· My wife and I once visited a
university in Athens, Greece. As part of that visit, we were taken on a
sightseeing tour. While we were actually inside the Parthenon, our hostess, a
graduate student in archaeology, said, “Next, I would like to take you to my
favorite coffee house in all of Athens.”
My wife said that we would love
to go with her, but she said, “Please don’t be offended if we don’t drink the
coffee.”
Our hostess asked, “You don’t
drink coffee?”
“No,” we answered.
“Why not?” she asked.
As I was formulating a response,
my wife said, “The short answer is this: In 1820, a young man by the name of
Joseph Smith went into a grove in upstate New York to pray. He wanted to know
which church he should join. There he saw God, our Heavenly Father, and His
Son, Jesus Christ. Joseph was told he should join none of the churches. But he
was told that through him, the Church Jesus had established while He was on the
earth would be restored. The restoration would be through a process of
revelation. And it is through revelation that we know that we shouldn’t drink
coffee. My husband will now explain it to you further.”
How do we really explain
ourselves? How do we explain anything that we do or believe if we do not go
back to the Sacred Grove and establish the principle of revelation, that God
reveals His will to prophets in this day and age? We obey because we have
understood through the Holy Ghost something of eternal import. The reason you
and I observe the Word of Wisdom, obey the law of chastity, and keep other
commandments is because of revelation.
