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I have been asked to speak in sacrament. The topic is ‘Revelation’. The challenge is that I don’t believe in a ghost that comes into our bodies and tells us of what is true and what is not true. There is no evidence for this belief. There is evidence that shows that we have emotional responses that we call spiritual experiences. These feelings are created by nerve cells in our brain and chemicals called neurotransmitters, not a ghost. How do I give a talk on this subject with out offending TBM’s in the congregation while also keeping true to my self? I am not saying there isn’t a place for those warm good feelings we have but to base ones entire belief system on them is error prone. Any one have some suggestions of talks to look at or quotes I can share? Maybe there is a good scripture story you like about revelation? How would you go about giving this talk? Thanks. Just off the top of my head I’d focus more generally on revelation, not necessarily personal revelation or the Holy Ghost. There are several scriptural examples of prophets receiving revelation, including modern ones. I almost always shift the focus of my talks to the Savior, and would likely use Joseph Smith’s vision to do so in this instance. This talk would be very hard for me, too. The first thing I thought of that might help is this talk: http://geoffsn.blogspot.com/2012/08/russell-hancock-on-testimony-and-church.html I might talk about the basic meaning of “revelation” as “the process of something being revealed” and expand upon that. I would talk about it in the expansive terms that Joseph Smith might have used, as receiving light and truth. It’s not like a single formula that works exactly the same every single time for every single person. I might even argue that education and science are simply other forms of revelation.
I am very grateful for these two posts. I thought I could count on you DarkJedi for a response. I will deffinatly turn my talk toward the Savior. Daeruim, thank you for the link. The talk was good. I to think that science is also a great form of revelation. I hope others will still respond with ideas, scriptures and quotes. I have two weeks to prepare. Hi Kinglamoni, If the topic was presented to you as “talk about revelation”, it sounds like you’ve got quite a bit of breadth on how to address it, so that’s a good thing. Seems like so far, those who have commented have shied away from personal revelation, but if it were me I, think I could give a talk about it and still be able to pull it off. I will preface my comments that I have had some spiritual experiences where I felt that the Spirit was virtually taking me by the hand and guiding me. But that has happened only a handful of times in the 50+ years I have been alive.
I am one who believes that the bulk of the answers we get from God are “it doesn’t really matter, but just make the best decision you can”. And to make those decisions in life, you have to look at all the information you have available to you – much of it based on common sense and logic which may be unrelated to church beliefs/ideals.
My dad was never the “churchy” type, but he told me a joke when I was young that rings true to me to this day. It goes something like this:
A man was caught at his home as flood waters were rising. Seeing his desperate situation, he prayed for help. Pretty soon, there was a knock a the door. When he answered it, he saw a fireman telling him the area was flooding and he needed to get out. The man replied that he was all right and that God would answer his prayer to be saved. Unable to change the man’s mind, the fireman left to warn others.
The flood waters continued to rise and the man had to go to the second story to avoid them. There, he prayed for help once again. After a while longer, he saw some people on a rowboat trying to get out of the flood danger. They beckoned him to join them, but the man declined and explained that he was praying to God for help. The people on the rowboat had no choice but to continue onward to safety.
The flood waters were now reaching a critical level and the man had to climb out the window and get on his roof to avoid them. Not long after, he found himself surrounded by water at the highest part of the roof. He prayed in earnest for help. Soon, a helicopter came, the noise of the motor was too loud to hear any dialogue, but the helicopter let down a rope and hovered there. The man would not take the rope and continued to pray. The flood waters continued to rise and the man was drowned.
He stood at the pearly gates, confused, when God approached him. At this point, the man asked why his prayers to be saved from the flood were unanswered. God was a bit perplexed and answered, “ but I sent you a fireman, a boat, and a helicopter, and you never went with them”.
The whole point that my dad tried to make from this story is that much of the time, we are “guided” through practical means and not necessarily spiritual fanfare. It’s up to us to recognize that.
I would include the D&C passage that tells us to study things out in our hearts AND in our minds – and emphasize that revelation (the uncovering of things previously hidden) can come in different ways for different people – and even for the same people in different situations. The key isn’t how someone feels they have received revelation; the key is that they believe it is revelation. I also probably would point out that revelation for one’s self is one thing, but extrapolating and applying personal revelation to others is another things entirely. “Spheres of revelation” are important – and nobody has the right or responsibility to receive revelation for anyone else. Even our church leaders don’t have that responsibility; theirs is to receive guidance for the group(s) for which they have stewardship, NOT for individuals in those groups. Elder Oaks said that quite clearly in his General Conference talk entitled “Two Lines of Communication” – and it’s something that too many members don’t understand. (If you want to read my Sunday School lesson summary of that talk, the link is:
http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3481&p=58941&hilit=+two+lines+#p59231 Hey kl, I had to talk on this a couple of months ago. I posted my talk here:
http://forum.staylds.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5851 I approached this more from a historical perspective of how the idea of revelation has evolved through time within the church. And my essential point is that it was messy for Joseph and the early saints so its probably messy for us as well.
good luck!
-SBRed
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