Gospel Resources for Answering Difficult Questions
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Cover image via Gospel Media Library.
The Church has compiled a trustworthy resource for individuals seeking answers to their own questions and for others who are striving to help them. These resources are found on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Gospel Library app, under Topics and Questions in the sections Seeking Answers to Questions and Helping Others With Questions.
In the video below, Elder Dale G. Renlund introduces this new resource for understanding gospel questions. It provides principles and guidance for addressing complex or difficult topics while deepening faith in Jesus Christ.
Seeking Answers to Questions
This section teaches principles that can guide you as you seek to answer questions about faith, doctrine, or Church history. It encourages you to center your life on Jesus Christ. God’s plan of salvation provides perspective for our questions. That perspective helps us distinguish core gospel truths from things that are not as essential.
The section also encourages us to be patient and trust in the Lord’s timing. As we search for answers, we should seek guidance from the Holy Ghost and work to understand the past by placing things in context.
Helping Others With Questions
This section shares principles to use as you help other people with their questions. We should speak respectfully, listen with empathy, and demonstrate Christlike love. We should seek to understand, acknowledge the experience others have, and avoid being dismissive or judgmental.
Gospel Topics
After the sections Seeking Answers to Questions and Helping Others With Questions, you will find an alphabetical list of hundreds of topics of potential interest. Most of these existed previously in the section known as Gospel Topics. Some of the topics have been updated and expanded. For example, the entry “Agency and Accountability” has an Overview that provides a doctrinal foundation and a Gospel Study Guide with short lessons in a format similar to the Come, Follow Me lessons.
Questions are a part of spiritual growth, and seeking answers to them is often a lifelong pursuit. Center your life on Jesus Christ, act in faith, and hold fast to what you know as you continue to deepen your understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Although we have the fullness of the gospel, we do not have the answers to all questions. Some answers will have to wait for further revelation. In those cases, rather than creating reasons or explanations that the Lord has not given, we should rely on faith and be patient in waiting for answers from the Lord when He chooses to reveal them.
Learn more in the articles “Church’s New Prison Ministry Site Offers Support to Those Affected by Crime and Incarceration” and “Elder Renlund Shares 4 Vital ‘Gospel Nutrients’ All Learners Need to Combat ‘Spiritual Malnutrition’.”
Church Provides Context for Recent Media Coverage on Gospel Topics Pages
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided the following information in response to news media inquiries:
For many years the Church has had a reference section on its main website for various “gospel topics,” listed in alphabetical order. Beginning in November of 2013 the Church began supplementing the material there by publishing in-depth essays on topics of special public interest, including accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, the Book of Mormon translation process and many more (see complete list below). The Gospel Topics page on LDS.org was then redesigned to better serve as a personal study resource for Church members.
Three weeks ago, the Church completed a series on the topic of plural marriage (polygamy), which has recently been the subject of a large number of media stories. Below is additional context for those essays.
Much of what you’ll find in the essays on polygamy has been published in diverse sources and known among long-term and well-read members, historians and Church leaders for many years. The Church has now gathered this information into a single location as a convenient means of placing these resources in the hands of all members.
The fact that Joseph Smith had plural marriage relationships is not new, of course. Indeed, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly asserted Joseph Smith’s practice of polygamy—over a century and a half ago, especially in debate with other faith groups who traced their origin to Joseph Smith and who asserted that he did not practice plural marriage. But although polygamy was practiced among early Church leaders and members, its practice was officially discontinued more than 100 years ago.
The Church recognizes the wide interest in many of these topics. Recent research like the Joseph Smith Papers Project, has gathered more information than ever before about early Church doctrine and practice. The Gospel Topics pages are meant as a personal resource for members as they study and teach about the history and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We live in a world where there is so much information available on every topic. And particularly in the age of the Internet, there are both good and bad sources of information. As a Church, it’s important for us to research and provide official, reputable, historically accurate information about our history and doctrine.
A complete list of the in-depth essays is listed below:
- Are Mormons Christian? November 20, 2013
- First Vision Accounts November 20, 2013
- Race and the Priesthood December 6, 2013
- Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah December 16, 2013
- Book of Mormon Translation December 30, 2013
- Book of Mormon and DNA Studies January 31, 2014
- Becoming Like God February 24, 2014
- Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints May 13, 2014
- Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham July 8, 2014
- Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo October 22, 2014
- The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage October 22, 2014
