Thou Wilt Perform the Truth

Thou Wilt Perform the Truth[1]

R. Kelly Haws

December 15, 2022

Bishop and Sister Budge, President and Sister Eyring, family, and friends, I join you in congratulating each of these graduates. We are simply thrilled for you graduates today! 

Micah

In a moment of honesty, I once heard the president of one of our CES universities say, “Being a commencement speaker is like being the corpse at a funeral. They need you in order to hold the event, but nobody expects you to say very much.”^[2] With that in mind, I have a few brief thoughts to share with you.

Like each of you, my wife, Connie, and I recently studied a lesser-known Old Testament prophet. In fact, he’s called a “minor prophet” because we have so little of his writing. He lived in a relatively small town, is obscured by other more prominent prophets, and, like them, had to preach repentance. Perhaps like you, Connie and I were deeply moved by Micah’s hope-filled concluding testimony. “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity . . . he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” And then, at least partly speaking of you, says that in fulfillment of His promised mercy to Abraham, Jesus Christ “wilt perform [that] truth to Jacob”^[3] and to you.

President Nelson, the chief Apostle and Prophet of Him who is “the Truth,”^[4] taught us last conference how we can survive spiritually and even flourish. 

To set the stage just a bit, think about this. Your studies have had you researching online, on that comfortable apartment couch, and probably even while waiting at the drive-through window. In a nod to your grandparents and as a last resort, you might have even gone to the library and read a book in your search for correct answers and truth.

Blurring the Line

So now, President Nelson said the adversary is working to “blur the line between what is true and what is not true.”^[5] 

Every single day, you and I see Isaiah’s prophecy play out right in front of us. With pandemic-like consequences, evil is openly called good. We watch as bitter is insidiously endorsed as being sweet. And while referencing the sweetest and most rewarding of both earthly and eternal blessings, some look us right in the eye and without blinking try to convince us that very sweetness is actually somehow bitter^.[6]

The Flood of Information

I don’t know the word to use when something is astonishingly ironic, and yet at the same time so common as to be part of every waking hour. Whatever that word is, think of it as President Nelson then adds, “The flood of information available at our fingertips, ironically, makes it increasingly difficult to determine what is true.”^[7]

Additionally, Paul culminates his description of our perilous times by saying many would be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”^[8]

In a day when megahertz and terabytes are becoming passe, did you know the speed of supercomputers is now “commonly measured in [something called] floating-point operations per second (or FLOPS) . . . supercomputers [now] perform over a hundred quadrillion^[9] of these operations per second. That is a lot of  FLOPS! Maybe some of you can relate because that’s exactly how I felt after a cosmology final!

Your generation can search and surf and scroll nearly a hundred quadrillion times faster than your grandparents’ generation and yet never come to a knowledge of the truth. Tell me that is not a fulfillment of Paul’s and President Nelson’s prophetic visions. 

Do you remember the day you discovered the answers were in the back of your math book? That was a great day; it was probably about 3^rd or 4^th grade. On the very same page along with his warnings, Paul “included . . . the immunization against all of it.”^[10] He told us where the answers are. He said, “the holy scriptures . . . are able to make thee wise unto salvation.”^[11]

Another modern-day prophet then astoundingly promised that if you “are acquainted with the revelations, there is no question—personal or social or political or occupational—that need go unanswered . . . [they contain the] truth that will resolve every confusion and every problem and every dilemma that will face the human family or any individual in it.”^[12]

Truth is Eternal, Not Relative

Finally, President Nelson soberly warned us that “some would have us believe that truth is relative—that each person should determine for himself or herself what is true.” Parenthetically, you know gospel principles are interconnected, right, like molecules or solar systems. President Nelson then reveals one such unavoidable doctrinal relationship. Believing that truth is relative “is but wishful thinking for those who [do not want to] be accountable to God.”^[13]

 You and I sometimes hear phrases like “that’s his truth or her truth,” or “we shouldn’t push our truth on someone else.” Some young adults when interviewed said right and wrong is “just a matter of individual taste. . . . What makes something right is how I feel about it.”^[14] If we look carefully, such expressions hope to allow choices while avoiding consequences. 

Elder D. Todd Christofferson echoes President Nelson:

Conclusion

President Nelson concludes, “Dear brothers and sisters, God is the source of all truth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces all truth that God conveys to His children.”^[18]

As Micah promised, the Savior will extend “mercy to Abraham,” and that includes you. And as Micah then concludes in phraseology which merits pondering, the Savior will perform that truth [His promises] to you.^[19] 

Without any hesitation, you and I join President Nelson and Micah in testifying of Him who is performing the truth as He has said, and who is and will always keep His promises. May we reciprocate and always be completely loyal to the truth. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

^{[1] Micah 7:18–20.}

^{[2] John S. Tanner, “Remember Whose You Are,” BYU–Hawaii Commencement, Apr. 20, 2019.}

^{[3] Micah 7:18–20.}

^{[4] John 14:6.}

^{[5] Russell M. Nelson, “What is True?,” Liahona, Nov. 2022.}

^{[6] See Isaiah 5:20.}

^{[7] Russell M. Nelson, “What is True?,” Liahona, Nov. 2022.}

^{[8] 2 Timothy 3:1–7.}

^{[9] “Supercomputer,” Wikipedia.}

^{[10] Boyd K. Packer, “Teach the Scriptures,” Address to Religious Educators, Oct. 14, 1977.}

^{[11] 2 Timothy 3:13–17.}

^{[12] Boyd K. Packer, “Teach the Scriptures,” Address to Religious Educators, Oct. 14, 1977.}

^{[13] Russell M. Nelson, “What is True?,” Liahona, Nov. 2022.}

^{[14] D. Todd Christofferson, “Truth Endures,” Address to CES Religious Educators, Jan. 26, 2018.}

^{[15] Ibid.}

^{[16] See Alma 41:10; See also D. Todd Christofferson, “Truth Endures,” Address to CES Religious Educators, Jan. 26, 2018.}

^{[17] See Judges 17:6; 21:25.}

^{[18] Russell M. Nelson, “What is True?,” Liahona, Nov. 2022.}

^{[19] Micah 7:18–20.}