It’s a special privilege, brothers and sisters, to be with you on this Sabbath evening. I’m grateful for the invitation to return to this campus and to share some thoughts with you this evening. It is always an awesome responsibility to confront a congregation of this magnitude in this facility. There is something intimidating about being behind this podium.
Three Facets of the Plan of Salvation
Tonight I would like to speak to you about a condition that is essential to the plan of salvation. I refer to the condition of personal accountability. There are three principal facets of the plan of salvation that have a direct bearing upon personal accountability. One of them has to do with the provisions made for us by the Godhead over which we do not have control or which we cannot initiate ourselves. I refer to such provisions as the infinite atonement of Christ with all of its effects; the spiritual gifts, including the ministrations of the Holy Spirit; the saving ordinances and the priesthood authority necessary to perform them; the earth itself, and the organization of the Church; and the laws and principles embodied in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Another facet of the plan of salvation directly related to personal accountability has to do with the personal attributes, or inherent qualities, that each of us possesses as a child of God. These would include our intelligence, our will or agency–our capacity to make choices and our capacity to respond to spiritual forces that emanate from God, which some have identified with our conscience.
A third related facet of the plan of salvation is environmental in nature. It is concerned with the circumstances we encounter here in earth life where laws of cause and effect are free to operate and where many alternatives are available to us. It is an environment ideally suited for testing and proving.
Accountability Defined
Personal accountability is affected by all of these aspects of the plan for the eternal progress of the children of God. It is very important for us to understand that, without the condition of personal accountability, the plan of salvation could not operate successfully.
Perhaps it would be helpful to attempt a definition of accountability. I do not believe that the standard dictionary definition encompasses all that the Lord ascribes to this condition or quality in human beings. There is a difference between accountability and responsibility. Responsibility relates to a set of duties or expectations that may be placed upon us by others or by ourselves. Responsibility places one in a position to be accountable.
Accountability has to do with one’s exercising his own will in making decisions and following a course of conduct. It implies self-initiative and a measure of self-reliance. But it requires more than the ability to act for oneself. It must be guided by a knowledge of true principles. Accountability is heightened by the confirmation of the Holy Spirit as to what is right and wrong. In fact, to act in matters of great importance without this confirmation is to act unaccountably.
The condition of personal accountability is essential to the operation of eternal justice and judgment.
Accountability and Covenants
The Lord has said that one should enter into the covenants associated with the saving ordinances only when he has begun to be accountable (see D&C 29:4647). In fact, we are advised that if, for some reason, and individual is limited or handicapped in such a way that he cannot function as an accountable person, and if he cannot be held accountable for willful choices affecting his behavior, then he should not enter into the covenants that require such accountability. He will not be judged on the same basis as an accountable person until such time as it is possible for him to function without the limitations (see D&C 134:12).
To the degree to which one becomes more fully accountable, he becomes more like God. Note the expression made with regard to Adam and Eve when they had partaken of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten: Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil” (Moses 4:28). Such knowledge is essential to accountability, and with this knowledge men become “free . . . to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given” (2 Nephi 2:26).
The condition of accountability, therefore, is not to be avoided if one is to progress. It is, indeed, essential to progress in the Lord’s plan of salvation.
It could be said that to the degree to which we attempt to avoid or escape from accountability ourselves, or to act in such a way that we inhibit the accountability of others, we interfere with the Lord’s plan of progress.
As knowledge and experience increase and as spiritual enlightenment is enhanced, the level of accountability is raised. The degree to which an individual is expected to assert himself in the pursuit of good works is broadened.
I would like to share with you some suggestions regarding how we might act in a more accountable way and thereby increase our opportunities for eternal progress.
Read the rest of this speech here.
Originally delivered at BYU on March 6th, 1983.
