Seminary and Institute: Teaching faith
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These are days of great spiritual danger for the youth of the Church, said President Boyd K. Packer to Church Educational System educators gathered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle and around the world Feb. 6.
"I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances," said President Packer, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve. "Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds in wickedness and depravity that which surrounds us now."
Addressing more than 40,000 seminary and institute teachers and administrators in 144 countries via the Church Satellite System, President Packer asked the educators to help their students develop "the one pure defense" — a knowledge and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"Words of profanity, vulgarity, and blasphemy are heard everywhere," he said. "Unspeakable wickedness and perversion were once hid in dark places; now they are in the open, even accorded legal protection.
"At Sodom and Gomorrah these things were localized. Now they are spread across the world, and they are among us."
President Packer began the address by recalling a moment days after the end of World War II, from Ie Shima, a tiny island off the northwest coast of Okinawa. The storm had passed, the war was over. He realized he had a future.
"One calm, clear, moonlit night, I sat alone on a cliff high above the beach," President Packer recalled. "Only a few days before, the ocean, so calm now, sent immense waves crashing over the top of that cliff. I sat for hours pondering and praying. I decided what to do with my future. I would be a teacher."
President Packer said after college he found himself teaching seminary in Brigham City, Utah.
"I had no idea that I would be here now speaking to teachers. I was content then, and I would be content now, to be a classroom teacher. And my wife would be content to join me."
President Packer said that because of the world's moral, social, political and even intellectual standards, the job of seminary and institute teachers may seem nearly impossible.
"There are over 40,000 of you here in this meeting," he said. "Measured against the need, that really is not a great number. But I remember hearing Sir Winston Churchill say in the darkest hours of World War II, speaking of a handful of Royal Air Force pilots facing almost insurmountable odds, 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.'"
President Packer said he came before the teachers as did Jacob when he taught in the temple "having first obtained mine errand from the Lord" (Jacob 1:17).
"Teach your students of the Apostasy and the Restoration of the priesthood, of Joseph Smith and the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by the Lord's own declaration, 'the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth' (Doctrine and Covenants 1:30). Immerse them in the truths of the Book of Mormon. That will lead them to the test and to the promise that is there, and then they will be armed with the protective influence of the truth."
With an individual testimony, he said, young people today will be safe in the world.
"The world is spiraling downward at an ever-quickening pace. I am sorry to tell you that it will not get better.
"It is my purpose to charge each of you as teachers with the responsibility — to put you on alert. These are days of great spiritual danger for our youth."
However, he said, Church Educational System employees with the leaders and teachers in the priesthood and auxiliaries, are not the first line of defense. "The family holds that line. Satan uses every intrigue to disrupt the family."
President Packer added, "Surely you can see what the adversary is about. The first line of defense, the home, is crumbling."
There is a "shield of faith" that can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (Doctrine and Covenants 27:17), he said.
"This shield of faith is handmade in a cottage industry," he continued. "What is most worth doing ideally is done at home. It can be polished in the classroom, but it is fabricated and fitted in the home, handcrafted to each individual.
"Many do not have support in the family. When that shield is not provided at home, we must, and we can, build it. You and the leaders and teachers then become the first line of defense."
President Packer said prophets of old warned of the evil that would flood the earth today.
"Spiritual diseases of epidemic proportion sweep over the world," he said. "We are not able to curb them. But we can prevent our youth from being infected by them.
"Knowledge and a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ are like a vaccine. We can inoculate them.
"Inoculate: In — 'to be within' and occulate means 'eye to see.' We place an eye within them — the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost."
A very narrow and straight path has been laid out for Latter-day Saint teachers, he said.
"Your path as teachers may be broadened to include some worthy activities and cultural events. Activities are like spices and desserts that flavor a balanced meal. These must always be of the standard to reflect the gospel. Do not leave out the nourishing nutrients that build the spirit; it is not the entertainment that protects them.
"The teaching of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ must not be regarded as just one among your offerings. It is more important than any or all of the activities put together. You may provide them activities, but you must not leave the teaching undone. . . .
"I repeat, the way is straight and narrow. You must not wander from it."
Seminary and institute teachers, he added, are not responsible to cure the world's environment. "You can, with parents and priesthood and auxiliary leaders and teachers, send young Latter-day Saints out as leaven into the world, spiritually nourished, immunized to the influences of evil."
Young people, he said, need not fear. Their teachers need not fear. Fear is the opposite of faith.
"I have been in the councils of the Church and seen many things. I have seen disappointment and shock and concern. Never once have I seen any fear.
"Our youth can look forward with hope for a happy life. They shall marry and raise families in the Church and teach their little ones what you have taught them. They, in turn, will teach their children and their grandchildren. . . .
"The house of the Lord has been established in the tops of the mountains, and nations do flow unto it. The word of the Lord — the Old and New Testaments — has gone forth from Jerusalem. Now the law goes forth from Zion. And you are teachers of the law. We will not fail!"
Closing, President Packer said it has been 59 years since he sat on the cliff at the end of World War II. Today, he said, "I do not know now any more surely that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, than I did then as a soldier boy sitting on the cliff on that tiny speck of an island. There is one difference, now I know the Lord.
"I bear witness of Him and invoke His blessings upon you who teach, as fathers and mothers, as grandfathers and grandmothers, upon your families, upon your classes, upon your work. I bless you that His power and inspiration will follow you in such a way that those who come within your influence will have that protective testimony born within them."
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