SEEK YE OUT OF THE BEST BOOKS
“…seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith. -D&C 88:118
He was not referring to ‘classics’.
When I first read this scripture years ago as a young mother, I thought the “best books” referred to ‘classics.’ Therefore, I began to set up our home library based upon this type of book. We loved the hunt at thrift shops looking for the missing book to add to our collection. We also began following the TJED model and started collecting those books that were recommended to us! I loved this model and the DeMilles who have worked so hard to help raise a new generation of leaders through this educational system. But, our hunt for classics soon came to an end when we learned how this education is very much focused on the Greek model of schooling, rather than on Zion principles. In fact, I realized that with the focus of “loving to learn” rather than loving God, classic schooling is truly amoral. Just taking a look at their list of ‘classics’ raises some serious red flags.
BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM
The typical classics list I was collecting for my home library consisted of Aristotle, Freud, Aquinas, Descartes (Father of skepticism in a sense), Emerson, David Hume, Martin Luther King Jr., Machiavelli, Thoreau, Plato, Nietzsche, Mark Twain, C.S. Lewis, and so forth. I have come to learn that these men whom I was schooled with, and was schooling my children with, were actually evil and pernicious. Yet lacking understanding, I held them up as the very best mentors I could give my children in their education.
So I then began to ask myself: If not these books, then what would be the standard for a ‘classic’ I would use? I mean all one has to do is type “classic book list” into a search bar, and hundreds of lists pull up to choose from. However, when applying the above teaching of Joseph Smith about seeking learning from the best books—those that provide wisdom and encourage faith—one can quickly find that those men and women I had esteemed as good authors and mentors for my children were not teaching godly wisdom or faith. Instead, these men were actually fighting against Christianity with humanistic worldviews. Jesus Christ taught that “by their fruits, ye shall know them.” Looking for the fruit in their works was challenging; many times their teachings contradict themselves. So I began to look for the fruit in the authors’ lives. Did you know that Marx’s daughter committed suicide, Rousseau abandoned his five children on the steps of an orphanage, and that Earnest Hemingway wished to kill his father, and then eventually took his own life?
I began to realize that a family who set their children at the feet of false teachers would reap the consequences of learning from the “philosophies of men” within a generation of two. I needed to follow the teaching of the Prophet with exactness in order to protect my family from being deceived. So where were the great classics?
MISSING FROM THE BOOK LISTS
Have you noticed that missing from these online book lists are the great works of the Reformers? There is no Martin Luther’s speech before the Diet of Worms—none of Oliver Cromwell’s speeches before Parliament. After spending many years as an educator, I have learned that students and adults can quote Plato in an instant, and recite plenty of Shakespeare lines—but return a blank stare if you ask them anything about the Scottish Covenanters, the English Reformers, the Huguenots, and so forth. Unfortunately, I had raised my children in this way as well. We knew the popular and revered authors but were completely unfamiliar with Brigham Young’s discourses, Joseph Smith’s writings, Lectures on Faith, or History of the Church. We knew nothing about the National Covenant and Declaration of Arbroath or documents authored by Scottish Christian freedom fighters. These were never in my library growing up, and they were not on my children’s shelves. If one reads these documents, they will find that these were likely directly copied into the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble, and yet no one has ever even heard of them!! Where are the journals, founding documents, and published books authored by our Puritan forefathers? Where are the biographies and writings of the early Christians? If we are Israel, we need to study the works of Israel throughout time, the Reformation, and everything dealing with the latter-day signs of the times.
A TIME AND A PLACE
Now, I am not saying there is not a time and a place for studying evil. We have to teach the light AND the darkness to help our families understand why the Gospel is relevant to the real world. BUT, if we are going to study Freud, Descartes, Emerson, Mark Twain, etc., we need to make sure we know why they are FALSE. If we are studying them seeking light and truth, we will be in serious trouble. I have seen families studying these ‘classics,’ with the intention of seeking truth, and this is just one of the areas in which we are being compromised by the enemy right now. If we are going to study the anti-Christs, we should study why they are wrong—and not hold them up as ‘great works.’ So the question is, why are we studying the anti-heroes and not the heroes? It saddens me that truly great literature has been forgotten and replaced by books filled with feminism and other modern philosophies and attitudes.
Unfortunately, as I already stated, as a new young homeschool mother I allowed these classic lists into my home without ever screening them. The battle of ideas is harrowing and difficult, and parents should be hesitant to have young children engage in that battle by themselves. The ‘Great Thinkers’ can be dangerous—especially when presented to our children as ‘the best books.’ A significant part of this discussion goes back to the Greek vs. Hebrew model for education and realizing that we have imbibed the pagan alternative to God’s education—not the words of the prophets.
If the Christian culture is to be restored, it is vital to trace the roots and discern the false teachers of the present apostasy. If I as a parent and grandparent wished to preserve the faith of our Fathers and of the Restoration—passing it down correctly—my library needed to include the best books which defended God’s laws—not those that teach against it.
OUR TOP READING LISTS
This is not an exclusive list of books for our home; I’m sure there are a thousand others, and we are busy collecting them to add here. This is the list that was shared with us, and we have eaten them up as we seek to read those things that help us to become Israel!
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