When you have a “scary” encounters with questions or situations that challenge your faith or your spiritual well-being, “who ya gonna call”?  How about “faith-trusters”?  (Who are they?)

I’ll have some answers for you shortly, but first, let me set the stage a little bit….

One reason that Christians began celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th (instead of April 6th) is that it comes just after the longest night of the solar year, the Winter Solstice on December 21.  It was a time for ancient peoples to celebrate the coming season that promised more light in each day, and some historians propose that early believers found it easier to “blend in” with their pagan neighbors by celebrating Christ’s birth on that day.  As the Christmas season approaches, perhaps it’s useful to reflect on the lessons of a DIFFERENT recent holiday, and then to give thanks for the added light and knowledge that the Restoration gives us.

On October 31st of each year, many people, including Latter-day Saints, put on costumes and decorate their homes and yards with “scary” stuff.  Did you know that that holiday has its origin as a religious holy-day?  “Halloween” is a contraction of “hallowed e’vn” or “all Hallows Eve”, the night before “All Saints Day”, a day that many medieval believers set aside to honor all the spiritual “heroes” throughout the history of Christianity.  In a way, making fun of ghosts and goblins having their last “fling” the evening before this major “holy day” was a way for Christians to thumb their noses at the forces of evil.

A series of popular motion pictures made fun of ghosts and goblins by depicting a team of “ghost-busters”, specialists armed with knowledge and equipment to battle and subdue those scary creatures.  The catchphrase for these specialists was,  

“If there’s something strange, In your neighborhood … Who you gonna call? (Ghostbusters)

  If there’s something weird, And it don’t look good …  Who you gonna call? (Ghostbusters)”

When you have a “scary” encounters with questions or situations that challenge your faith or your spiritual well-being, “who ya gonna call”?  How about “faith-trusters”?  And who might they be?

We’re told in Scripture that in the last days, there would be a “restitution (or restoration) of all things”, including the Church that Christ organized, with its “foundation of apostles and prophets”, so that:

“we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive”  (Ephesians 4:14)

Indeed, we find ourselves today in a world where men (and women) “lie in wait to deceive” with their “cunning craftiness”, seeking to destroy the testimonies of Latter-day Saints and other people of faith, especially our youth.  Therefore many find themselves “tossed to and fro” in a faith crisis, prompted by the “sleight of men” as expressed in a YouTube video, podcast, or Instagram post.

When faced with something that challenges your faith (or the faith of someone you love), “who ya gonna call?”  Not everyone (even our Bishops and other Priesthood leaders) has the time, the knowledge or the resources to find answers to every faith-challenging allegation or question.  Not everyone can be a Gospel scholar.  BUT  . . .  it has been my experience that there is ALWAYS a faith-bolstering and faith-affirming answer.  IF we know where to find it.

D&C 123 tells us that: (emphasis mine)

there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are BLINDED BY THE SUBTLE CRAFTINESS OF MEN, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only KEPT FROM THE TRUTH BECAUSE THEY KNOW NOT WHERE TO FIND IT.

Of course the Restored Gospel provides us with excellent sources of truth, through the Scriptures, the words of past and living prophets, continuing publications, etc.  But the answers to specific questions may be difficult to discover for those inquiring who “know not where to find it”.

The Church has also created a wonderful resource on its website that provides answers to many questions of faith and doctrine, called the GOSPEL TOPICS ESSAYS.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng

This resource, created and/or approved by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve,  may be the first place that many Latter-day Saints go to get answers to questions of faith or doctrine.  But what if the needed answer is not found there?  Again, “who ya gonna call”?

Fortunately, in addition to the resources provided by the institutional Church, there are many faithful Latter-day Saints who have researched the needed answers, and who have heeded the call to “teach one another” as expressed in Scripture:

“And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith”

(D&C 88:118).

Although many of these Gospel scholars have ecclesiastical callings or university employment that motivate them to do the necessary research to find answers, others are “regular” Saints who simply follow the admonitions found in D&C 58: (emphasis mine)

 For behold, IT IS NOT MEET THAT I SHOULD COMMAND IN ALL THINGS; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

 Verily I say, men should BE ANXIOUSLY ENGAGED IN A GOOD CAUSE, AND DO MANY THINGS OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL, AND BRING TO PASS MUCH RIGHTEOUSNESS;

For the power is in them, wherein THEY ARE AGENTS UNTO THEMSELVES. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.  (D&C 58: 26-28)

Many of these Saints who are “anxiously engaged in a good cause” have pooled their efforts to make their research available, through organizations that some of the Brethren have called “trusted independent voices”.  “Who ya gonna call?” when you have questions? – – try these:

Each of these organizations has its own emphasis and its own mission, but the odds are that at least one of them (and usually more than one) will already have a well-researched and documented answer to almost any question of faith, history or doctrine that may arise.  If not, they will be happy to find and provide a trustworthy answer at no cost to the inquirer.  That’s what they do, and they’re REALLY good at it.

At the 2018 annual conference of the FAIR organization, Elder Kevin W. Pearson of the Seventy explained that the institutional Church cannot do everything that needs to be done to gather Israel in preparation for the Second Coming of the Savior, and that individual members have a “sacred and imperative duty” as described in D&C 123 to become “anxiously engaged in a good cause” to help the work go forward.  He praised –on behalf of the First Presidency and the Twelve- the efforts of organizations like those mentioned above, whom he referred to as “trusted independent voices”.  See his entire talk here. The scripture says “seek ye out of the best books”, but in our modern age, the kind of content found previously only in printed “books” or Conference Reports is now available on the internet via websites, online documents and videos, podcasts, etc.

In addition to these formal organizations above, a number of other Latter-day Saints who are “anxiously engaged in a good cause … of their own free will” have established websites, podcasts and YouTube channels that have – as Joseph Smith said of the Apocryphal books- “many things [therein] that are true”.  Some of these that I have found personally informative (and often edifying) are:  (these are only a sampling – there are more)

https://www.youtube.com/@Come.Back.Podcast

Christmas is a time of gift giving, and as Latter-day Saints we have been given an amazing gift of “further light and knowledge” by a loving Heavenly Father.  By using the resources listed above, we can know “who ya gonna call” to find the answer to almost any question of eternal significance.  As Paul said in Romans 1, we are left “without excuse”.

Merry Christmas.

About the Author:

Robert Starling has been a writer and producer for the NBC Television Network, and has worked at Schick Sunn Classic Pictures, Osmond Productions, and the media production department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has served in various writing and producing capacities on feature films such as: “Jack Weyland’s Charly”, “In Search of Historic Jesus”, “Tears of a King”, “Scout Camp: The Movie”, and “Abandoned Mine”. His book “A Case for Latter-day Christianity” is available in many bookstores, on Barnes and Noble, and on Amazon.com in printed and e-book versions. A free .pdf version is available upon request at  st********@ms*.com .  He lives in Riverton, Utah with his wife Sharon. They have four adult children and eleven grandchildren.