Truman C. Madsen wrote:
“To whom will Christ not open? The scriptures tell us: those who continue to cling to denial and self-justification and become hardened in sin and neglect, those who continue to lay waste their potential, those who are imprisoned in the tradition of their fathers and who suppress the light that is “plainly manifest unto them . . . and every man who receiveth not the light is under condemnation¨ (Doctrine and Covenants 93:31-32).
Christ asks that we immerse ourselves in the depths of humility and consider ourselves what we are: fools before God. We are to acknowledge that however learned, or wise, or experienced or talented we may be, we are, in comparison to God, mere fools in dire need. Of those of us who, because we are ‘puffed up,” refuse his invitation, it is said uncompromisingly, “He will not open unto them (2 Nephi 9:42). Until we acknowledge the truth of our situation, our weakness, and our dependence, we cannot be helped. Therefore we must remain outside his fold. How long must we, like the prodigal son, eat husks until we recognize this for ourselves? As C.S. Lewis puts it, “If we will not learn to eat the only food that the universe grows—the only food that any possible universe ever can grow—then we must starve eternally” (The Problem of Pain, New York, 1962,54).
