Within Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life (
1st Nephi 8), he outlines four distinct groups of people (see verses
21 through 33 specifically)
- Those that make it to the Tree of Life by holding onto the Iron Rod and who stay faithful ever after.
- Those that make it to the Tree of Life, but fall away later, being "ashamed".
- Those that start on the path to the Tree of Life but become lost in the mist of darkness and "lose their way".
- Those that never start on the path at all, but head straight to the 'great and spacious building'.
It is that fourth group that will be the subject for today. In many Sunday School lessons on the Tree of Life, including the most recent one I attended last month, Church members often use words like the following to describe this fourth group: "carnal", "devilish", "the most wicked of all mankind", "people who have given themselves over entirely to the natural man", etc...
Basically, the general consensus was this last group was the "worst of the worst", in comparison to the others--the dregs of humanity who (seemingly) don't even
attempt to be 'righteous'.
I take a more optimistic view...
Lehi's vision articulates that he saw "multitudes" heading towards the great and spacious building--it does *not* say that this group purposefully
rejected the alternate path with the iron rod, or even that they knew it existed. Conceptually, it's possible they were heading to that great and spacious building because, well, everyone
else was heading for the great and spacious building and where else are you going to go?. If you're not aware there even is another option, why NOT go where everyone else is going?
We should never underestimate the power of
inertia in today's society. People swear in part because, you see, everyone else seems to swear and that's just something you
do, without necessarily putting much thought into it. People start drinking alcohol once you get to high school age (at least) because, you know, that's just what people
do--it's just part of 'adult life', the 'default' choice for adult behavior. (Ditto for sex and chastity...)
But, there's a fair number of people who--once they understand that there ARE people who don't do what "everyone" does, and once they start actually considering alternative possibilities--often freely cast off previous habits and happily join in with the group heading towards the tree. This would not be possible if this last group was homogeneously composed of only the most 'carnal', 'devilish', and 'wicked' members of humanity. (Our Church wouldn't be baptizing 200,000+ adult converts every year--most of which come from what we consider category #4 above--if they were...) Rather, it seems more likely that a better description for group #4 is from
D&C 76:
"they who are honorable men [and women] of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men [...and women]"
In 2006, I attended
a family wedding where the minister mentioned that the bride and groom were about to share their first kiss ever as part of their vows. I'm sure very few in the congregation had thought seriously about waiting until marriage to kiss...at least until after the ceremony when this couple brought it to their attention by their commitment. Without getting into the debate whether kissing is 'wicked' or not, the same principle applies to our own missionary work through example.
Just existing in the world and keeping our own standards presents the alternative to others who--before meeting us--may not have even given any thought to whether an alternative to common societal habits existed, and whether it was truly what they wanted to do. (When I was baptized at 16, I was the same way--I knew I wasn't thrilled about common societal trends, but didn't have an 'alternative' viewpoint to reach for instead, until a friend invited me to church one day...)
In order to be effective missionaries through word and deed, though, we have to realize that the 'unwashed masses' of humanity are not fundamentally 'wicked and devilish', but rather largely "seek after the truth, but know not where to find it..."