This General Conference Odyssey post is for the April 1983 Saturday morning session.
Neal A. Maxwell used the phrase, “In the valley of decision,” from Joel 3:14, and it made me wonder. As I read the entire chapter of Joel, I realized that it wasn’t what I had initially thought.
I was thinking more that we sat in the valley of making a decision. In fact, I thought it might have been better to say the valley of indecision because as human beings, we go back and forth all the time between wanting to do God’s will yet still managing to fulfill our will at the same time. Let’s be honest, we tend to think this life is all about us.
But that’s not what it means at all.
Joel was a prophet who saw our day. He is describing the multitudes of people who have procrastinated the Lord’s coming, carelessly living their lives of pleasure. When Jesus comes His second time, He will arrive in the valley and make His final decision—or rather, judgment, of us.
That sheds a whole new perspective on what Elder Maxwell, as well as several others, said in this session of conference. And I believe the words said in this session were absolutely prophetic because we see today the dangers they warned against back then.
Elder Maxwell, in his eloquent-speak, talked about “existential despair.” We see this hopelessness in our day. But the reason for it is a lie. Where the world laments a world “without a master,” the scriptures teach us that God knows us and He has numbered each one of us (Moses 1:35).
We also hear from hopeless thinkers that “mankind is destined to extinction.” Again, the scriptures teach of how Jesus Christ overcame the world, that He resurrected, and others will continue resurrecting (Matt. 27:52-53) after Him. In fact, this next statement I thought was truly prophetic:
“Some despair who are, as Peter said, willingly ignorant or, as Nephi said, who will not search or understand great knowledge. For these, a pessimistic philosophy is ‘pleasing unto the carnal mind.’ Why? Because behavioral permissiveness flourishes amid a sense of hopelessness. Because if human appetites are mistakenly viewed as the only authentic reality and ‘now’ as the only moment which matters, why should one checkrein any impulse or defer any gratification?”
This is where our world is today, more than ever before. Even members of the church struggle with worldly views and seek worldly gratification.
New Age Spirituality is very popular today because people have a deep need to know about God. But instead of turning to the scriptures, they reinvent a belief system that is comfortable and perhaps less demanding. Self-help books become popular because these authors are creating a new plan, and people buy into it rather than reading the scriptures which will call to their remembrance the old, original, and perfect plan our Heavenly Father has already created for us.
Marion G. Romney said,
“The major reason for the world’s troubles today is that men are not seeking to know the will of the Lord and then to do it. Rather do they seek to solve their problems in their own wisdom and in their own way. Brethren and sisters, do not rely upon the counsel of men nor trust in the arm of flesh but seek the Lord to establish his righteousness.”
President Gordon B. Hinckley reminded us that we have no reason to fear, that we are in God’s hands and the original plan is going accordingly.
“God is weaving his tapestry according to his own grand design. All flesh is in his hands. It is not our prerogative to counsel him. It is our responsibility and our opportunity to be at peace in our minds and in our hearts and to know that he is God, that this is his work, and that he will not permit it to fail. We have no need to fear. We have no need to worry. We have no need to speculate. Our imperative need is to be found doing our duty.”
In the near future, Jesus Christ will come to earth, in His great glory, and arrive to the valley of decision. What decision will He make of you? Of me? Of those who continually seek His cause and watch for His coming? It is our charge to be faithful, hopeful in His coming, and ever striving to learn and live the one and only perfect Plan of Salvation.