By Dennis B. Horne (guest blogger)
Dear _________,
You may
have noticed that something of a trend has become fashionable in some circles
regarding doubt and uncertainty being good and beneficial. Some voices have given
their opinion that doubt, as it relates to gospel truths, should be celebrated.
Some who feel this way have traveled around and given lectures and firesides to
audiences filled with those, like you, who doubt. One purpose of such attention
to doubt has been to ease and comfort the minds of those who doubt; to tell
them that their doubts about doctrine and history can be helpful and assist
them in their struggles. You should know, however, that such views and efforts
are contrary to established gospel teachings. The only solution is to turn your
doubt into conviction; only then will you find the peace, happiness and joy you
seek.
While it is
true that Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden light (meaning He
helps us through trials), He also told us that in order to be worthy to return
to live with Him, we must prove ourselves obedient to His gospel (Abraham 3:25).
We must pass through tribulations and tests that stretch us to the very limit
of what we can bear. It may be that doubt about the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ is one of your trials. Like other such trials that many people
experience (addiction, same-sex attraction, the false philosophies of the
world), it must be overcome if you desire Exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom.
And yes, immortality and eternal life are real, whether doubted and
disbelieved, or not.
Writing as
one who knows the truth and reality of the gospel and the afterlife, I have
some suggestions for you to consider:
First: Beware what
information you take into your mind. Faulty and misleading information breeds
doubt. Gospel truths, learned in context and with accurate explanation,
increase faith and assurance. The Holy Spirit bears witness of it. Books and
articles about church history and doctrine written by doubters often engender
more doubt. Historical scholarship is far from sufficient to wager your eternal
life upon. By the time you learn that something you trusted was false, deep doubt
may already have taken residence. Illustrating this point, the late Professor Hugh
Nibley wrote: “There are thousands of people outside of the Church today
because of scientific teachings which have now been exploded, are now being
exploded, and are yet to be exploded, while the gospel remains unscathed.”
(Letter, Hugh Nibley to Lorin Wheelwright, unpublished, Sept. 16, 1965, 3) A
marvelous principle worthy of careful consideration is here taught. Some of the
Brethren have phrased the idea this way—“Don’t drink below the horses.”
Second: Go to sound,
legitimate, and honest sources to learn Church history and doctrine. Much
information found on the internet does not meet these standards. The doctrines
of the Church come from the scriptures and modern prophets and apostles, not
from academic theologians and scholars, and especially not from anti-Mormon
websites. When you read the scriptures you drink from the fountain of truth and
tune your soul to the Spirit of the Lord. This approach removes doubt and
increases faith and assurance of gospel principles. Elder M. Russell Ballard
related an experience with a friend, a doubter, that illustrates this
principle:
Some years ago one
of my missionaries came to see me. He said: “President, I am losing my
testimony. I have some questions that no one will answer for me. My bishop and
stake president just told me to forget them, and they had no answers.” I asked
for his questions in writing and then suggested he come to see me in 10 days,
and I would answer every one of his questions. A s he was leaving my office, I
was prompted to ask him, “Elder, how long has it been since you have read from
the scriptures?” He acknowledged that it had been a long time. I said: “You
have given me an assignment; it’s only fair that I give you one. You read at
least one hour from the scriptures each day until you come back for your
answers.” He agreed to do this. When he came back, I was ready. He said:
“President, I don’t need the answers. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know
Joseph Smith is a prophet. I’m OK now.” ( http://speeches.byu.edu/index.php?act=viewitem&id=1929 )
The spirit
of the devil is in anti-Mormon websites and literature and he specializes in
magnifying doubt and uncertainty. I have a friend who began to read the wrong
sources and eventually lost his faith and became atheist. While his former testimony
came from the Holy Spirit testifying to his soul of the truthfulness of the
scriptures, his loss of this pearl of great price came from his own human reasoning
applied to the philosophies of men, mingled with the spirit of the Adversary.
He has sent me many questions which he thinks are unanswerable and justify his
position. Ironically, I now find myself in the unusual situation that I cannot
read an article or talk, or spend time studying the scriptures, without being
bombarded with satisfactory answers to his
supposedly unanswerable questions. I find them everywhere and share them with
him—but he has closed his mind to them and rejected the influence of the Spirit.
In contrast Elder Neal A. Maxwell
shared a personal experience of his own when reading the scriptures: “On
occasion, the pages of the New Testament come especially alive for me. A year
ago, in the midst of certain Pauline pages, it was as if the cultures and
centuries that stood between Paul and me were melted away by the warmth of the
Spirit. Paul’s words flowed into my mind unimpeded, and I understood as never
before. They seemed to fall upon my ear and soul, not printed words being
processed by my brain, but communication, friend to friend. It was an
experience lasting perhaps no more than twenty minutes, but it was one I shall
never forget.” ( https://www.lds.org/ensign/1986/12/the-new-testament-a-matchless-portrait-of-the-savior?lang=eng ) How could anyone possibly doubt after such an
experience?
Third: Remember
that for some, testimony is harder to come by than for others. Testimony,
meaning the witness of the Spirit that God lives and that the gospel is true,
is a gift that is given only after seeking and working for it. The Holy Ghost
does not dispense the same gifts equally to all in the same measure. There is
no bill of rights making all equal in gifts of the Spirit (see D&C
46:11-12, esp. 14). Some must work harder for a testimony (the removal of
doubt) than others. The devil interferes with such efforts as much as he can—for
he is the real source of most doubt.
To doubt is
to be unconverted, partially or fully, depending on the depth of your doubt.
The remedy is to become converted, which as we have noted can be hard for some.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared his own musings on this question:
Anyone who does
any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why
doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there
more people joining the Church? It is the truth. . . .
I have thought
about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced
that missionary work [conversion, ridding ourselves of doubt] is not easy
because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are
The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal
Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy
for Him? . . .
For that reason I
don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor
that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed
to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul. ( https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/03/missionary-work-and-the-atonement?lang=eng )
So, it
isn’t always easy to cast off uncertainties and become or remain converted; it
isn’t easy for some to overcome doubt and replace it with fervent and abiding faith
in Jesus Christ. Again, that just might be their particular trial to pass and
overcome before being marvelously blessed. Elder Bruce R. McConkie spoke
candidly about this particular issue, and then gave the answer or solution,
hard as it may seem.
What about people
who say they have prayed for a testimony, but haven’t received one?
I
don’t know why, except in principle, that somewhere along the line [a person]
hasn’t fully complied with the law. I had a man come to me, and he was the
president of his Seventies quorum…and he said “I have been active in the Church
all my life; I have read the Book of Mormon; I have prayed about it and asked
the Lord whether it is true—and I don’t know whether it is true or not.” He said, “I don’t get any feeling about
this,” and he asked “why?”
I
don’t know why in the sense of being able to pinpoint any specific thing, but I
do know the general principle which is that it is just absolutely, immutably
decreed, that if someone really abides the law, they do get the witness.
I
have a letter on my desk now that if I was sufficiently diligent I ought to
answer it. It came to President [Joseph Fielding] Smith and he sent it up to me
to answer. It’s a very well written letter and this fellow is not in the Church
(but he once was) and he explains intelligently that the promise is that if you
join the Church you get the gift of the Holy Ghost and you’ll have power to do
this and this; and why is it that we don’t have the power to do it? Why is it
we don’t exercise this power?
The
reason we don’t exercise the power to the extent we ought to is because we just
don’t live the law; that’s all. If
people do live the law fully, they will have the power and they will get the
witness.
But
the thing we have to remember in these situations is that everybody isn’t at
the same level of spirituality. Some
people have a small degree of spirituality, and some people have a large degree
of spirituality. The talent of spirituality that people have is what they’ve
inherited from preexistence. You have the degree of spirituality that you
earned in preexistence. . . . It’s just a pure matter of preexistence. But anybody . . . has sufficient spiritual
information, so that if they will, they can know that the work is true. . . .
So
maybe if someone doesn’t seem to get the witness like they ought to get, they
are lacking in some spiritual talent; I don’t know. But regardless of that,
it’s possible—it’s expected, as a matter of fact—that they so live that they
can get the witness. . . . (Bruce R. McConkie, “Teach by the Spirit,” UofU
Institute Lecture transcript, May 20, 1968, n.p.)
If you keep the law, eventually, perhaps
after long effort, you will get the witness; it is a law of God: “And whosoever
shall believe in my name, doubting nothing, unto him will I confirm all my
words, even unto the ends of the earth” (Mormon 9:25).
So—what might keep one from
receiving the witness? Insufficient faith and sin are the usual suspects though
there are exceptions. If a person is involved with pornography, drugs, sexual
sins, drugs, rebellion against the Lord’s anointed, etc.—unless they repent
they will have great difficulty generating the kind of faith necessary to
receive an answer and gain a witness from the Spirit of the Lord.
Third: Do not be ensnared
by the trending and popular arguments of the “intellectuals” and dissidents
that your doubt is good or helpful somehow. Such philosophizing is false and misleading
and will betray you. I have noted the following quotations in various formal online
posts:
- “To have real faith is to acknowledge and accept doubt and
ambiguity as a companion to faith and then to move forward.”
- “Doubt is a companion to faith and . . . the opposite of
faith is certainty, something quite rare and foreign to the human experience.” [Ask
anyone with a testimony that came by the power of the Holy Ghost if this
statement is true, and how uncertain they felt under that influence.]
- “This also doesn’t mean that we should let our beliefs
about what’s true govern our methodologies and conclusions. Religious
conviction is and should always remain a personal, sacred, ineffable matter,
which we should avoid reducing to some kind of self-constructed truth paradigm
within which to fit the evidence. This, to my thinking, is completely wrong
headed. To me this backwards approach only leads to strange mental gymnastics,
feigned certitude, premature (and mostly false) conclusions, selective
evidence, and a veneer of disingenuousness—not a real, lasting help to most
members with serious doubts and questions.”
[A witness of the truth is more
than mere belief; Spirit-given knowledge is pure conviction for Latter-day
Saints; it is not “ineffable” to the hundreds of thousands who have and do
know. If the “evidence” doesn’t fit with revealed knowledge, then the evidence
is in question, not the revelation.]
- “But my main purpose in writing this letter is not to
resolve the uncertainties and perplexities in your mind. I want, rather, to
endow them with the dignity and seriousness they deserve. And even to celebrate
them. That may sound perverse, but I hope to show you it is not.” [While
we do not belittle or judge those, like you, with doubts and uncertainties, we
do strive to help them overcome them and leave them behind; instead moving
forward with faith (to paraphrase the title of President Hinckley’s biography).
This very capacity was in fact a special gift of the spirit given by God to an
Old Testament prophet: “Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and
understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and
dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel. . . .” Notice that Daniel’s
spiritual gift, among others, was to dissolve (resolve) doubt, not to
congratulate the doubter and celebrate his uncertainty with him.]
- “I will not bore you or insult your spiritual maturity
with injunctions to pray harder, to fast more, to read your scriptures. I know
you have been traveling that route across a parched desert.” [Those
with true spiritual maturity are not bored or insulted by prayer, fasting, and
scripture study. On the contrary, it is their bread of life. These are the very
foundational ingredients of the Divine recipe for finding and coming to know
God, for obtaining a testimony (see Moroni 10:3-5), and for receiving Eternal Life.
In the greatest of all events in all history, when the Savior was praying to His
Father in agony of body and spirit as He paid the price for the sins of all
mankind, “he prayed more earnestly”—or harder (Luke 22:44). Such is a lesson
for all when faced with great trials, such as doubt and uncertainty about
spiritual truths; I know it has been for me.]
- “Be grateful for your doubts. . . . I know I am grateful for a propensity
to doubt because it gives me the capacity to freely believe.” [This
is the philosophies of men, not even bothering to mingle with scripture.]
- “The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart, to
attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles and values and ideals that we
devoutly hope are true and which we have reasonable but not certain grounds for
believing to be true.” [We do not look to science or
philosophy—“the arm of flesh” (2 Nephi 4:34)—for certainty about the gospel of
Jesus Christ; He has decreed another way. As the Bible Dictionary entry “God”
states: “God can be known only by revelation. He must be revealed or remain
forever unknown” (Mosiah 4:9); and that method brings absolute surety.]
- “There is profit to be found, and advantage to be gained,
even—perhaps especially—in the absence of certainty.”
Contrary to
these fallacious quotations, the scriptures never speak of doubt in a positive or
desirable way. They are instead filled with counsel and commandment to strive
to rid ourselves of doubt, uncertainty, and unbelief:
- “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not”
(D&C 6:36).
- “And there were about three hundred souls who saw and
heard these things; and they were bidden to go forth and marvel not, neither
should they doubt” (Helaman 5:49).
- “O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the
words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things
soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in
times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling before him” (Mormon 9:27).
- “And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some
doubted” (Matthew 28:17).
- “And now behold, there was not a living soul among all the
people of the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy
prophets who had spoken; for they knew that it must needs be that they must be
fulfilled” (3 Nephi 5:1).
- “And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting”
(Acts 11:12).
Miracles
and gifts of the Spirit function under similar principles; the more faith
involved, the more likely the desired blessing will be received:
- “Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ,
doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it
shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the
earth” (Mormon 9:21).
- “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall
come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” (Mark 11:23).
- “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the
fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be
thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21).
In fact,
Jesus referred to doubters as those with little faith (see Matthew 14:31). Can
anyone imagine the Lord God asking His children to doubt His existence or His
gospel? Such is unthinkable and opposed to His plan and purposes. As Elder
McConkie phrased it, “The Lord is finding out what we will believe in spite of
the allurements of the world or the philosophies of men or the seemingly
rational and logical explanations that astute people make” (Letter, Bruce R.
McConkie to Eugene England, February 19, 1981).
President
Gordon B. Hinckley became well-known as one who sought to help people overcome doubt
and replace it with faith. His discourses and writings are filled with
expressions seeking to build faith in others. A small sampling: “Love for the
Church can also lift one above doubt.” And: “I have frequently reflected on how
Joseph Smith must have felt at those times [the Kirtland period]. He was
directly or indirectly responsible for all of the misery and suffering that
occurred. Did doubt occasionally assail his mind? I find the exact opposite in
the revelations that came through him during that period.” And further: “May
our testimonies strengthen and become as anchors to which others may secure
their faith in hours of doubt and concern.” (Quotations from Standing for Something). Scores of pages
could be files with such quotations from his publications.
What can be said for those who
promulgate such thinking, contrary to the revealed word? President Henry B.
Eyring has spoken to the situation:
Persons
with doubts often want to talk about what they think are the facts or the
arguments that have caused their doubts, and about how much it hurts. They may well want to explore some scientific
theory, some historical study, some political position, or some reported
failures in the leaders of the Church or in its members, which they see as the
source of their doubts.
Many
good people have spent effort, and some have spent much of their lives,
providing such exploration. Some have
written scholarly books. Others have
organized various meetings and other exchanges to allow those with questions
and doubts to discuss them, with the hope that the doubts will be
resolved. I admire their intent and
their effort. But my observation is that
the chance of success of such approaches, based on what scholars consider
evidence and reason, is severely limited.
At
the worst, exchanges between those who doubt will increase doubt. That will be
true even if they are true seekers, simply because they will be introduced to
new doubts. More than that, in any such
group, if it is very large, there will be some impressive and sympathetic
people who have made wrestling with doubts a major personal adventure. They will present it as sport, but
exhilarating and noble. Staying with such a bold band of inquirers, fearlessly
confronting hard questions, can seem more attractive than moving back to the
apparently less colorful company of quiet believers.
But
even at its best, the resolution of doubts by reason and appeal to evidence
cannot take us far. It is helpful to
meet a brilliant mind who defends gospel truth with fact and logic. There is comfort in finding that such a
person has confronted the same questions with which you struggle and has
retained his faith. But there is a
hazard. Even the most brilliant and
faithful person may defend with argument or fact that later proves false. The
best scholarship has, at least, incompleteness in it. But even flawless argument has a weakness if
you come to depend on it: what happens to the next doubt, or the next? What if no physical evidence or persuasive
logic can be produced to dispel it? You
will find then what I have found—that faithful scholar who reassured you with
logic did not base his faith there. It
was the other way around. His faith
reassured him that someday, when God told him how it was all done, he would see
all truth as perfectly logical, transparently reasonable. In the meantime he
was enjoying discovering what he could with the logic he could muster. (To Draw
Closer to God [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997], 141-42.)
Making
hobby or sport or activism of doubt and questions and uncertainty may be fun
for some, but at what cost? Is not Eternal Life involved? So I say, do not heed
those who preach this philosophy of “good doubt.”
Fourth: Remember
that it is not yet too late to repent and change. Much more can be done in this
mortal life to conform to gospel laws and prove obedience to God’s commandments
than in the next post-mortal life. Do as Alma taught and simply cultivate a
desire to believe (Alma 32). This means you must work to cast away doubt. If you
do so, the rewards are sure and infinite and eternal.
Fifth: There is a big
difference between having a “question,” and “questioning.” Gospel questions are
often easily answered through faith and patience and seeking (see D&C 11:5,
7, 13-14). Constantly questioning things is something else. In this sense,
questioning becomes a synonym for doubting. For example, if you are a doubter
because women are not ordained to the priesthood, you are really only
questioning whether or not Jesus is the head of His Church and running it how
He wants to through His Prophet.
Our modern
day prophets and apostles call all people, doubters or otherwise, to repent and
sup at the table of the Lord with them. Elder James E. Faust spoke to you, a
doubter:
For those who have
honest doubts, let us hear what eyewitnesses had to say about Jesus of
Nazareth. The ancient apostles were there. They saw it all. They participated.
No one is more worthy of belief than they. Said Peter: “For we have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” (2 Pet.
1:16.) Said John: “For we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is
indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” (John 4:42.) Modern-day
witnesses, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, declared: “For we saw him, even on
the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the
Only Begotten of the Father.” (D&C 76:23.) . . .
Then he bore testimony by referring
to his own difficult but immeasurably rewarding path of spiritual struggle to
know God:
During the years
of my life, and often in my present calling, and especially during a recent
Gethsemane, I have gone to my knees with a humble spirit to the only place I could
for help. I often went in agony of spirit, earnestly pleading with God to
sustain me in the work I have come to appreciate more than life itself. I have,
on occasion, felt the terrible aloneness of the wounds of the heart, of the
sweet agony, the buffetings of Satan, and the encircling warm comfort of the
Spirit of the Master.
I have also felt
the crushing burden, the self-doubts of inadequacy and unworthiness, the
fleeting feeling of being forsaken, then of being reinforced an hundredfold. I
have climbed a spiritual Mount Sinai dozens of times seeking to communicate and
to receive instructions. It has been as though I have struggled up an almost
real Mount of Transfiguration and upon occasion felt great strength and power
in the presence of the Divine. A special sacred feeling has been a sustaining
influence and often a close companion.
It is my testimony
that we are facing difficult times. We must be courageously obedient. My
witness is that we will be called upon to prove our spiritual stamina, for the
days ahead will be filled with affliction and difficulty. But with the assuring
comfort of a personal relationship with the Savior, we will be given a calming
courage. . . .
I recognize that I
am a very ordinary man. Yet I gratefully acknowledge one special gift. I have a
certain knowledge that Jesus of Nazareth is our Divine Savior. I know that He
lives. From my earliest recollection I have had a sure perception of this. As
long as I have lived, I have had a simple faith that has never doubted. I have not
always understood, yet still I have known through a knowledge that is so sacred
to me that I cannot give utterance to it.
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1976/10/a-personal-relationship-with-the-savior?lang=eng
While some
say there is no such thing as certainty, or that the things of God are
ineffable or beyond us, I think Brother Faust would beg to differ. So would all
the prophets, apostles, patriarchs, and faithful disciples and saints of all
dispensations who have paid the price to know. Yet a testimony can become stale
or be lost if not nourished. All who possess them; all who have overcome doubt
and filled their souls with the conviction and assurance that comes from the
Holy Spirit of God, must keep that fire of faith alive within their souls.
Elder Loren
C. Dunn, a past and now deceased member of the First Quorum of the Seventy,
shared his experience with rejuvenating his testimony. He had not doubted, yet
he needed the refreshing that becomes necessary after dealing with the cares
and troubles of mortality:
A number of years
ago . . . I had just finished a particularly bad week. . . . By the end of the
week I was feeling down and a bit sorry for myself. Finally, one night, after
my family had gone to bed, I decided to stay up longer and really go before the
Lord in a more determined way than when I said my regular night and morning
prayers. As I knelt in the downstairs study of the darkened house, my
circumstances made it easy for me to approach the Lord in the depths of
humility, and I poured out my heart. As I prayed I felt a need for a
confirmation that he was there and that he cared. From past experiences I knew
these things, but there are times when one needs the strength of
reconfirmation.
As I prayed and
made this specific request I had a most remarkable experience. I had had
spiritual experiences before, but this, to me, was more. There was an outpouring
of the Spirit so real that I could feel it. This Spirit filled my whole soul;
and this was not just a single experience, but it came again and again in the
space of just a minute or two. I came out of the room that night with a
reconfirmed and absolute knowledge, borne of the Spirit, that not only does the
Savior live but that he knows me and cares for me with a truly divine love.
The influence of
that experience lingered with me for days and caused me to have a feeling of
genuine concern and love for everyone, even people on the street whom I did not
know. ( http://speeches.byu.edu/index.php?act=viewitem&id=1180 )
All must
take the same course to be rid of doubt—humble sustained prayer to Father in
Heaven with all the faith that can be mustered. Elder McConkie spoke candidly
of the struggle of all believers to endure to the end: “All of us need all of
the faith and strength and spiritual stability we can get to maintain our
positions in the Church and to work out our salvation.” (Ibid, letter.)
May that be
your course and an unshakable assurance your reward,
Dennis
Horne
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