Blind Obedience

While I sat in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday, raising my right hand to sustain several ward members who were called to serve in various positions, the vagrant thought came to me: “Is this just a rote process? Is this just blind obedience? Is this ‘hundred percent’ sustaining just mechanical?” Non-members have called this process “voting” and decried the fact that there is very rarely a dissenter among the congregation.


This week in Fast meeting, someone said: “Sometimes the doctrines of the Church confuse me. So I decided that when President Monson says to do something, I should just do it.”

Joseph Smith said: "I made this my rule: When the Lord commands, do it" (HC 2:170).

After Fast meeting, I thought considerably more about blind obedience. It seems to be somewhat of a conundrum. On the one hand, many leaders instruct us that the Church neither requires nor encourages “blind” obedience. President Henry B. Eyring, in his book, On Becoming a Disciple Scholar, is very emphatic:

It is terrible and wrong to speak of blind obedience, as is so often done to describe the behavior of a faithful Latter-day Saint. Rather than our being blind when we are obedient, the only time our spiritual eyes are blinded is when we are disobedient.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell said:

The Church does not desire blind obedience, rather, that we see things with the eye of faith.

On the other hand, many other leaders speak in support of the concept. Elder Sterling W. Sill, in his book, That Ye Might Have Life, said:

To me, blind obedience is a most thrilling concept. It should be easy for anyone to do right when he is certain about the answers, but Jesus indicated a higher kind of accomplishment when he said to doubting Thomas: "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

Elder Eldred G. Smith, said in the October 1970 General Conference:

Often commandments are given without our knowing why; then the reasons come later. We are too often afraid of what is called blind obedience, but obedience to God is always right—blind or otherwise.

Sterling W. Sill, ,in his book, Principles, Promises, and Powers (pg 79) said this:

In the midst of his afflictions, the great old prophet Job demonstrated the value of blind obedience when he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." (Job 13:15.)

It seems that from time to time, the Lord expects us to step from light into the darkness of pure faith in Him. He seems to test us with tasks and challenges whose outcomes are not necessarily clear to our mortal minds. He desires that we make a “leap of faith.” Lucile C. Tate in her biography, titled, Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower, (pg 281) quotes Elder Packer:

…Somewhere in your quest for spiritual knowledge, there is that "leap of faith," as philosophers call it. It is the moment when you have gone to the edge of the light and stepped into the darkness to discover that the way is lighted ahead for just a footstep or two. "The spirit of man," as the scripture says, indeed "is the candle of the Lord" (Prov. 20:27).

As usual, Elder Neal A. Maxwell has insight for the rest of us. In his book, A Time to Choose, he tells us that we can see into the darkness by looking back, perhaps to where the candle of the Lord is lit:

The disciple is approaching that gate from afar on an ascending, experiential stairway. Each time he is asked to take just one more difficult step into what appears to be the "unknown," he can look back and see that he has "not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him. . . ." (2 Nephi 31:19.) The obedience of the disciple is, therefore, not blind obedience at all, for when with his "eye of faith" he scans the future, he receives perspective through his retina of retrospection!

So perhaps both sets of leaders are really speaking about the same concept. For the true disciple (that we all strive to be) obedience is sometimes “blind” because we cannot see what is ahead, but are willing to trust in the Lord and obey based on our past experience with trust in him. We often do this in our lives as we trust our spouses, bishops, stake and general leaders. We can safely assume that they have our best interest at heart, and do as they ask with the "blind" obedience of humility, personal conviction, faith, and knowledge of the truth.

When we are asked to assume responsibility for a new calling that will test our ability, visit a new neighbor, or work with a person we may have struggled with in the past –and we do so – we are obeying, not blindly, but with faith that the Lord will prepare the way. Robert J. Matthews, in his book, A Bible! A Bible!, (pp 144 – 145), said:

I have also discovered it is impossible to prove by tangible evidence any doctrine as being absolutely true. You can marshal all the scriptures, all the evidences, all the logic and reason-all the ingredients you want; yet ultimately on every spiritual principle, on every doctrine, there is the unavoidable leap of faith. There is always at least a small gap, and a person needs that spark of faith to get across it. I think that is the test of mortality. That may be why the Lord said we must "seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (D&C 88:118). There is no other way to learn spiritual things.

President N. Eldon Tanner commented in October 1977 General Conference,

We do not suggest blind obedience, but obedience by faith in those things which may not be fully understood by man's limited comprehension, but which in the infinite wisdom of God are for man's benefit and blessing.

So humility, faith, personal conviction, and knowledge of the truth are needed when we consider doctrine, when we accept callings, when we are married, when we form a family, or when we respond to the trials of this mortality. We often have no choice but to step into the darkness and as Nephi said in 1 Nephi 3:7:

I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

In closing, let’s return to the question I had about sustaining those called to serve in any capacity: was it just blind obedience? Two excellent BYU religious scholars, H. Donl Peterson and Charles D. Tate, Jr., in their book, The Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God, (pg 95) said the following:

Although the Father spoke of the Only Begotten as "my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning" (Moses 4:2), Jesus' mission as Savior was not imposed upon the human family; it was presented for a sustaining vote. Said Joseph Smith: "At the first organization in heaven we were all present, and saw the Savior chosen and appointed and the plan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it" (TPJS 181).

When we raised our right hand in sanction at that great gathering, we agreed to accept all that the Lord would impose upon us in mortality. We certainly could not see into our future here, but we stepped into the darkness and accepted the challenges, trials, tragedy, pain, and loss of mortality. We were promised the eternal and temporal rewards of the gospel: the Savior’s love, atonement, eternal ordinances and families, true joy, and infinite possibility for growth in eternity as the results of “blind” obedience on earth. Joseph Smith – and by association we – were instructed: …know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. (D&C 122:7) Our eternal good.

So when we obey, the rewards are immeasurable – the more so because we obey “blindly.”