“Ye Cannot Know of Their Surety at First”
An understanding of the principles of salvation does not come, in an instant. The idea is demeaning to the principles involved. Joseph Smith did not come out of the Sacred Grove knowing all that was necessary for his salvation. He, like Christ, found it necessary to advance from grace to grace. To suppose that at some sort of a religious revival we can obtain all the knowledge necessary to be saved vulgarizes true religion.
The divine injunction, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, is that we seek learning “even by study, and also by faith.” This that we might “grow up” in the knowledge of God and that we might “receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost.” (D&C 109:14-15.) Similarly, Paul admonished us to “grow up into [Christ] in all things” (Ephesians 4:15). “The things of God,” said the Prophet, “are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out” (Teachings, p. 137).