Our Prophet, Seer and Revelator Dallin H. Oaks wrote . . . .
What I learned about the challenge of indifference in our time is evident in a letter I wrote in 1956. Then aged twenty-four, I was half way through my studies at the University of Chicago Law School. My younger brother, Merrill, was soon to leave for the Canada East Mission. What I wrote him then shows my early awareness of a condition that persists today, more than fifty years later.
“And now, if I may, I want to say a little about what you will meet in the mission field. There were many times when a missionary feared for his life and preaching was a rigorous physical experience. Now those days are history, and today the open conflict against the Church has largely disappeared. Indeed, we live in an era of good feeling toward the Church. But therein lies the great challenge of this day. We are now in a period of conflict with indifference, in many ways this is a much more dangerous enemy than open hospitality. One might say we are in a cold war with Satan, a time in which he has called off the active opposition to the gospel and substituted in its place indifference to the necessity for one true church. You will meet the indifference in the mission field.
“But beware also of the indifference among our own people. In this time of good feeling towards the church, we are not often called to its defense. We tend to become complacent and smug—to take pride alone in the esteem in which we are held by those around us. Our spiritual muscles weaken and we forget that our most priceless possession, our testimony is neither obtained nor retained by inactivity. The indifferent among us soon lose it.
“Let me give you an example of what you will meet. My Protestant friend is very warm toward our church. He thinks it is wonderful. He is willing to listen to me explain it at great length. And why not? He believes that all churches are right! Everybody is right. As for our ordinances, welfare plan, work for the dead, and so on, they are all right—unnecessary, wasted effort, but harmless, so alright. His church by classification Christian, but they deny the divinity of Christ and they deny His resurrection.
“He can’t believe, he says, that one church could be true. There are so many of them. How can one church—indeed how can Christianity—-be so smug as to think that they alone have the whole truth? They all must be right, he reasons, so lets be indifferent to the whole group of them. It really doesn’t matter which you belong to. We’re all just one big family, and heaven is where you go when you die.
“You will meet these pseudo-Christians, these people who follow His name and deny His existence. They will not oppose you; they do not need to do so, for within their beliefs are a well-meaning person. But their resistance to the gospel is real. The conflict with Satan goes on, but it is a cold war, where the opponent is indifferent rather than hostile.
“In such a time we have greater need than ever to draw near to the Lord. We must be diligent in His service, courageous in keeping His commandments, and receptive to the promptings of His Spirit. We must seek after and actively cultivate our testimonies, guarding always against the indifference to God, which is the curse of our day.” ~~~ “Life’s Lessons Learned” p. 32-35, ~~- Elder Dallin H. Oaks Author. . .
