Chapter 5—Extinguishing Light
Priests were to “set in order the things that are to be set in order . . . Thou shalt bring in the candlestick and light the lamps thereof” (Exodus 40:4) but ritual itself does not assure salvation. Not understanding or fulfilling our covenant duties extinguishes light. The high priest was to “order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually” and “cause the lamps to burn continually . . . [as] a statute for ever” (Leviticus 24:2–3).
Always lit lamps remind us that our light must never be extinguished, having the spirit of God burning within us continually. “Watch concerning your life, let not your lamps be quenched . . . Be ye ready” (Didache 16:1–2). As the time to prepare comes to a close, “they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps” (Matthew 25:3–4).
The wise had sufficient oil (the Spirit) to keep their lamps burning even when surrounded by darkness. The lamp (which “is your eyes”) represents “light and knowledge” (D&C 77:4). Our body is the vessel that, if sanctified, retains light. “Bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord” (Isaiah 66:20).
The foolish think they are prepared, but they did not receive truth or rely on the Spirit as their guide. Even after realizing they lacked light, the foolish still tried to rely on others and “said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so . . . buy for yourselves” (Matthew 25:8–9). The wise could not give it, for each must “buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding” (Proverbs 23:23).
To rely on others denies us the experiences required to receive the Holy Ghost. “The Holy Ghost is God’s messenger to administer in all those priesthoods” required by the covenant. Only with the Spirit as our guide will we not stray. Relying on others brought unfortunate results for the foolish when the bridegroom came. Lost opportunities cannot be regained. Being unprepared, “the door was shut.” Though they plead, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” He cannot let them enter (Matthew 25:10–11). The verb tense shows the shut door stays shut. No pleading or prayers can change its finality, like Noah’s ark which, once sealed, none could enter. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven” (3 Nephi 14:21). Although they cry, “My God, we know thee” (Hosea 8:2), they must be shut out from His presence because the truth is, “ye know me not” (JST Matthew 25:11).
“There are two ways of teaching and power, the one of light and the other of darkness; and there is a great difference between the two ways. For on the one are stationed the light-giving angels of God, on the other the angels of Satan” (Barnabas 18:1). The more light we lose, the more power he has to deceive, for “the father of lies,” even “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Disobedience and error cause our light to dwindle. Light and truth are requirements of godliness and glory.
Always lit lamps remind us that our light must never be extinguished, having the spirit of God burning within us continually. “Watch concerning your life, let not your lamps be quenched . . . Be ye ready” (Didache 16:1–2). As the time to prepare comes to a close, “they that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps” (Matthew 25:3–4).
The wise had sufficient oil (the Spirit) to keep their lamps burning even when surrounded by darkness. The lamp (which “is your eyes”) represents “light and knowledge” (D&C 77:4). Our body is the vessel that, if sanctified, retains light. “Bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord” (Isaiah 66:20).
The foolish think they are prepared, but they did not receive truth or rely on the Spirit as their guide. Even after realizing they lacked light, the foolish still tried to rely on others and “said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so . . . buy for yourselves” (Matthew 25:8–9). The wise could not give it, for each must “buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding” (Proverbs 23:23).
To rely on others denies us the experiences required to receive the Holy Ghost. “The Holy Ghost is God’s messenger to administer in all those priesthoods” required by the covenant. Only with the Spirit as our guide will we not stray. Relying on others brought unfortunate results for the foolish when the bridegroom came. Lost opportunities cannot be regained. Being unprepared, “the door was shut.” Though they plead, “Lord, Lord, open to us,” He cannot let them enter (Matthew 25:10–11). The verb tense shows the shut door stays shut. No pleading or prayers can change its finality, like Noah’s ark which, once sealed, none could enter. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven” (3 Nephi 14:21). Although they cry, “My God, we know thee” (Hosea 8:2), they must be shut out from His presence because the truth is, “ye know me not” (JST Matthew 25:11).
The Lord is addressing not the wicked, but his followers; even for them the quest will be vain. Plainly there are conditions and time limits attached to the promise ‘Seek and ye shall find’ and ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’ (Matthew 28:20).
In their search, they are warned not to follow after any of the groups claiming to be the church—to have found Jesus. Those who are looking admit they have not found him—they are not the church. And all the rest are impostors! Once he has risen up and has shut the door, then all will call upon his name and clamor to be numbered among his followers— but then it will be too late: he will refuse to recognize them.“He that saith, I know [God] and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). The foolish “have not known me . . . They have none understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge” (Jeremiah 4:22). Both the foolish and wise eagerly wait for the Lord, but the wise have come to know Christ.
We think we are secure . . . [but] this Church has before it many close places through which it will have to pass before the work of God is crowned with glory. The difficulties will be of such a character that the man or woman who does not possess a personal knowledge or witness will fall. If you have not got this testimony, you must live right and call upon the Lord, and cease not until you obtain it.
Remember these sayings: The time will come when no man or woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within themselves. If you do not have the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, how can you stand?“Be wise in the days of your probation” (Mormon 9:28), for “now is the favorable time” to prepare (2 Corinthians 6:2, ESV). The wise opened their hearts to understand His word, heard His call, ‘awoke and arose,’ and trimmed their lamps. A trimmed lamp is in order, strengthened, steadfast, and sure. To be in order is to receive power in His ordinances. “It is good therefore to learn the ordinances of the Lord . . . and to walk in them. For he that doeth these things shall be glorified in the kingdom of God, whereas he that chooseth their opposites shall perish together with his works” (Barnabas 21:1).
If any man offers a different kind of teaching and does not apply himself to sound words (it is the words of our Lord Jesus Christ I mean) and to godly teaching, he . . . is a man of no understanding.If we are not spiritually transformed, our light will go out. This period of dwindling light, darkness, and waiting was a major theme in Jesus’s ministry.10 The foolish lose light as they build on something besides the rock of His gospel. “How is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it?” (Jacob 4:15–17). The wise have come to know God by doing what the covenant requires: they “dug down deep” to build on a solid foundation (Luke 6:48, NIV).
As a Church and a people it behooves us to be wise, and to seek to know the will of God, and then be willing to do it; for ‘blessed is he that heareth the word of the Lord and keepeth it,’ say the scriptures. ‘Watch and pray always,’ says our Savior, ‘that ye may be accounted worthy to escape the things that are to come on the earth, and to stand before the Son of Man.’ If Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and the children of Israel, and all God’s people were saved by keeping the commandments of God, we, if saved at all, shall be saved upon the same principle.Satan eagerly takes our light when we neglect it or seek man’s counsel instead of obtaining the Spirit. “He that will not receive the greater light must have taken away from him all the light which he hath,” so he will remain in darkness.
“There are two ways of teaching and power, the one of light and the other of darkness; and there is a great difference between the two ways. For on the one are stationed the light-giving angels of God, on the other the angels of Satan” (Barnabas 18:1). The more light we lose, the more power he has to deceive, for “the father of lies,” even “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Disobedience and error cause our light to dwindle. Light and truth are requirements of godliness and glory.
The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one. That wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers. (D&C 93:36–37, 39)“The Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance . . . and he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received” (D&C 1:31, 33). Light is diminished when we lean on our own understanding and do not truth in the Lord with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5).
“God judges men according to the use they make of the light which He gives them.” Have those entrusted with the Lord’s gospel let it shine to glorify Him? Has this light grown brighter through greater knowledge, additional scripture, veil-rending experiences, divine revelations, miracles, increased gifts of the spirit, and priesthood power sufficient to establish Zion? Without these things, or if we dismiss or “disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation” (Helaman 4:23), our light is dwindling. Light dwindles “because of the traditions” (Helaman 15:15) and “iniquity of their fathers” (D&C 3:18).
When the earth was created, God called it “day” when light was present then pronounced it good. He called darkness “night” (Genesis 1:4–5). But in the end, it has become a day of darkness. “Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! . . . That day will be darkness, not light” (Amos 5:18, NIV). When Jesus was crucified, the world felt the effects. Nephites on the American continent said, “There could be no light because of the darkness, neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled . . . There could not be any light at all” (3 Nephi 8:21). When we reject Him again, we will feel it. “Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it” (Job 3:4).
Many are “walking in darkness at noonday” but do not know it is dark (D&C 95:6) because “men say that night is day. They claim that the darkness is light” (Job 17:12, NLT). “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). It is simple to discern: “That which doth not edify is not of God and is darkness. That which is of God is light” (D&C 50:23–24).
As the day ends, our good works must already be performed because the “night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4). It is significant the ten virgins parable was fulfilled in a midnight hour, the time of greatest darkness. We cannot “do works of light while in darkness” (Testament of Naphtali 2:10). We are in darkness when “three things [are] taken away . . . prophecy, tongues, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus is the light, but He will not always be with them. “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 12:35–36).
The Lord made the Jewish Paul a minister to the Gentiles “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). John the Baptist functioned in a similar role to the Jews. Latter-day Gentiles were offered the light of His gospel but if they do not receive truth, are deceived, or do not rely on the Spirit, their light will also be extinguished. Remember, priests were to keep the light lit forevermore. “Many are called but few are chosen” (D&C 121:40) because their light has gone out—if it ever was even lit.
When the earth was created, God called it “day” when light was present then pronounced it good. He called darkness “night” (Genesis 1:4–5). But in the end, it has become a day of darkness. “Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! . . . That day will be darkness, not light” (Amos 5:18, NIV). When Jesus was crucified, the world felt the effects. Nephites on the American continent said, “There could be no light because of the darkness, neither candles, neither torches; neither could there be fire kindled . . . There could not be any light at all” (3 Nephi 8:21). When we reject Him again, we will feel it. “Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it” (Job 3:4).
Many are “walking in darkness at noonday” but do not know it is dark (D&C 95:6) because “men say that night is day. They claim that the darkness is light” (Job 17:12, NLT). “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). It is simple to discern: “That which doth not edify is not of God and is darkness. That which is of God is light” (D&C 50:23–24).
And this is the condemnation [literally, ‘the process of judgment’], that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).Walking in darkness when light is offered, or believing darkness is light, is “a very grievous sin” (D&C 95:6). We are warned against delusion and hypocrisy, for “if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6, ESV).
As the day ends, our good works must already be performed because the “night cometh when no man can work” (John 9:4). It is significant the ten virgins parable was fulfilled in a midnight hour, the time of greatest darkness. We cannot “do works of light while in darkness” (Testament of Naphtali 2:10). We are in darkness when “three things [are] taken away . . . prophecy, tongues, and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus is the light, but He will not always be with them. “Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 12:35–36).
It is true, the real church is going to be there for a time, but the story is one of constantly depressing gloom . . . ‘the light went out.’ The beautiful and oft-quoted words, ‘I am the light of the world’ are rarely given in full, since their purpose is to make clear that the light is not going to remain in the world: ‘I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world’ (John 9:4–5).
It is not the night of death referred to here (the scripture knows no such expression), but a night that keeps men from doing a particular kind of work—‘the works of Him that sent me,’ the Father’s work, the work of the church. What follows the Lord’s mission is not victory but darkness. ‘The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not’ (John 1:5).If our works are “good, [our] candle goeth not out by night” (Proverbs 31:18). “The light of the wicked shall be put out and the spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle and his candle shall be put out with him.” Then “cometh their destruction” (Job 18:5–6, 21:17). The Lord “will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom . . . and the light of the candle” (Jeremiah 25:10).
And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. (Revelation 18:23)The trump must blow, the ensign must be raised, the alarm must be sounded because the day of darkness is more powerful than we can fathom. Without light, we cannot have His spirit or do the Father’s work. Joseph diligently warned that great care must be taken “lest you grieve the Holy Spirit, which shall be poured out at all times upon your heads, when you are exercised with those principles of righteousness that are agreeable to the mind of God.”
The Lord made the Jewish Paul a minister to the Gentiles “to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18). John the Baptist functioned in a similar role to the Jews. Latter-day Gentiles were offered the light of His gospel but if they do not receive truth, are deceived, or do not rely on the Spirit, their light will also be extinguished. Remember, priests were to keep the light lit forevermore. “Many are called but few are chosen” (D&C 121:40) because their light has gone out—if it ever was even lit.
Levi, who received “the blessings of the priesthood,” understood that his posterity was called to “light up a bright light of knowledge” (Testament of Levi 4:3). He asked his descendants, “What will all the Gentiles do if you are darkened through ungodliness and bring a curse upon our race—because of which the light of the law came which was given among you to enlighten every man?” (Testament of Levi 14:4). Consider the same today, ‘What will the lost and scattered do if the Gentiles who were offered the covenant are darkened through ungodliness and cursed?’
“When the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel; but they receive it not; for they perceive not the light and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men. And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (D&C 45:28–30). Curses come when we “sin against so great light and knowledge” (Alma 45:12).
Their abominations do not escape God’s notice. Although Gentiles in latter days “were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men,” their light has dwindled. Refusing His light brings damning judgment—a day of great darkness, a day of Satan’s greatest power.
“Blessed are ye if ye continue in my goodness, a light unto” men (D&C 86:11) but a candlestick that has no light will be removed from its place (Revelation 2:5). “O be wise, what can I say more?” (Jacob 6:12).
“When the times of the Gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel; but they receive it not; for they perceive not the light and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men. And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (D&C 45:28–30). Curses come when we “sin against so great light and knowledge” (Alma 45:12).
I am Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who created the heavens and the earth, a light which cannot be hid in darkness; wherefore, I must bring forth the fulness of my gospel from the Gentiles unto the house of Israel. (D&C 14:9–10)Throughout history those entrusted with His gospel transfigure His word, diverge from the right path, and eventually cast out, condemn, or silence the Lord’s true servants. Their message of truth and light is perceived as darkness and falsely ascribed to the power of the devil. Unfortunately, even those who make covenants can lack discernment. “They know not, neither will they understand. They walk on in darkness” (Psalm 82:5). They “leave the paths of uprightness [and] walk in the ways of darkness” (Proverbs 2:13), having lost the spirit of understanding.
Their abominations do not escape God’s notice. Although Gentiles in latter days “were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men,” their light has dwindled. Refusing His light brings damning judgment—a day of great darkness, a day of Satan’s greatest power.
“Blessed are ye if ye continue in my goodness, a light unto” men (D&C 86:11) but a candlestick that has no light will be removed from its place (Revelation 2:5). “O be wise, what can I say more?” (Jacob 6:12).
Light and truth forsake that evil one . . . You have not taught your children light and truth, according to the commandments; and that wicked one hath power, as yet, over you . . . What I say unto one I say unto all; pray always lest that wicked one have power in you and remove you out of your place. (D&C 93:37, 42, 49)
For footnotes and references, click HERE.