The One Pure Defense -- Pres. Boyd K. Packer

I have heard bits and pieces of this talk here and there and I have always wanted to read it. I have highlighted in bold the parts that stood out to me. This is not the entire talk, it is very long. It is pretty much the second half of the talk though. If you would like to read the entire talk you could look it up. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The One Pure Defense

President Boyd K. Packer
President Boyd K. Packer is President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

This address was given to Church Educational System religious edu­cators on February 6, 2004, at the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

…With an individual testimony, they will be safe in the world.

 

…We know also that the being from the unseen world who con­fronted the boy Joseph in the Sacred Grove is always near, for as Peter said, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roar­ing lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

 

Now, by moral and social and political and even intellectual stan­dards, we seem to be losing.

 

But mankind also knows that in the final windup scene Satan cannot win.

 

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.

Morally Mixed-up World

 

I know of nothing in the history of the Church or in the history of the world to compare with our present circumstances. Nothing happened in Sodom and Gomorrah which exceeds in wickedness and depravity that which surrounds us now.

 

Words of profanity, vulgarity, and blasphemy are heard every­where. Unspeakable wickedness and perversion were once hidden 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.

 

I need not—I will not—identify each evil that threatens our youth. It is difficult for man to get away from it.

The First Line of Defense

You, 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.

 

The sacred relationship between man and woman, husband and wife, through which mortal bodies are conceived and life is passed to the next generation, is being showered with filth.

Surely you can see what the adversary is about. The first line of defense, the home, is crumbling.

 

The very purpose for the Restoration centers on the sealing authority, the temple ordinances, baptism for the dead, eternal mar­riage, eternal increase—centers on the family!

 

The Lord placed the responsibility upon parents first, saying: “Inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents. . . . And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord” (D&C 68:25, 28).

There is “the shield of faith wherewith” the Lord said “ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (D&C 27:17).

The Armor Is Fitted at Home

This shield of faith is handmade in a cottage industry. 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.

The Prophets Have Warned

We are now exactly where the prophets warned we would be.

 

In preparation for what is coming, the Lord warned, “In conse­quence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation” (D&C 89:4).

Moroni spoke to us: “O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you. . . . Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation” (Ether 8:23–24).

 

Paul prophesied, “In the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3:1), then word by word and phrase by phrase, described exactly what our present conditions are now. He spoke of “blasphem­ers, disobedient to parents, . . . unholy, without natural affection, . . . incontinent, . . . despisers of those that are good, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; . . . ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” and other things (2 Timothy 3:2–4, 7).

 

Could he have described our plight more accurately? Read the prophecy very carefully.

 

The Power of Scriptures

Paul prophesied, also, that things will not get better. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

 

Fortunately, he told us what to do about it: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, know­ing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:14–16).

 

In His supernal prayer for the Apostles, the Lord said, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:15–17).

 

A World Spiritually Diseased

Spiritual diseases of epidemic proportion sweep over the world. 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 oculate means “eye to see.” We place an eye within them—the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost.

 

Nephi told us that “angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:3; emphasis added).

Narrow Way

It is a very narrow and straight path laid out for you teachers.

 

“Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).

 

...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.

 

The auxiliaries have been organized and have the responsibility for most of the activities. Teach your students to be faithful and active in the wards and branches and stakes, to have a deep regard for the priest­hood leaders called to preside over them.

 

I repeat, the way is straight and narrow. You must not wander from it.

 

Have Faith—Courage

When our youth feel surrounded and outnumbered, remember what Elisha told his servant when he saw that “an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots.” The servant was frightened and said, “Alas, my master! how shall we do? [Elisha] answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire” (2 Kings 6:15–17).

 

You 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.

 

“The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one. . . . [You are] commanded . . . to bring up your children in light and truth” (D&C 93:36–37, 40).

 

A Defense and a Refuge

“The gathering together upon the land of Zion,” the Lord said, “and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth” (D&C 115:6).

 

They need not fear. We 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.

 

Isaiah and Micah prophesied: “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2–3; see also Micah 4:1–2).

 

In our day 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

We will not fail!

 

“How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints” (D&C 121:33).

 

It has been fifty-nine years since I sat on that cliff on that tiny speck of an island in the Pacific Ocean and decided to be a teacher. I knew then that a teacher would not be rewarded with wealth; the reward is more lasting.

 

During those years, whole nations have been born and died as the evil one has worked his will. I have seen the borders of Zion enlarged to cover the whole earth (see D&C 82:14; 107:74).

 

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. I invoke this blessing upon you as a servant of the Lord and in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.