Transcript www.kevinhinckley.com CORINTH Interesting Idea It was the Sunday that a Stake High Council member was speaking.

www.kevinhinckley.com
CORINTH
Interesting Idea
It was the Sunday that a Stake High Council member
was speaking. True tradition, the High
Councilman's
talk was dragging on. Not only was
it past the time for
his talk to end, it was well
past the time for Sacrament
Meeting to end.
The congregation was getting restless
and the
children very fidgety.
My then two and-a-half year-old son finally had had
enough and decided to take matters into his
own
hands. His stood up on the bench and with all
the voice of authority that a toddler can muster proclaimed, "Amen. Go
home!“
After the ripple of laughter from the congregation died down, the High
Councilman stated, "Well, I guess it's about time to wrap this up." He then
quickly bore his testimony and sat down.
The High Councilman must have shared this experience, because the next month
at the beginning of his talk, the visiting High Councilman said, "I will keep my
remarks brief. I hear your ward has a warning system should I speak to long."
James E. Faust
You may have heard
the story, and it is a
story, of the disruptive, noisy boys in a Sunday
School class who were asked by their
exasperated teacher why they bothered to attend
Sunday School. One of the more impudent boys
replied, “We came to see you perform a
miracle.”
The teacher walked slowly over to the boy and
menacingly responded, “We don’t perform
miracles here, but we do cast out devils!”
The Great Imitator,” Ensign, Nov. 1987, 33
Contention
Appearing repeatedly in the book of 4 Nephi is a
phrase which speaks to the heart of what Zion was
and will be. Occurring three times in its singular
form and once in the plural within the first 18 verses,
this phrase explains a primary reason for the blessed
state enjoyed by the Nephites as well as the results
Zion
Contention
which flowed
therefrom.
(One
heart)
The phrase
simply
reads: "There(Anti-Zion)
was no contention."
In its simplicity lies a pattern for reestablishing Zion
which encompasses both a warning of what must be
avoided and a promise of what can, with the Lord's
help, be achieved.
Monte S. Nyman, Charles D. Tate, Fourth Nephi through Moroni: From Zion to Destruction, 167
Question
Just how does Lucifer go
about sowing contention
in a people striving for
Zion?
The Source of Contention
The Church
Our Homes
Within
Ourselves
Elder Nelson: [The] spirit of inner peace is driven away by contention. Contention does not
usually begin as strife between countries. More often, it starts with an individual, for we can
contend within ourselves over simple matters of right and wrong. From there, contention can
infect neighbors and nations like a spreading sore. Perfection Pending, and Other Favorite Discourses, 55-64.
The Savior to the
Nephites
And there shall be no
disputations among you, as
there have hitherto been;
neither shall there be disputations among you
concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have
hitherto been.
For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of
contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the
father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of
men to contend with anger, one with another.
Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of
men with anger, one against another; but this is my
doctrine, that such things should be done away.
(3 Ne.11:28-30)
President George Q. Cannon
"Is it right for Latter-day Saints to contend and to have
arguments? It is not right; it is not according to the mind
and will of God.
Whenever two Elders contend and argue, they may know
and everyone may know that the Spirit of God is not
there to the extent that it should be, because where the
Spirit of God reigns there is no contention, no
controversy.
Men may differ in their views, but after they have expressed
these differences then contention should cease; in fact, it
should never exist.“
Gospel Truth, ed. Jerreld L. Newquist (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987
Brother Ted
Gibbons
Someone has called Corinth
the Las Vegas of the Ancient
World. It was a city of
250,000 citizens and another
400,000 or so slaves. It was
located just off the Corinthian Isthmus, and was a crossroads for
travelers and traders. It was a city of typical Greek culture; its
people were interested in Greek philosophy, and placed a great
value on wisdom.
We have been told that the city had at least 12 temples, although
they may not all have been in use in Paul's day. The most famous
of these temples was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of
love, where worshipers practiced ritual prostitution. The temple
was served by more than 1000 pagan priestess-prostitutes. The
immorality of Corinth was so widely know that the verb "to
Corinthianize" meant "to practice sexual immorality."
1 Corinthians 1
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in
the same mind and in the same judgment.
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, … that
there are contentions among you.
Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of
Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
Is Christ divided?
I Cor 3
For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos; are
ye not carnal?
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
Elder Oaks
In my personal life and even in
my church work, I have
sometimes been guilty of
crossing over the boundary
between the permissible range
of reasoned discussion and the forbidden arena of contention.
For example, as a law student, newly schooled in the adversary system of the
courtroom, I sought to use adversary techniques to present the gospel subjects
I was teaching an elders group. I sometimes encouraged debate and
controversy, and I occasionally played the role of the devil's advocate (justly so
named).
Each of these techniques verged on or invited contention. I recall these immature
mistakes whenever I observe others using the techniques of controversy to
attempt to teach gospel subjects. This is not the Lord's way.
Dallin H. Oaks, Lord's Way, 139.
Brigham Young at
Scott’s Bluff
"This morning I feel like preaching a little, and shall
take for my text, `That as to pursuing our journey
with this company with the spirit they possess, I am
about to revolt against it.
I have said many things to the brethren about the
strictness of their walk and conduct when we left the
gentiles, and told them that we would have to walk
upright or the law would be put in force. . . .
If you do not open your hearts so that the Spirit of God can enter your hearts
and teach you the right way, I know that you are a ruined people and will be
destroyed and that without remedy, and unless there is a change and a
different course of conduct, a different spirit to what is now in this camp, I
go no further.
Give me the man of prayers . . . the man of faith . . . the man of meditation, and
I would far rather go amongst the savages with six or eight such men than to
trust myself with the whole of this camp with the spirit they now possess.
The Result?
Immediately after completing his remarks,
Brigham did something not seen since
perhaps the final days of the Nauvoo
temple. He called on all the camp to assemble
in rows by quorum—8 Apostles, 15 high
priests, 4 bishops, 78 seventies, 8 elders, the
remaining members and nonmembers (of
which there were a few).
He then asked each member by quorum, starting with the Twelve, to show by
uplifted hand if they were willing "to covenant, to turn to the Lord with all their
hearts, to repent of all their follies." All covenanted without a dissenting voice.
Then Brigham "very tenderly blessed the brethren and prayed that God would
enable them to fulfil their covenants."
The next day, Sunday, 30 May, the camp fasted and prayed and for the first time in
many weeks partook of the sacrament.
Later in the day members of the Twelve, with a few others, "went into the valley of
the [nearby] hills and according to the order of the priesthood," an obvious
reference to a sacred temple ordinance, "prayed in a circle.“
Richard E. Bennett, We'll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus 1846-1848, 160-167