In September of 1830, about six months after the Church had been restored, Joseph Smith received the revelation which has become section 29 of the Doctrine and Covenants. In it the Lord declares:
Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created. (verse 34)
There have been various moments in my life when this truth has been made very clear. All things are spiritual. As we discuss ideas in the bloggernacle, it is easy to forget that that which is intellectual is also spiritual and therefore the ideas we are struggling with represent a spiritual struggle and not merely an intellectual one.
A little over six months after section 29 was given, the Lord revealed to Joseph what is now section 50 of the Doctrine and Covenants. The brethern had been experiencing various spiritual manifestations that were not of God. The Lord explains:
Behold, verily I say unto you, that there are many spirits which are false spirits, which have gone forth in the earth, deceiving the world. And also Satan hath sought to deceive you, that he might overthrow you. Behold, I, the Lord, have looked upon you, and have seen abominations in the church that profess my name.
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Behold, verily I say unto you, there are hypocrites among you, who have deceived some, which has given the adversary power… Wherefore, let every man beware lest he do that which is not in truth and righteousness before me.
The Lord says that the spiritual manifestations being preached and experienced by some members of the church at that time were the work of False Spirits. Later in the section Lord then gives us the famous scripture about teaching by the spirit of truth and declares that that which edifies both speaker and hearer is of Him.
Some would say that we no longer see this kind of thing in the church. I want to suggest that we see it frequently, except that they are manifest as ideas and philosophies. Ideas and philosophies can possess people in much the same way that spirits do. The intellectual struggles that are manifest in the church and in the bloggernacle can be seen as a spiritual struggle between different spirits–not spirits as in attitudes, but possibly actual spiritual beings.
This association of spirits with ideas seems to be expressed in this verse from section 123:
It is an imperative duty that we owe to God, to angels, with whom we shall be brought to stand, and also to ourselves, to our wives and children, who have been made to bow down with grief, sorrow, and care, under the most damning hand of murder, tyranny, and oppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts of the children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole earth groans under the weight of its iniquity.
Just as the Holy Spirit is associated with the words and ideas contained in the Holy Scriptures and lends them power beyond their content, might there not be spirits associated with other systems of thought that wield an influence beyond the mere content of the ideas?
Is there a Spirit of Feminism? A Spirit of Objectivism? A Spirit of Capitalism? A Spirit of Marxism? A Spirit of Historicism or Materialism? I think that there very well may be.
When we are approached with intellectual ideas should we not only inquire after their content, but also after what spirit associates with them or by what spirit were they inspired?
I do not think that it is implausible that a false spirit would tell you something that contains truth, or is even manifestly true, in order to get you under his or her influence so that by and by, having gained your trust, he or she can lead you down the wrong path with falsehoods. We should consider the danger of receiving correct information from the wrong source.
I submit that the danger of these ideas and philosophies is two fold.
The first danger lies not in their content alone but in the spirits associated with them and their ability to possess our hearts. As we receive those spirits we open ourselves to be led astray.
The second lies in sin. Our faith trumps the conflicts introduced by our reception of other philosophies. But faith and hope are gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we commit serious sin, that Holy Spirit withdraws and with it the gifts of faith and hope that it bequeaths. Without the Holy Ghost as a counter balance, our conflicts suddenly hold much more weight and can lead us to apostasy rather than repentance.
I have had members of my family both excommunicated for apostasy and abandon the church of their own accord because of apostasy. From my experiences with them I have come to the conclusion that apostasy doesn’t just happen all of a sudden. There is a path that leads toward apostasy and while not all those who wander for a time on that road will arrive to its disastrous end, they are on the path nevertheless. But it is not just the ideas associated with the road, but the spirit associated with them that leads to apostasy. There are many steppingstones toward apostasy, and we should be concerned when they are trod regularly within the bloggernacle.
I am concerned about the spirits at work in the bloggernacle. Even when I do not accept them, I feel their influence in my life even outside of the bloggernacle and it is enough to make me consider, at times, retiring from the bloggernacle indefinitely to avoid having to struggle with their influence.
On the whole, does the bloggernacle edify? Is the Holy Spirit present in its conversations? Is our faith and hope increased or decreased by our participation? Are the spirits associated with the ideas abroad in the bloggernacle of God?
All things are spiritual. We should concern ourselves with the influence of false spirits in our intellectual ideas and not only with the ideas themselves.