Unrighteous Zeal: Part 5 Satan is Its Author

by Krista (01/06/2011 07:00 am)

(This is a series on unrighteous zeal. I'll use quotes from the scriptures, Hugh Nibley's classic essay, "Zeal Without Knowledge" and President Cecil O. Samuelson's recent address, "Appropriate Zeal." There will be six parts.)

"If [a man] does not get knowledge he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world as evil spirits will have more knowledge [and] consequently more power than many men who are on the earth. Hence [there needs to be] Revelation to assist us [and] give us knowledge of the things of God."52 [Nibley]

If you do not have knowledge on a particular matter, then you are probably getting jerked about by those who do. This was driven home to me when I was single woman every time I had car trouble. I knew I was getting ripped off but there was no way for me to counter it with the knowledge I had. I was a sitting duck for any auto mechanic.

I once overheard a conversation amongst two of my male graduate students. I finally said, "I'm glad it's not just us single women who get cheated." One of them said, "I think they like the challenge of ripping off a guy."

I'm not intending to focus on auto mechanics. The problem is pervasive everywhere. When I worked in domestics in a department store I could sell guys anything. They were willing to defer to my knowledge on anything I stocked. They were sitting ducks.

Compared to Heavenly Father we are all blithering idiots. Compared to Satan we are all blithering idiots. Let's take advantage of the gospel light and knowledge our loving Father offers us. Wouldn't it be nutty not to?

The young, with their limited knowledge, are particularly susceptible to excessive zeal. [Nibley]

Now that I am approaching my 50's I look back and think what an idiot I was in my 40s. In my 40s I looked back an thought what an idiot I was in my 30's. In my 30's I thought I was an idiot in my 20s. In my 20s I KNEW I was an idiot in my teens. In my teens, I thought I had unusual insight. Under age 10, I knew everybody else was smarter.

My thinking probably wasn't that different than other peoples. May I humbly suggest we all have a problem?

And if we do have extensive learning, knowledge and wisdom, Satan can still twist us about.

Somebody is out to "decoy . . . [our] minds," to use Brigham Young's expression, from the things we should be thinking about to those we should not care about at all. [Nibley]