Merrill J. Bateman, President of BYU and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with his wife Marilyn outlined “the mortal journey, its purposes and challenges, and its role in the eternal plan” during their devotional address at BYU-Hawaii Feb. 27.
Using a team-speaking approach, President and Sister Bateman encouraged students and faculty to continuously cultivate their faith and testimonies of the Gospel and “stand a little taller” in their eternal journeys.
In introducing their topic, President Bateman said, “We live in troubled times where truly war and rumors of wars affect our sense of peace and security. Times like these cause us to reflect on the basic purposes and truths of mortality and our eternal journey.”
President Bateman drew upon on the scriptures, referring to John 18:28-37 where Pontius Pilate questioned Jesus Christ prior to his crucifixion. After Pilate's question of “Art thou the King of the Jews?” Bateman focused on Jesus’ reply to Pilate in these verses:
“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews…Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”
“As I have pondered Pilate's question and the Savior's answer, I have come to realize their importance,” President Bateman said. “They are classic. ‘Who am I? To what end was I born? For what purpose came I into the world?’”
“Excluding the Atonement, our purpose in coming to earth is the same as the Savior's. He was born to be a king. If faithful, we also are promised thrones, kingdoms, and principalities,” he said.
President Bateman added, “In the Savior's response to Pilate, He stated that He was born to ‘bear witness unto the truth.’ We, too, were born and are reborn through the baptismal covenant to be a witness for the Truth, the Way, and the Life.”
President Bateman then turned the time over to his wife to discuss “the premortal world, foreordination, and the context it establishes for mortality.”
“Not only did we exist as spirits before birth on this earth, but our faith and activities in premortality foreshadowed our opportunities and responsibilities here,” Sister Bateman said. “Brothers and sisters, you were in those councils and were assigned responsibilities commensurate with your faith.”
Sister Bateman stressed that agency plays a key role in our spiritual development, and ultimately, our righteous and unrighteous choices made here in mortality direct the trajectory of our eternal path. “The earth was created to be a learning laboratory for the body and the spirit,” she said.
President Bateman then told students and faculty the importance of keeping the physical body clean, sharing three areas of counsel along with certain commandments.
The first commandment related to the Lord’s Word of Wisdom, with respect to what is appropriate and what is not to substances taken into the body. The second law he spoke of pertained to the moral code prohibiting sexual relations with anyone other than one’s lawfully married spouse. The final counsel referred to was caring for the physical body concerning dress and grooming standards.
“There is a connection between how one dresses and one's appreciation of the physical body,” he said.
President Bateman then identified three challenges in spiritual progression.
“The first challenge is to be fully committed,” he said. “It is so easy to drift through life understanding what is important but only having a loose grasp on the iron rod. This is the ‘eat, drink, and be merry’ syndrome. This is a satanic trap.”
“The second challenge is to take care of the little things,” he said. President Bateman brought up the ongoing issue of dress and grooming throughout all of the BYU campuses, encouraging students to avoid the “world’s dress fashions.”
Addressing the third challenge of “initiating an eternal family,” President Bateman said, “The creation of an eternal family requires the husband and wife to take the long view. Perfection does not come before the trial of faith. And marriage can be a trial of faith.”
He added, “It is important for a young man and a young woman to understand that love will deepen over time as both live the principles of the gospel. The relationship between a man and woman is designed to be eternal.”
President Bateman explained two common tendencies today of delaying marriage for education, jobs, homes or cars and of “not taking marriage seriously
“Know that you were called and foreordained to lead God's work in these last days,” he said. “Appreciate the grand prizes of mortality, be fully committed, take care of the little things, and have a view into the eternities.”