A few years
ago, I learned of a newer blog on a fairly prominent LDS-oriented website that
was seeking authors to make occasional contributions. The purpose was to defend
the Church, using logic and reason, against the critics ill-conceived charges.
(Parenthetically I will state here that my experience is that most critics
don’t really know LDS doctrine or history.) I offered my services and they were
accepted—until the editing and pre-publication/posting process began. That is
when I learned that the blog would not be as straightforward and direct as I
had assumed it would be; further, the site's ultimate owners meant to exercise strong
censorship control over all content.
When I
write, I say what needs to be said even if that points out flaws or errors or
falsehoods in a prominent LDS academic’s publicly-shared reasoning. It seems
this site wasn’t ready for that and feared they would lose readership. So as
fast as I was accepted I was dropped with none of my pieces being posted there.
At first I was annoyed with the hypocrisy, but as time passed I found that the
site didn’t achieve the popularity and wider audience it had sought, so the
whole experience really became little more to me than a learning experience.
Then last
year I wrote another book, this one being on the subject of Special
Witnesses of Jesus Christ. As I researched and studied the lives and
teachings of a strong sampling of these Apostolic special witnesses, I realized
that I had found marvelous support for the main thesis of some of the pieces I
had prepared for that other website: that “doubt” is just plain bad, with no
redeeming value whatever. I found that these apostles believed and taught,
without exception, that doubt is the enemy. (Not necessarily doubters, but
doubt itself.) I constantly ran into quotations from the apostles on the
subject of doubt, all used in a negative sense. The apostles teach and engender
faith in Jesus and His gospel, not doubt—and that is just how it is, without
exception. They do not cease to love or help those struggling with doubt to
believe, but they also do not coddle or entertain doubt themselves. When they
are called they are charged to purge all doubt from themselves until they have
acquired a special witness (see D&C 107:23). This witness is a sure
knowledge of the reality that Jesus lives today as a resurrected being that guides
His Church. There is no doubt to be found in their pure, revealed, knowledge.
That is why their testimonies are so valuable and powerful.
In my book,
I
Know He Lives: How 13 Special Witnesses Came to Know Jesus Christ, I
include a section found in the Introduction, sharing my findings and
conclusions about how the prophets and apostles view doubt. In particular, I
found President Spencer W. Kimball’s words and experience to be very direct and
instructive. While he never doubted the truth of the gospel and that God and
Jesus live, he did experience some difficult days after his call to the Quorum
of the Twelve where he doubted the source
of his call; whether it was from God or from men. After a week of mental
and spiritual torture during which he sought God in mighty faith and prayer, he
was given to know his call was divine. Jesus himself appeared
to Spencer and told him, “I have called you to be my witness to the world. Doubt
not, but be of good cheer.” This counsel reminds us of similar wording in the
revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Look unto me in every thought, doubt
not, fear not” (D&C 6:36). Thereafter President Kimball would say, “I know
without question that God lives and have a feeling of sorrow for those people
in the world who live in the gray area of doubt, who do not have such an
assurance.” Of course, for most of us the assurance comes from the Holy Spirit,
not a personal visitation from Jesus—but the commandment from God is still the
same—doubt not.
In fact,
everywhere I looked I found that the apostles were single-mindedly intent on
bearing and sharing their special witness with the Church and the world to the
best of their ability and had little patience for doubt, especially those who revel
in it for sport or to make a living. If someone doubted, they saw their responsibility
being to assist to dissolve that persons doubt and replace it with faith.
Thereafter, if that person was able to set aside the error they had
internalized by accepting modern society’s version of morality, and to humbly
ask God in faith for confirmation of the apostles’ witness, they could receive
it and replace the doubt with conviction. Dissolving doubt is a spiritual gift
possessed by special witnesses (and others) and many do indeed believe on their
words (D&C 42:14). Sadly, many others do not. But that is the sifting long prophesied
of, and it is taking place in our midst now.
Every time
I hear of someone proclaiming why they left the Church, I take a closer look at
what is actually going on. If they are leaving because they have a problem with
the Lord and His Church’s position on homosexual behavior and marriage, I
generally find that these people have obtained their own personal position on
the issue from the world (modern society) and often it contradicts or opposes the
Lord’s. Because, in general, throughout the world, most people’s lives are
generally not in harmony with the ten commandments or basic Christian teachings
of morality and what is right and wrong. I say to myself: “If you are going to
get your morals, your conscience, your sense of what is right and wrong and
good and bad, from those with no correct knowledge of such, then you get what
you deserve—a loss of your exaltation.” That may sound harsh, but after years
of people being taught correctly to follow the prophets, if they are going to
leave the Church because of public or political opinion and morality (really immorality),
or because of misinterpreted or misunderstood church history, then what can be
said for them? Not real smart.
This is another reason why it is so
obvious to me that these critics and their followers don’t understand actual Church
doctrine and history. They never learned the truths of the gospel properly.
When you compare the truth to their mistaken (even fictionalized) version of
it, they started learning it wrong long before they left. If God sees things
one way, and modern society sees things another way, you have to choose—with
the consequences determining your place in the next life for all eternity.
Disbelief and doubt never had the power to alter eternal truth and
consequences. One can disbelieve with all their heart, might, mind, and
strength, but it only changes their kingdom in the resurrection.
But these
publicity seeking individuals are not the only ones promoting doubt. Sadly, for
some inexplicable reason, some
LDS academics who should know better are also publicly promoting or celebrating
doubt. That they
do such is offensive to me. They should know better. As Latter-day Saints, we
need the gift of discernment, something available to anyone possessing the gift
of the Holy Ghost.
Some time ago, I found myself
perusing a generally fine and largely productive website, Mormon Scholars Testify,
and read these words as the start of
a testimony posted
thereon: “If I have a spiritual gift it is perhaps an immense
capacity for doubt.” I was shocked and disappointed, and my opinion didn’t
improve as I finished the piece; no spiritual witness of affirmation came.
Despite countless hours looking, I have been unable to find any scriptural or
general authority support for the existence of such a supposed spiritual gift
or capacity. On the contrary, everything I find contradicts it. The spiritual
gift named in the scriptures is the opposite of this, to dissolve doubt (see Daniel
5:12).
Then I
happened on another
testimony found on the same site, that began like this: “I begin with my
conclusion: I know that God lives, that He is a personal Being, that Jesus
Christ is His Only Begotten Son, that the gospel taught by Jesus was taken from
the earth and restored through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, whom God
called and sent His angels to instruct and empower.” This time I was thrilled;
spiritual confirmation came; strength of conviction was present and accounted
for.
While I
suppose we should not judge the depth of the convictions of others, surely we
have a right, even an obligation, to discern the power of a testimony. Pointing
out such things angers the disciples of the doubters, but such is of little
moment.
To be clear: Let us not equate
doubt about core gospel truths with uncertainty about how God deals with His
children, for we all possess that; not even Nephi, who saw great visions and
was blessed with great heavenly knowledge, knew everything; but it is our
responsibility to throw off the deceptions of the world and obtain a testimony
from the Holy Spirit.
I also recently came upon the
testimony of James E. Talmage as found on
this same website. This was interesting to me because my own book on
Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ contains a chapter on Elder Talmage; one in
which I have printed a previously unpublished autobiographical sketch found in
his papers stored at BYU library’s special collections. In only a few pages, he
reviewed some life history, including some discussion of how he gained his
testimony. It seems that though he was indeed born with a testimony, that the
time came that, as a young man, he questioned the gospel/Church. His
conclusion: “I was seeking a way out if by any chance the claims should prove
to me to be unsound. After months of such inquiry I found myself in possession
of an assurance beyond all question that I was in solemn fact a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ; and since that time I have never wasted an hour in
doubt or further questioning. I was convinced once for all, and this knowledge
is so fully an integral part of my being that without it I would not be
myself.”
Elder Talmage’s lesson is insightful:
make your investigation, get your testimony and then do not waste time in doubt
or further questioning. All of us must indeed test the claims of the Church
through study and prayer, but once God has spoken by His Spirit, move forward
and don’t subject yourself to the foolish fad of having a “faith-crisis” which
seems all the rage in some circles; it won’t do any good.
So I have
prepared a book (that will be released in September 2017) meant to place the
special witnesses of 13 specially selected (deceased) apostles before the
Saints. Therein, I say this: “In this context, with so many, especially among
academics and liberal or activist online voices—even among some supposedly
faithful members—expressing their opinion that somehow there is something good
or beneficial to be found in doubting, I offer the apostolic declarations
quoted in this book as irrefutable refutation.” And they do indeed come
together in complete unity and spiritual strength to refute the misbegotten notion
that we should be grateful for doubt.
I will not
stand idly by and remain silent as critics proclaim that we must have a faith
crisis and eagerly entertain doubts about the gospel and go inactive or
apostatize and post on anti-Mormon websites and the like. Let the prophets’ and
apostles’ special witnesses be heard and believed, and let doubt be abolished!
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