2 Nephi 9:28-29

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 9:28-29

28 O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish.

29 But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God.

Quotes for Discussion

Learning—good or foolish

You should not be hesitant to pursue knowledge….Study to your heart’s content any worthy field of inquiry, just remember that all knowledge is not equal in value.

Boyd K. Packer, in Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., Jacob through Words of Mormon, 10

You are moving into the most competitive age the world has ever known. All around you is competition. You need all the education you can get. Sacrifice a car; sacrifice anything that is needed to be sacrificed to qualify yourselves to do the work of the world. That world will in large measure pay you what it thinks you are worth, and your worth will increase as you gain education and proficiency in your chosen field.

Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Prophet’s Counsel and Prayer for Youth,” Ensign, January 2001, p. 2

A university education, I believe, would be desirable for every intelligent man and woman….A little learning is a dangerous thing, and too many men and too many women who have become experts in a tiny field of learning think that because they are trained in that field of learning, they are experts in all fields of learning. Many men who are well-trained in one limited field feel that this equally qualifies them to express learned opinions in the field of faith and religion….Now, brothers and sisters, in our Church in this day and age, when education is becoming more and more popular and more and more necessary, there is grave danger of intellectual apostasy… (2 Nephi 9:28-29). What causes intellectual apostasy?...Principally out of vanity and pride. They want to impress others 2with their learning. To put it indelicately, it is the problem of the swelled head, because that is exactly what the Prophet said [2 Nephi 9:42].

Theodore M. Burton, Conference Report, Apr. 1961, pp. 128-129

There is almost a universal tendency for men and women who are specialists in an academic discipline to judge the Church against the principles of their profession. There is a great need in my mind for us, as students and as teachers, to consciously and continually subjugate this tendency and relegate our professional training to a position secondary to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, rather than to judge the Church and its program against the principles of our profession, we would do well to set the Church and its accepted program as the rule, then judge our academic training against this rule.

Boyd K. Packer, BYU Speeches of the Year, 1969, p. 6

If there is any one group in the Church for whom I feel sorriest, it is those who brand themselves as intellectuals. I believe that class of people can go to apostasy along a broader road and through a wider gate than any other group….And so this Church, which believed at the very outset that the glory of God is intelligence and has done more to encourage its membership to become intellectual than any other church upon the face of the earth, in any era, does not look upon intellect as its God. That is what these intellectual apostates do, and they are not sufficiently intelligent to know when they have apostatized….I want to tell you that I think the humblest elder in the Church who knows what he knows and has the courage and the conviction to testify to the world what he knows is just as intellectual as a man can be. Under the inspiration of the spirit of the Lord, that man’s mind will develop, it will teach its maximum capacity, and he will accomplish more in mortality than the man without the Holy Spirit who strives, along man-made lines, to accomplish a mortal goal….Any man who does not have the courage of his convictions, who is willing to the slightest degree to compromise[his testimony] with anyone, anywhere, and under any circumstance in this world is, to that extent, unworthy of the priesthood he holds.

Henry D. Moyle, Address to Seminary and Institute instructors, BYU, June 27, 1962

Increasingly the Latter-day Saints must choose between the reasoning of men and the revelations of God. This is a crucial choice, for we have those within the Church today who, with their worldly wisdom, are leading some of our members astray. President J. Reuben Clark, Jr., warned that the “ravening wolves amongst us [are] from our own membership and they, more than any others, are clothed in sheep’s clothing, because they wear the habiliments of the Priesthood….We should be careful of them.”

Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, Oct. 1967, p. 34

President Joseph F. Smith explained: Among the Latter-day Saints, the preaching of false doctrines disguised as truths of the gospel, may be expected from people of two classes, and practically from these only; they are:

First—The hopelessly ignorant, whose lack of intelligence is due to their indolence and sloth, who make but feeble effort, if indeed any at all, to better themselves by reading and study; those who are afflicted with a dread disease that may develop into an incurable malady—laziness.

Second—The proud and self-vaunting ones, who read by the lamp of their own conceit; who interpret by rules of their own contriving; who have become a law unto themselves, and so pose as the sole judges of their own doings. More dangerously ignorant than the first.

But there is an even more marked, pronounced, and significant difference between various types or levels of truth than simply their relative importance. There is a difference as to how truths are comprehended by the mind of man. Most truths that we deal with in mortality are perceived through our natural senses, but there are certain truths necessary to the redemption of one's soul that are perceived only by revelation through the Holy Ghost. These truths are not perceived by intellectual activity alone but are spiritually discerned. They are, in the language of the Lord, "hidden treasures" of knowledge (D&C 89:19). Or as Paul said, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost," that is, hidden to those without the Spirit (2 Cor. 4:3).

And again in the words of Paul, speaking of spiritual truths:

"God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. . . . Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, except he has the Spirit of God. . . .

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (JST, 1 Cor. 2:10-11, 14).

Note that Paul does not say that the natural man simply does not know the things of God, he says the natural man cannot know them. The things of the Spirit are just as real as are the things of the earth, but they are in a different sphere, and fallen man's ability to perceive and understand them is so limited that only by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost can he perceive them.

…In short, based on the scriptures we see at least five distinctions between what we call natural (or secular) truth and spiritual truth: (1) Spiritual truth is indispensably essential for the redemption of the soul; secular truth is an aid, not a necessity; (2) Spiritual truth is perceived only by revelation through the Holy Ghost, spirit to spirit, whereas natural truth is learned through the five senses; (3) Spiritual truth is revealed only to those who seek to obey the commandments of God, whereas secular truth can be gained without regard to moral status; (4) Spiritual truth does not consist of fact alone but is accompanied by light, whereas secular truth might lack such light; and (5) Spiritual truth is ultimately more important than any other truth.

Robert J. Matthews, Selected Writings of Robert J. Matthews: Gospel Scholars Series, p.603-604

Edited September 5, 2009 by pam