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We have many sicknesses today in our tumultuous world, but Paul aptly labels one of the most pervasive and contagious. We’ll call it the “shaken in mind” syndrome. Being “shaken in mind” is as deadly as it sounds, like something that would make you really sick. It is where stillness and stability and a sure foundation have fled.
You can also find it on any of these platforms by searching for Meridian Magazine-Come Follow Me.
Maurine and Scot Proctor have spent extensive time in the Holy Land, researching the life of Christ. They have taught the New Testament in the Institute program for many years and have written books and numerous articles on the life of the Savior.
Join our study group and let’s delve into the scriptures in a way that is inspiring, expanding and joyful.
Maurine
We have many sicknesses today in our tumultuous world, but Paul aptly labels one of the most pervasive and contagious. We’ll call it the “shaken in mind” syndrome. Being “shaken in mind” is as deadly as it sounds, like something that would make you really sick. It is where stillness and stability and a sure foundation have fled.
Scot
Hello we’re Scot and Maurine Proctor and this is Meridian Magazine’s “Come Follow Me” podcast on 1 and 2 Thessalonians, “Be Not Soon Shaken in Mind or Be Troubled.” We have a new podcast every Friday and the transcripts are at latterdaysaintmag.com/podcast. While you are there, sign up for a free subscription to Meridian Magazine that is updated daily with scores of top Latter-day Saint writers talking about the things that matter most.
Maurine
Thanks to Paul Cardall for the music that begins and ends this podcast, and we want to tell you why we chose “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” as our signature. It’s a tender story for us. Six years ago our oldest daughter, Melissa, died unexpectedly, and as you can imagine, we were devastated. I can still feel the tears inside of me, which rise easily to the surface about this loss. I remembered that when a friend lost a son, she told me that the Holy Ghost was around her like a blanket of comfort and warmth, and I had hoped to feel that at such a devastating time, but the comfort from the Lord just didn’t come in that way for me. I had to learn to open my eyes to see the Lord’s extended arm to soothe me.
Then, one night, we were out to dinner in a restaurant that overlooked the Salt Lake Temple, and we were talking tenderly and tearfully of our memories of Melissa. A gifted pianist played all evening, which soothed our souls. These were popular songs and show tunes, but nothing spiritual. We talked so long, the restaurant emptied and, we did not realize we were the last ones there, except for the pianist. After a few minutes of silence, she began to play the only spiritual song of the evening: “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” It was a song that night just for us.
As we left, we lingered at her piano, to hear the rest of the song. “Did you play that for us?” Scot asked. She said, “I had put my music away and was ready to go, when the Spirit said, ‘You need to play one more song.’”
Scot
“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was a favorite of Melissa’s. She had performed and recorded it with the BYU Women’s Choir when she was in college. She had mentioned it again just days before her death. There couldn’t have been a song that more clearly would identify to us that she lives and that the tender talk and a few tears of that evening registered in heaven and were acknowledged on earth. She seemed to be saying, “I am here,” and it was the Lord Himself who wiped our tears.
The Apostasy
Maurine
Fundamental to our understanding as Latter-day Saints is the concept of a universal apostasy. It was a frequent theme for Paul, who mentions it again in Thessalonians 2.
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, aor be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by bletter…
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: afor that day shall not come, except there come a bfalling away first, and that cman of dsin be revealed, the son of perdition.
It was within 25 years of Christ’s resurrection that the Apostle Paul warned of apostasy, and it wasn’t coming so much from outer pressures as division within. We have seen that he pled with the Saints at Corinth, “I beseech you, brethren, that there be no divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 1: 10-13).
Scot
On his way back from Greece to Jerusalem Paul delivered a tearful address, recorded in Acts 20, to the elders near Ephesus. He warned, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts 20: 29-31). The “perverse things” that Paul refers to here is, of course, false doctrine to incite division and rebellion and destroy the flock. And calling these apostates wolves, emphasizes what damage they will do.
As today, the most damage that is done to the believers is to those who leave the faith, but as Neal Maxwell once said, cannot leave it alone.
Maurine
As Alexander B. Morrison noted in his remarkable book Turning from Truth from which we gleaned much of the following material, “Paul knew that the gravest dangers to the church were internal and that the near future would bring betrayal, disobedience, corruptions, perversion, rebellion, and denial of the truth.”
Paul made similar warnings in most of his epistles in the most vivid language.
“To the Ephesians: “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:11).
“To the Philippians: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision” (Philippians 3:2). (Note: Concision means “cutting into pieces, separating, mutilation.”)
“To the Colossians: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
Scot
“To Timothy: “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1).
“To Titus: “For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers . . . whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Titus 1:10–11).
To the Hebrews: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip” (Hebrews 2:1).
If anyone denies that there was an apostasy, and that it was foreseen well in advance, they haven’t taken Paul at his word.
Maurine
“Alexander Morrison notes, “The concept of a universal apostasy—a falling away from the truth of Christ’s church as established by Him—is fundamental to the faith of the Latter-day Saints. Had an institutional apostasy not occurred, there would have been no need for a Restoration, no need for the Prophet Joseph Smith, no basis for Latter-day Saint claims that God has reestablished His church upon the earth, with necessary priesthood power and authority to carry out His work in ways fully approved by Him. In short, Mormonism, so-called, stands or falls, in major ways, on the reality of what Latter-day Saints commonly term “The Great Apostasy.” In Elder James E. Talmage’s inspired view, “If the alleged apostasy of the primitive Church was not a reality, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the divine institution its name proclaims.”
Scot
So what is apostasy? Elder Morrison notes, “The Greek word apostasia, from which its English equivalent, apostasy, is derived, means literally “to stand away” or “to stand against.” It conveys the meaning of defection or revolt—a deliberate act of mutiny or rebellion.”
We talk often about the apostasy and yet we don’t know that history as well as we could. Of primary importance is that priesthood authority was lost, and this happened as early as the late first or early second century. This was the deadliest injury to the gospel. Already Christianity had been fragmented into local organizations with various conflicting doctrinal ideas.
The specifics of this are faded in time. On second-century writer said that until the time of the Emperor Domitian, “the Church had remained pure and uncorrupted”, but “when the sacred band of the apostles…reached the end of their life, and the generation of those privileged to listen with their he divine wisdom were gone then godless error began to take shape.”
Maurine
Elder Morrison said, “Once divine authority and direction were lost, it was only a matter of time until the church slid inexorably and inevitably into apostasy. In the absence of priesthood authority, nothing else matters very much, in terms of the retention of divine approbation.”
Scot
Joseph Smith said, “It is in the order of heavenly things that God should always send a new dispensation into the world when men have apostatized from the truth and lost the priesthood; but when men come out and build upon other men’s foundations, they do it on their own responsibility, without authority from God; and when the floods come and the winds blow, their foundations will be found to be sand, and their whole fabric will crumble to dust.”2
Maurine
What was lost without the priesthood?
Priesthood is power. It is authority—the right to act in the name of God and serve as his authorized agent upon the earth. “Priesthood is the right and responsibility to preside within the organizational structure of the church of Jesus Christ, to direct God’s work on the earth.” No wonder what is left when priesthood is taken is confusion and power plays and a vanishing truth.
Scot
The next loss of the apostasy was the corruption of the scriptures. We do not have the original scriptures but copies of copies of copies, where error crept in. Some of these errors were the result of carelessness or fatigue. Think of the monk who copied by candlelight in freezing monasteries.
“But, notes Professor [Bart] Ehrman, other changes made in the second and third centuries, by both “orthodox” and “heretical” scribes, were intentional and deliberate, intended to say in the printed text what the scribe thought he knew the passage meant, or should mean.2 Ehrman contends that these changes were intended to defend a theological position, while denigrating those of opponents.”
Maurine
While many of these changes were made without malice, Nephi reminds us that those who “have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious” did so that “they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men” (1 Nephi 13:26,27).
Elder Morrison notes, “It seems certain that the changes that most significantly corrupted the scriptures came early in the Christian era. Professor John Gee of Brigham Young University is of the view that ‘we neither need to nor should look later than the second century for these changes.’ There are, indeed, many allegations by second-century Christian writers that others were corrupting the scriptures.”
Scot
Elder Morrison writes, “We simply do not have scriptural material from the beginning of the second century to compare with that at the end of that century, by which time damage to the scriptures largely had been done. But Christian writers of the late first century, such as Clement of Rome,19 quote numerous scriptural passages that are not found in our current Bible. Even quotations made from scriptures in our current Bible are not the same as those we now have. We cannot avoid the conclusion that the scriptures, as Nephi indicated, have indeed been “kept back”—that is, corrupted, deleted, or added to. But the proof, in any empirical sense, simply is not available. The early manuscripts are gone, forever, I fear.”
Maurine
Too add to this there were periods of intense persecution of Christians and many were called before Roman tribunals with demands that they recant. Some did. Many did not. What became convenient for Rome, however, was to blame any disaster on the Christians, make them the scapegoats and then punish them. Nero blamed the fire that gutted much of Rome on the Christians. Tertullian who lived between 160 and 220 AD said, If the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile fails to rise to the fields, if the sky doesn’t move, or the earth does, if there is famine or plague, the cry is at once: ‘The Christians to the Lion!’”
Periods of toleration were punctuated with periods of intense persecution, including the creation of many martyrs. Then, between the period of 235 to 284, Rome had been weakened by so many civil wars, and the barbarians were at the gates. Many feared that Rome was being punished by the gods for unfaithfulness and a new era of persecution for Christians began. An edict was passed that everyone had to step forward and make sacrifices to the Roman gods—which Christians could not do.
Scot
Churches were razed to the ground, Scriptures destroyed by fire. In some parts of the empire they went street by street with armed soldiers to enforce the edict. Then, on 12 October AD 312, something remarkable happened to Constantne, one of the tetrarchs of Rome. When he was about to go into battle he and all the troops saw a sign of the cross in the noon day sky, inscribed with the words in Latin “by this conquer.” That night, according to his biographer, he was visited in his dreams by the figure of Jesus Christ who bore the same symbol and commanded him to use its likeness in all forthcoming battles. Constantine had his troops paint the symbol of the cross on their shields. The God of the Christians, he was sure, favored him.
Maurine
Constantine saw Christianity as a unifying power for Rome and so suddenly Christians went from being a persecuted group to a favored one. Elder Morrison noted, “Constantine became the imperial patron of the Christians, but he chose to recognize only that group of them that was the largest and best organized, a group he called ‘the lawful and most holy Catholic [international] Church.’ In time, he would suppress all others.”
Scot
“Constantine soon became deeply involved in matters of discipline within the church, matters that had there been apostolic direction would have been dealt with locally by internal administrative procedures, not by an autocratic and heavy-handed emperor who was not even a church member.”
Maurine
Constantine was ever ready to settle disputes of doctrine, although historians have argued for centuries whether Constantine was ever himself really converted. He built pagan temples even as he built Christian churches. His life certainly did not reflect Christianity as he ordered the execution of his son, his nephew and his second wife.
Scot
Numerous disputes divided the church. One important point of view was held by Arius and his followers who taught that Jesus Christ was divine and was sent to earth for the salvation of humanity, but because he was separate, He was not equal to God the Father in rank.This was considered a heresy and a division to the Church that Constantine wanted to unify for his own ends.
So a Great Council was held beginning 20 May, 325, in Nicaea at Constantine’s palace where 318 bishops attended to hammer out together what was the nature of God. This was debated, and their decision was not revelation. After bickering and politicking, it is said that Constantine himself came up with the term “consubstantial”, which essentially means “three persons in one substance.”
Maurine
As Elder Morrison said, “Constantine had weighed in on the matter, and who dared to gainsay him? Who would be so bold as to declare the emperor a heretic? Constantine, frustrated by theological wrangling, anxious above all else for unity, urged acceptance of Christ’s nature as of “being one with” the Father. Let’s just end the argument, was his view… All who were present signed the document, except for a couple of bishops who remained loyal to Arius and left with him, one would suppose, in a huff.”
Scot
It would have been nice to have President Nelson to say, “Truth is truth. You don’t make up truth; you discover truth.”
Maurine
“The text of the Nicene Creed, which from henceforth defined orthodox Christianity, became sacrosanct, immutable” and defined a God that was three persons in one being, “wholly other (in other words, no relation to us), and immaterial, without body, parts or passions.” This is the traditional “orthodox” view of God and is is extra-scriptural. In other words, it is not what is taught in scripture.”
Any other point of view from this time on was considered anathema and punishable as heresy.
All that Paul had prophesied about the apostasy had come to pass. Lost was any true sense of who God is. Lost is the reality that we are related as children to a father. Lost is any idea of a pre-mortal world where we understood why we would come to this earth. Lost is His intimate involvement in our progress. Lost is is a Father and a Son with bodies made of flesh and bone.
Scot
No wonder Joseph Smith’s first vision was such a piercing of the darkness, such an illuminating moment. There before Joseph stood two personages of flesh and bone, separate from each other, proclaiming truths that had been lost and buried under the weight of false traditions that had bound people for centuries. This was a shaft of illuminating light and knowledge that would open the hearts to gladness of many and threaten others.
When there had been such chains of doctrinal prison, for so long, how was the good word to get out? It was by missionary work, just as Paul had done. There were those who were bold enough and convicted enough and caring enough to sacrifice themselves and their comfort and go spread the astonishing good word.
Paul had much to say about the characteristics those missionaries must have.
“For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.” (1 Thess. 1:5).
Maurine
“The manner of man we were among you.” Missionaries surely can’t teach with power if they don’t give themselves wholly to the Lord and to His service. They bear their testimony always—and sometimes in words. Listen to Paul continue:
3 For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile:
4 But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God…,
6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others…
7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:
8 So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us (1 Thess. 2: 3,4,6-8).
You’d like every missionary we send into the field to read and learn these scriptures.
Scot
And think, just like Paul, how many missionaries who have gone out in this dispensation to spread the remarkable word about who God is and the love He has for us and the hope He brings to us.
Most of these missionaries have done just as Paul described, cherished the people they served, taught things not that were pleasing to man but to God, and given their whole souls to the Lord, silently sacrificing, their names not usually remembered in history.
Maurine
A friend once said something we have never forgotten. There are two debts we can never repay. One, of course, is to our Savior, to whom we owe all gifts. But another debt is to that missionary who first came to your family and brought the gospel, unlocking the prison of false traditions that had reigned for centuries. People you may not know exhibited patience and courage and muscle and tears to bring your family the gospel.
We know some of those names for our family, don’t we Scot. In one of my lines, a man named William Henshaw came from the Benbow Farm area in England in the 1840’s and baptized my great, great grandmother in Wales.
Scot
Look at the tenacity of one of the first missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ in this dispensation, Samuel Harrison Smith, the prophet’s younger brother. He traveled without purse or scrip to the surrounding communities. His mission was to sell copies of the Book of Mormon and preach the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Seeking shelter at night under trees or in barns, relying on the hospitality of strangers for food, Samuel worked his way through the countryside with limited success. Finally, however, he found one circuit preacher, John Greene, who agreed to retain the book to sell to any interested parties he found.
Samuel Smith returned five times to retrieve the book from the Greenes, and on the last visit, it just so happened that Rhoda was there alone, and she confessed to Samuel, “Sir, I have read this book, and I know that it is true. Will you not pray with me?” And so, he knelt in prayer with her, and during the prayer, the Spirit whispered to him that he should leave the book with her as a gift.
About this same time, Rhoda’s brother, Phineas H. Young, obtained a book from Samuel. Phineas shared it with his brother, Brigham, and also with his sister, Fanny Young Murray. Fanny shared it with her daughter, Vilate Kimball, who in turn shared it with her husband, Heber C. Kimball. John Greene also read the book. After thorough study of the book, Brigham Young said, “I knew it was true, as well as I knew that I could see with my eyes.”
From this one effort, numerous people were converted and came into the Church, one of whom would later succeed Joseph at his death and lead the Church for thirty-three years. “And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.” (1 Nephi 16:29.) Scot Facer Proctor, Maurine Jensen Proctor, Witness of the Light: A Photorgraphic Journey in the Footsteps of the American Prophet Joseph Smith. http://www.gospelink.com/library/document/36509?highlight=1
Maurine
Five times he went to retrieve that book. What if he had just given up? Think of the people who joined the Church from that one book, who in turn shaped the history for all of us.
Then there was this missionary named Parley P. Pratt. In April of 1836, as Parley P. Pratt sat pondering his deep debt and the seeming impossibility of going on yet another mission, Heber C. Kimball knocked at his door ready to give him a blessing. “Thou shalt go to Upper Canada,” he prophesied, “even to the city of Toronto, the capital, and there thou shalt find a people prepared for the fullness of the gospel…and from the things growing out of this mission , shall the fullness of the gospel spread unto England, and cause a great work to be done in that land.”
With empty pockets, Parley took a log, tiresome road to Lake Ontario, but when he arrived in Hamilton on the other side of the lake, he hit a roadblock. If he walked around the lake, it would take days and be an arduous journey, but if he took passage across the lake, he could be there by day’s end. Yet, he had no money. “Under these circumstances,’ he wrote, “I pondered what I should do. I had many times received answers to prayer in such matters, but now it seemed hard to exercise faith…because I was among strangers and entirely unknown.”
Scot
At the Spirit’s urging he retired to a quiet place in the woods to pray for the money to make the journey across the lake by boat. Then he returned to Hamilton and began talking to people. “I had not tarried many minutes,” he said, “before I was accosted by a stranger who inquired my name and where I was going. He also asked me if I did not want some money.”
When Parley said yes, the man gave him ten dollars and a letter of introduction to a man named John Taylor from Toronto. That name may sound familiar, because, of course, he would become the third president and prophet of the Church. The Lord had brought Parley to a man prepared to hear what he had to say.
Maurine
John had been regularly meeting had been regularly meeting with others to search the scriptures. He later said, “When Brother Pratt came to me I was, perhaps, as well read in the letter of the Bible as I am today, and as soon as he commenced to talk about Prophets, I said, “Yes, we believe in them. And he talked about Apostles and I remarked, “Yes, we have been looking for such men, but we cannot find them.” Parley testified that the ancient church they were seeking had been restored. His message was received with great joy. They were certain he had come because of their ceaseless prayers.
It would seem that if such wonderful news was revealed to the earth–the truth nature of God after all these centuries of this knowledge being lost–that it would be shouted from the rooftops and be the headlines in every newspaper. But no, of course that will never be. The way the knowledge of God is spread to His children is missionaries going to one person or one family at a time. That’s why this missionary work matters so much.
Scot
The question for us is how can we be missionaries? Not only do I want to be a part of this great missionary effort, but it is a covenant responsibility. Clayton Christensen gives some ideas in his book “The Power of Everyday Missionaries.”
First, he says, you can’t decide yourself who will or will not be a likely member of the church. He notes, “As we reflect upon those who have joined the Church…few of them would have been on our list of “likely members” when they first encountered the Church. “For the Lord seeth not as men seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7)…The only way all people can have the opportunity to choose or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ is for us, without judgment, to invite them to follow the Savior.
Maurine
“…We don’t need to transform our relationships into friendships as a prerequisite to inviting others to learn about the gospel. Whether our platform with people is as neighbors, classmates, work associates, store clerks, or those riding on the same bus, there is no requirement to change that platform before we can invite them. Indeed, we need not and ˆshould not alter our relationships with others in order to invite them.”
He said that over the years, “we have observed no correlation between the depth of a relationship and the probability that a person will be interested in the gospel. But the reverse is almost always true: Everyone who accepts an invitation to learn about the gospel becomes a closer friend, regardless of whether or not he or she ultimately accepts baptism…We have also learned that even when people decline our invitations, they are not offended as long as they can feel our honesty, our love, and God’s love when we invite them to learn about Christ’s gospel.”
Scot
What you don’t want to do is feign friendship with someone in the mistaken belief that that is a way to “prepare” them to be invited. Just invite. And yes, Christensen said that about three out of four will not say yes. But one in four will. If you have to hear people say no to your invitation, that’s ok. You’ve asked. He said, “Nothing succeeds like success. My faith deepens every time I invite someone…We succeed as member missionaries when we invite people to learn and accept the truth.”
He also said to use Latter-day Saint words in our conversations with others and not shy away from that. Sometimes we change what we say when we are talking to people who are not members.
Maurine
For instance, someone asks, “What did you do this weekend?” And instead of only mentioning that you went hiking or saw a movie or whatever, you say, “I went to the Latter-day Saint church and heard a great talk which gave me an idea I decided to act on.” Or you say, “I took the Latter-day Saint youth in our church on a service activity.”
Sprinkle your honest experience into a conversation without holding back. You say, “My daughter, who is a student at BYU.” Your life is full of activities and thoughts and experiences based on your being a member of the Church. You can share that.”
Scot
If people say something like, “Oh, you are a Latter-Saint.” You can answer, “I am, and it is a wonderful church. Why do you ask?” Christensen says he finds it very helpful to ask, “Why do you ask?”
Along that same idea, if someone asks you about the Church, don’t think you have to launch into everything you know, lay everything on them at once. Ask them what they want to know and answer their questions clearly. As he says, “Doctrine over time becomes very important to converts…but it typically is not the initial reason for their interest.”
People learn when they are ready to learn, so it is helpful to ask them questions about what interests them and what they think.
Maurine
He says, too, that it is important that you decouple your friendship from your request, something like this, “Scott, I’m going to ask you a question. But before I ask, we need to agree that our friendship won’t be affected if you decide that this isn’t of interest to you. Okay?”
One more suggestion from him is that we share the truth at work in a proud and confident way. We spend much of our time at work. Other than that we are with our families or on Sunday at church with our friends who already have the gospel. Not being able to mention the gospel at work, means we don’t mention the gospel and abandon missionary work. Christensen says, “Of all the battles in the war that we are fighting against Satan, this is a big one—and in many ways we are retreating from this battle, ceding this venue to the adversary…Because work is where we can most readily meet and engage in conversations about the gospel, Satan is very committed to stop this from happening.”
Scot
He notes that, “If the prohibition against talking about religion at work were a preference of executives, then different companies would have different views on it. And if the injunction against religious discussions were based in a worry that they would hurt employees’ productivity, then discussions about other beliefs—like politics, ethnic differences, sports, and so on—would also be viewed as detracting from productivity in the workplace. The fact that the prohibition applies only to religion, and that the ban on religious discussion seems to be in force at nearly every workplace, leads me to believe that this particular cultural belief is the work of Satan. I see no other plausible explanation.” He has convinced us that it is “awkward and politically incorrect to talk about God’s plan with others at work.”
Maurine
Recognizing that this is a construct of Satan has given him courage, Christensen says. He uses his religious words in conversation and does it in a matter-of-fact, everyday way, as we mentioned above. He said that “even at a secular institution like mine, I have found so many who are eager to discuss their faith in God that I literally could spend hours every day with just a fraction of those who are anxious to discuss the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
He also reminds us of the use of the Internet. He is a professor at the Harvard Business School and has been ranked as the world’s top business management thinker, yet, right there on his website with all the information about business innovation is a section about his devotion to the gospel called “Why I belong and why I believe.” Among other things he says right there, “As I have studied the Bible and the Book of Mormon, I have come to know through the power of the Spirit of God that these things contain the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
We might usually hear things like this at church, but there it is right on his own website with a list of articles about where and how to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love that boldness.
After the centuries of misunderstanding who God is and the apostasy, which was foreseen by Paul, it is an enormous thing to have restored to us such clear information about God’s nature and His relationship to us. We have the immense privilege of sharing it with the world. In all the eons of time, how could we be so blessed with such a sacred responsibility?
Scot
We’re Scot and Maurine Proctor. Thank you for joining us for Meridian Magazine’s Come Follow Me podcast. Next week we will be studying 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus; and Philemon “Be Thou An Example of the Believers.” We’ll see you then.
P. RockwellOctober 24, 2019
This was a really, really great podcast this week; the best so far for me. I listen to these podcasts every week as part of my scripture study. I am an adult convert to The Church, and have an especial interest in the Apostasy and the Restoration. I really appreciated your information as part of this week's lesson. THANK YOU!