Learning and Being Clean

There seems to be a connection in the scriptures between being clean and receiving knowledge from the Lord.  For example, D&C 97 is a section that talks about how the Lord is pleased that “there should be a school in Zion” (v3).  The Lord clearly values the learning of His people and it’s why we continue to have schools built and run in the Lord’s name.  But in addition to speaking about the education of Zion, this section focuses heavily on the need for Zion to be clean and holy. 

The Lord said, “Do not suffer ay unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled” (v15).  Only the “pure in heart” would get the great visitation from the Lord.  He also gave a description of Zion in which this school would be established: “For this is Zion—The pure in heart” (v21).  The message that I get from this is that learning in the school is inexplicably linked with being pure and clean before the Lord.  The Lord made this clear about the school of the prophets in another revelation: “And ye shall not receive any among you into this school save he is clean from the blood of this generation” (D&C 88:138).  There cannot be true learning without the Spirit, and He cannot reside in such a school unless the participants are truly unspotted from the things of the world.

                Another place that we see this same principle is in the Lord’s commentary in Ether 4 about the brother of Jared’s experience.  After relating the story about the brother of Jared’s incredible encounter with Divinity, the Lord told how we can have a similar experience and gain that same level of knowledge.  He said that the record of the brother of Jared’s vision “shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord” (v6).  Receiving these great spiritual truths is contingent upon being clean from the iniquities of the world.  He continued, “And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ” (v7).  We must be sanctified through Christ in order to receive the knowledge and revelations that He wants to grant us.  The Church clearly believes in this prerequisite to learning as it requires all students at BYU to commit to living high moral standards while at the school.  Despite the fact that the vast majority of academia would place no connection between learning and being morally clean, the Lord’s standard is clear—true knowledge comes at the price of a virtuous life.  Only as we become sanctified can we expect to receive “the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world” (v15).