Friday, May 19, 2023

Foreordination not evidence for Determinism: Joseph Fielding Smith, October 1965

During his October 1965 General Conference talk, Joseph Fielding Smith made the following comment; notice how the portion in bold reveals that he did not believe something being foreordained means it would happen//was determined to take place:

 

The Curse of Prevention

 

I When young people marry and refuse to fulfill this commandment given in the beginning of the world, and

 

Just as much in force today, they rob themselves of the greatest eternal blessing. If the love of the world and the wicked practices of the world mean more to a man and a woman than to keep the commandment of the Lord in this respect, then they are shutting themselves off from the eternal blessing of increase. Those who willfully and maliciously design to break this important commandment shall be damned. They cannot have the Spirit of the Lord. Small families are the rule today. Husbands and wives refuse to take upon themselves the responsibilities of family life. Many of them do not care to be bothered with children. Yet this commandment given to Adam has never been abrogated or set aside. If we refuse to live by the covenants we make, especially in the house of the Lord, then we cannot receive the blessings of those covenants in eternity. If the responsibilities of parenthood are willfully avoided here, then how can the Lord bestow upon the guilty the blessings of eternal increase? It cannot be, and they shall be denied such blessings.

 

Now I wish to ask a question: How will a young married couple feel when they come to the judgment and then discover that there were certain spirits assigned to them and they refused to have them? Moreover, what will be their punishment when they discover that they have failed to keep a solemn covenant and spirits awaiting this mortal life were forced to come here elsewhere when they were assigned to this particular couple. (Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, October 1965, p. 29)