The words STRAIT and STRAIGHT are both found in defining what the covenant path consists of in Jesus Christ’s instructions to us, His followers. Consider the following from Elder Bruce R. McConkie and scriptural references cited.
“The course leading to eternal life is both strait and straight. It is straight because it has an invariable direction—always it is the same. There are no diversions, crooked paths, or tangents leading to the kingdom of God. It is strait because it is narrow and restricted, a course where full obedience to the full law is required. Straightness has reference to direction, straitness to width. The gate is strait. The path is both strait and straight” (2 Ne.9:41; 31:9, 17-18; 33:9; Alma 37:44-45; Hel. 3:29-30; 3 Ne. 14:13-14; 27:33; D&C 22; 132:22; Matt. 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24; Heb. 12:13; Jer. 31:9; Mormon Doctrine, p. 769).
“To enter in at the strait gate is to forsake the world, repent of one’s sins, and be baptized under the hands of a legal administrator, thus getting on the strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life” (2 Ne. 31:17-18; 3 Ne. 14:13-14; 27:33; Matt. 7:13-14; Luke 13:23-24).
“The strait gate opens the door or gate to the kingdom of God on earth (which is the Church) and the kingdom of God in heaven (which is the celestial kingdom). It is a narrow, restricted, limited entrance and ‘few there be that find it.’”
“Entrance requirements are set by the Lord; ‘and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employers no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name” (2 Ne. 9:41-43).
“In a second and even more particular sense, the Lord uses the term strait gate to apply to celestial marriage, such being the ordinance placing one on the path ‘that leadeth unto exaltation and continuation of the lives’ (D&C 132:22; 131:1-4).
In this day of corrupt ideas and ‘political correctness’, truth has lost its straitness as well as its straightness and has become chameleon-like. It has become both “humanized” and “dehumanized”. It has become his truth is different than my truth, or “What is true for you is not true for me.” The modern mantra seems to be, “everyone needs to find his or her truth”.
Truth has lost its absoluteness in our “politically correct” world. It has become wishy-washy. It has come to mean whatever is useful and expedient for the situation. Truth has become “relative” and “progressive” and “situational”. In fact, the opposite of truth is no longer a lie, it is a “spin” on truth or a “variation” of the truth. It was this similar rationalized thinking process among the Greeks and Romans of old that caused Pilot to ask Christ, “what is truth?” He asked that question as if no one can really know truth because it is so illusive and unknowable. All of this thinking is in stark contrast to Jesus Christ saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” This is doctrine. A doctrine is an eternal truth. This is an absolute. An absolute truth is a truth that is always true—yesterday, today and forever—it never changes, it remains the same. You can count on it. You can have faith in it. Without absolutes—absolute truths—there can be no faith. Faith is knowing something beyond our physical senses. We have become a faithless and atheistic generation because we have lost our belief in absolutes. We must come back to knowing that there are truths that cannot be changed or compromised. Our standards or goal-posts of truth have been torn down in this game of life. We are not even playing on an even playing field. We must return to the ‘gold standard’ of truth. What is that? It is the Judea-Christian standards upon which our Founding Fathers built our constitution. It is the Holy Scriptures. It is revelation from God to man. It is anything that the Holy Ghost inspires men and women to speak (D&C 68:3-4).
Theron D. Rose, January 2021