For His own reasons, the Lord provides answers to some questions, with pieces placed here and there throughout the scriptures. We are to find them; we are to earn them. In that way sacred things are hidden from the insincere.
You'll always gain more from what you discover than from what you're simply told. Don't just look at the mountain - the doctrine - go climb it. You might just meet the Lord at the summit.
I sometimes think that one of the best-kept secrets of the kingdom is that the scriptures open the door to the receipt of revelation. However talented men may be in administrative matters; however eloquent they may be in expressing their views; however learned they may be in the worldly things-they will be denied the sweet whisperings of the Spirit that might have been theirs unless they pay the price of studying, pondering, and praying about the scriptures.
The people who have embraced this gospel have had to think for themselves. It is no light natter to become a 'Mormon'. It involves serious consequences.
Conviction cannot be maintained through mere book study in our basements. Nor is the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a spectator sport, where our convictions grow solely from observing the experiences of others. We must get our own hands dirty in the work. This is where miracles happen.
For example, our modern culture has embraced a philosophical worldview that many call expressive individualism, which offers us narratives of liberation, where we learn to be true to ourselves by relinquishing the chains of tradition and superstition through self-affirmation. The restored Gospel of Jesus offers us narratives of redemption, where we recognize our fallenness before God, and become new creatures through discipleship and the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Modern culture has embraced an understanding of love where we adopt a stance of affirmation, or at the very least indifference, towards actions of those we love, where we give up entirely the notion that their choices might put them in spiritual peril. In contrast, the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ shows us an all-loving God who grieves when His children alienate themselves from Him, and where loving parents wet their pillows with tears for their wayward children.
When I say that I know the Church is true, I do not mean that the church is perfect, or that our institutional journey is complete. Rather, I mean that this Church is Christ’s.
But most importantly, my conviction, my witness, does not rest on any single spiritual experience. Nor should it. Rather, it is better thought of as a tapestry that is woven from thousands of little threads that (on their own) might not convince me, but together, they become an unassailable witness of the Restored Gospel.
When we spend our time looking for that single spiritual manifestation that will sweep doubt from our minds and hearts, we may come to wrongly believe that God’s promises of spiritual knowledge are empty. But when we look outwards, invest ourselves in the word of God, invest ourselves in ministry in this kingdom, continually renew our covenants and participate in sacred ordinances, we can and will have encounters with God and myriads of spiritual confirmations that, stacked together, serve as a reservoir of spiritual strength that will carry us through times of discouragement, doubt, and uncertainty.
The effort for gospel transparency and spiritual inoculation through a thoughtful study of doctrine and history, coupled with a burning testimony, is the best antidote we have to help students avoid and/or deal with questions, doubt, or faith crises they may face in this information age.
In addition to listening to your students, encourage them in class or in private to ask you questions about any topic.
Here is one final note about answering questions. It is important to teach your students that although the gospel provides many, if not most, answers to life’s most important questions, some questions cannot be answered in mortality because we lack the information needed for a proper answer.
Now a word of caution: Please recognize you may come to believe, like many of your students do, that you are a scriptural, doctrinal, and history expert. A recent study revealed that “the more people think they know about a topic, the more likely they are to allege understanding beyond what they know, even to the point of feigning knowledge of false facts and fabricated information.”... The authors of the “overclaiming” study noted that “a tendency to overclaim, especially in self-perceived experts, may actually discourage individuals from educating themselves in precisely those areas in which they consider themselves knowledgeable.”
If we are to have the courage to speak out and defend the Church, we must first prepare ourselves through study of the truths of the gospel.
May God bless us to have the courage to study the simple truths of the gospel and then to share them every chance we get.
I promise you that as you prepare yourselves, as President Nelson did, you too will be different, thinking more about the Savior, speaking of Him more frequently and with less hesitation. As you come to know and love Him even more deeply, your words will flow more comfortably, as they do when you speak of one of your children or of a dear friend. Those listening to you will feel less like debating or dismissing you and more like learning from you.
For His own reasons, the Lord provides answers to some questions, with pieces placed here and there throughout the scriptures. We are to find them; we are to earn them. In that way sacred things are hidden from the insincere.