Choose the right trail

In our priesthood quorum meeting last week, our instructor, Brother Clark Moss, led us to formulate three questions as part of the lesson he was teaching. As I thought about these questions during the week, they seemed more and more profound and basic to our understanding of our journey here on the earth. This brought to mind my post in December 2009, called The Path. So this discussion seems to be a further expansion of my thoughts on that occasion. The three questions were: What trail am I on? Who is on it with me? Who is following me?

What trail am I on?
There are many trails open to us in this life. In the April 1969 General conference, Bishop John H. Vandenberg said:

“In today's world there are many paths for people to travel. There are some who, like those who followed the calf, are pursuing a course in life for no other reason than that others have preceded them. They follow a path without thinking where it may lead them or even who made the path. They justify their course because it is so well traveled. With so many ways meandering in so many directions, some may be confused.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, in his book, That Ye May Believe, said this:

There are many paths to misery but only one to everlasting happiness.

We all must determine the trail we will follow in this life. We know what the right trail is. It is defined for us over and over in the scriptures. We know what the gate is that we must pass through to get on the trail. Bruce R. McConkie said:

“… The way it operates is this: you get on the path that’s named the ‘straight and narrow.’ You do it by entering the gate of repentance and baptism. The straight and narrow path leads from the gate of repentance and baptism, a very great distance, to a reward that’s called eternal life.”

The right trail will lead through the temple, because it is there that we learn of the final destination we must reach in mortality and beyond. Elder Marion D. Hanks said:

“A temple truly is a place of revelation to those who go with minds freed from ordinary earthly cares and there learn to walk with Him on the path He has walked and prescribes for us.”

The right trail probably has chuckholes, washouts, and even avalanches. It will have many forks and branches. Most will lead nowhere close to our ultimate goal of eternal life. But through it all, the right trail is well defined and well traveled. Many, led by the Savior, have gone before. Many, led by the Savior, have marked the trail clearly. Many, led by the Savior, wait to congratulate us on our successful traverse.

Who is on it with me?
The first and pre-eminent person on the trail with you is the Savior. The second person on the trail with you is the adversary. The third is you. Each of the first two would lead you in a different direction. Satan would lead you into a wide and easy way downward to destruction. The Savior would lead you upward on a narrow way to eternal life that He has clearly marked. You choose who to follow. Each of these three has certain powers.

The Savior's Powers
The Savior has all power and is in complete control throughout eternity. John Taylor, in his book, The Government of God, says:

This earth is not Satan's inheritance; it is the Lord Jesus Christ's. He is the rightful owner and proprietor. If Satan be indeed the God of this world, and rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, he is only an usurper. It is not his rightful dominion, for all things were created by Christ, and for Christ … and he only has a right to rule … if God has a right to rule, no other power can have that right...

The Savior has infinite power to exercise his superior faith, knowledge and priesthood to: atone for our sins, offer his grace to us, know our thoughts and deeds, know our intentions, forgive sin, bind Satan (based on our righteousness), work miracles, and give us knowledge and help through the Holy Ghost. Many other powers are His and he exercises them selflessly on our behalf.

Satan's Powers
Satan’s powers are much more limited. Don’t misunderstand – through his superior knowledge he holds great powers, but they are all directed at leading the children of men to destruction. There is no good in him. There is no love in him. There is no reward for choosing his trail except eternal regret. But Satan has no power except that granted to him by the Godhead and by us. The adversary cannot know the mind of God (Moses 4:6). Elder Bruce R. McConkie, in his encyclopedic work, Mormon Doctrine, teaches us:

Knowledge can be obtained and used in unrighteousness; Satan gains his power on this principle. But intelligence presupposes the wise and proper use of knowledge, a use that leads to righteousness and the ultimate attainment of exaltation. The devil has tremendous power and influence because of his knowledge, but he is entirely devoid of the least glimmering of intelligence.

Our Powers
You and I are on the trail. We have certain powers granted to us to help us travel in the right direction. Our greatest blessing and our greatest challenge is the agency that our Father-in-Heaven has bestowed upon us. In his book, Doctrines of Salvation, Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. explains:

The Lord has given to man his agency. That is a divine principle upon which exaltation can come. It is the only principle upon which rewards can be given in righteousness. …By it we may climb to the heights, we may enter the kingdom of God to sit on the throne and be exalted as sons and daughters of God, but we must be obedient. [italics added]

We can choose. We can exercise our agency to: communicate with Father through prayer, seek the companionship of the Holy Ghost, resist temptation, cast out evil thoughts, know the mind of God (gain intelligence) (Moses 4:6), discern thoughts, command Satan, and work out our own salvation. Or we can choose Satan’s forks and branches.

There are many others on the trail in front of you or often, beside you. There are friends, family members, eternal companions, ancestors, Church leaders from the prophet to bishops, Sunday school teachers, home teachers, visiting teachers, parents, grandparents, and many others. Sometimes they lead, sometimes they push, sometimes they set the example. But always, they direct us away from the forks and branches that the adversary has attached to the true trail.

Who is following me?
Our children, grandchildren, and many generations to come are following us, as well as others who watch and emulate us. This is the great blessing of mortality. It is in mortality that eternal family connections are made. In mortality, we join ourselves with an eternal companion and enjoy the benefits and blessings of creating an eternal family and establishing eternal links with ancestors and descendants. Once again, the trail leads through the temple where these bonds are made eternal. The great ancestral tree’s roots, with Father Adam at its head, reach upward into eternity, and the infinite descendant branches of the tree reach behind us on the trail. Satan’s objective is to take from us our place in the eternal family. If we succumb to his whisperings, we cannot inherit the celestial kingdom, but must live singly in one of the Father’s other kingdoms. In Malachi 4:1, we read:

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

It is my belief that Malachi was referring to the eternal family tree and its roots from which those who succumb to the adversary’s wiles will be pruned – to live singly and without increase for eternity.

The danger is that, based on our good or bad example, those who follow us may follow the trails that Satan would lead us into. Exodus 20:5 reads:

…I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation…

Whenever we read something like the quote from Exodus, we can infer an inverse that might read:

…I the LORD thy God am a loving God, visiting the righteousness of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation…

So if we choose the wrong trail, generations after us may suffer because of our choices. If we choose the right trail, generations may be blessed because of our choices.