ashamed and they shall fall away. (See 1 Ne. 8:28.)

Unauthorized to receive revelation for the Church, but I fear still anxious to redirect the Church in the way they think it should go, some of them have taken to publishing their differences with the Church on blogs, in podcasts, in magazines and other periodicals, in books published by scholarly presses and far too often under the impress of the Maxwell Institute at BYU, in order to give their heretical views a broader and, they hope, a more respectable platform.

Along this line it would be well for all of us to remember these words of President George Q. Cannon:

“A friend . . . wished to know whether we . . . considered an honest difference of opinion between a member of the Church and the Authorities of the Church was apostasy. . . . We replied that we had not stated that an honest difference of opinion between a member of the Church and the Authorities constituted apostasy, for we could conceive of a man honestly differing in opinion from the Authorities of the Church and yet not be an apostate; but we could not conceive of a man publishing those differences of opinion and seeking by arguments, sophistry and special pleading to enforce them upon the people to produce division and strife and to place the acts and counsels of the Authorities of the Church, if possible, in a wrong light and not be an apostate, for such conduct was apostasy as we understood the term.” (Deseret News, November 3, 1869.)

Now hear this test proposed by President George Q. Cannon: “If the breach is daily widening between ourselves and the world … we may be assured that our progress is certain, however slow. On the opposite hand, if our feelings and affections, our appetites and desires, are in unison with the world around us and freely fraternize with them . . . we should do well to examine ourselves. Individuals in such a condition might possess a nominal position in the Church but would be lacking the life of the work, and, like the foolish virgins who slumbered while the bridegroom tarried, they would be unprepared for his coming. . . .” (Millennial Star, Oct. 5, 1861 [Vol. 23], pp. 645-46.)

To repeat again from the Book of Mormon, “. . . they have all gone astray save it be a few, who are the humble followers of Christ; nevertheless, they are led, that in many instances they do err because they are taught by the precepts of men.” (2 Ne. 28:14.)

May we cherish God’s revelations more than man’s reasoning and choose to follow the prophets of the Lord rather than the precepts of men is my humble prayer, which I share with Ezra Taft Benson.