You Must Ask the Right Question...That Is the Right Question.

One of the marks of Jewish society and teaching was an ability to ask the right question, so that questions were as much a mark of enlightenment as they were a step and progress relating to spiritual growth. 

 However, we need to not make the mistake of you young rich man who asked what he must do to inherit eternal life, and then "how readest thou" was the response, which he answered that he read all the scriptures and knew and kept the commandments, and then was told "This do, and thou shalt live."  

Jesus Teaching as a Young Boy in the Temple

The Jews today still maintain this tradition of learning and questioning today. 

There isn't a soul alive who hasn't asked heaven a question if they've been alive long enough.  At some point we all have questions, and we will all say prayers.  But, as most of us have found the heavens may be quiet silent on about any topic we might ask - from "What is the meaning of life" to "Please help me pass this test."  It seems much of humanity stops at this point when no outpouring of wisdom is showered down with the resultant conclusion is that there is no God, or he doesn't answer questions. 

I have learned that heaven progresses on "Line upon line, precept on precept."  

Meaning, most of us aren't ready for what heaven has to show us, and the nature and laws of God regarding our progression and purpose are such that they can't show us, until we are ready. 

So what's the catch? 

As we learn in Doctrine and Covenants 9, when attempting to exercise the gift of seership, Oliver Cowdery was taught: 7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

The Lord further instructed him: 8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right...

The Lord did not say he would not give him, but the works of God - His mysteries and truths - aren't just to be for the asking, they carry weight, responsibility, require insight and effort because as was noted in the Garden of Eden, such wisdom and knowledge had an eternal effect: 22 ¶ And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil (Genesis 3). 

The requirement is: You must ask the right question.  It does not good to ask questions about calculus when we haven't even understood algebra.  

Now, we need not lose hope when we do not feel we know the right answer, because we can also ask for that as well just as James 1:5 teaches us, that if you lack wisdom, ask of God.   

We can even ask what question to ask so that we might ask and enlightened, purposeful question.

 But we also have to learn to listen.  The Lord starts us off with a beginner concept of a type of 20 questions, where you ask a yes/no type question and the Lord will let you know if it is right.  

However, asking the question and getting an answer alone is not enough. 

We are required to live the knowledge gained: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine (John 7:16).  

We cannot simply ask God a question and consume the answer upon our lusts, knowledge and wisdom are precious gifts from heaven, we have to demonstrate our gratitude for those things by living them when receiving them, and seeking to become like God - not using him to simply navigate our way through a bunch of problems we cause ourselves and others while regarding the Lord's truths for personal gain and convenience.  They are given to help us become like Them.  

So the key is not only asking the right question, but for the right purpose.   And when you have honed your spiritual abilities to where you can not only ask but also recognize, receive, and apply it, then, you can become as the young boy Jesus and progress back to Heavenly Father coming to know what they do.  

Standing Tall Among Both the Wheat and the Tares

I'm a convert to the church.  

I'll never forget learning about the concept of a temple recommend and being worthy to enter the temple.  It seemed like such a high goal having never had one, needed one, or even heard of one - to say I did not feel like I fit in would be an understatement. 

After I joined the Navy, I didn't fit in there either - in part because I was a member of the church and was striving tot keep church standards.  I found myself visiting a Catholic Chaplain and I will forever be grateful to the man as he told me while I was struggling: "Can I give you a bit of advice?" 

"Sure, I'll take anything at this point." 

"Lighten up, son. You're in the Navy now.  This isn't going to get any better.  You're getting ready to go to war and you're going to be relying on them, and they are going to be relying on you and if you let these things get between you, you're not going home.  My best advice?  Learn to laugh and not take things so seriously, use a bit of humor to cope." 

In the mission field I didn't fit in either - I had just finished four and a half years active duty in the military and I had learned to push it beyond what anybody in the mission field thought was humanly possible and our numbers showed it (I was so proud of my greenie, he quadrupled the work in one of the big cities all by himself - we were breaking every record possible).  But, regardless of my numbers, I didn't fit in there either.  It seemed I was about made for the doorstep to tract and that was it.  

After graduating from graduate school, our family moved from the super-liberal Portland area (which was where we were from and in a city that celebrated diversity, we always found our religous values accepted and tolerated despite that extreme disparity between the cultural norms and gospel principles and values). We were all excited as a family to finally go be with the saints in a town we couldn't believe had so many chapels so close to each other, less than a few blocks in one case, and a couple miles in others.  There were so many!!! 

But it came to pass that there was a culture here that long preceded our move, deep within the community and congregations - unseen and unrecognized to outsiders and only recognizable after anything different from the opinions of those long-established became apparent.  

To be fair, this is nothing new, not here, not in Catholicism where I came from, not in any other small towns - it's pretty typical.  You get anyone anywhere long enough, communities and people get set in their ways. It doesn't at all change the fact that this is the Lord's only true and living church upon the earth and that it has been restored in the last days, it just means we have imperfect people and a lot to struggle through (it could be worse, could be Nauvoo circa the 1840's, which I fully anticipate in not many years on a lot of different fronts). 

I have to thank my Brethren of the Twelve for helping sustain me or encourage me in some of the worst opposition I've ever faced in my callings that I just wasn't all that thrilled at going to church.  The opposition became so challenging that I honestly asked myself if I was going to remain a member of the church. As Peter asked though, where else is there to go?  A question I think we all have to ask and answer for ourselves at some point and most likely several times on our mortal journey. This is the right place. 

 As my friend, the apostle Jeffrey R. Holland said, "With one exception, imperfect people are all the Lord has ever had to work with.  I'm sure its very frustrating to Him but He deals with it."  

 I've had my heart broken by challenges in this gospel - but we're still here.  It doesn't change the fact that the church is a living and true church, we're not exempt from challenges and we need not think only the Savior or the Prophets have to pass through the tumult that come with human weakness - our own or those of others.  We have to remember the Lord has said he would try our faith.  And here we are.  

So what have I learned? 

I have/am learning that I am and have, in fact been, guided by the Holy Ghost through all of this. I know those Apostles and our Prophet are who and what they say they are, I've met them including the current president of the church.

And I know all our trials are going to be over someday. 

I just hope I can learn to handle my own challenges in such a way that my own behavior or weaknesses don't become an excuse for someone else leaving the church.   Though I have had to remember that the Lord said "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." 

I know many will be offended when we stand up - both in and out of the church - and I know a lot is getting ready to change, and we're gaining a lot, and we're going to lose a lot before this world wraps up. But in the end we only want to stand steady and be found doing what's right, swayed not by popular opinion or religious culture but by our Heavenly Father - to be the wheat amidst the tares, to be a sheep, to strive to be found on His right hand at the end.  

Horses! Horses Horses Horses!

Shortly after my conversion I spent a lot of time in the military reading the anti literature (or anti-the-church-of-Jesus-Christ-of-Latter-Day-Saints, hereafter referred to simply as "anti") against the church.  I read it all.  I went to a "Christian" bookstore in the mall near the military base I was stationed at and they had a section called "Cults" with all the books against the church and any other faith they considered fringe or apostate.  

I sat down in the corner for weeks and months reading everything they had, with the anti books in my left hand and the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price and King James Bible in my right. 

Every single claim against the church fell into one of three categories (all of which are skewed):

1) Skewed history - mostly rumors, little documented history.

2) Factually incorrect - for example, quotes were made up and attributed to the scriptures - outright lies saying that the church said or taught things it does not / did not teach and I could find it in the scriptures and see it with my own eyes, or quotes from leaders that are just not true.

3) Taken out of context - many things against the church were sensationalized, there was some kernel of truth somewhere in there, but motives or surrounding circumstances were always incorrect. 

I finally put all the books down and stopped reading, informed the store their books were incorrect, but was done researching or giving time to the opposition at that point.  

Ever since then I've noticed that all of the anti literature is a recycling of one of those three themes/methodologies (with a fourth as a subset of #3 - irrelevant minutiae that aren't a central feature to the church's progress and which may be naturally expected in any course of any human events and discarding a big picture) .  

And suffice it to say, on nearly every "controversial" question (controversy is more a matter of a crowd's and public response rather than a basis in fact - to God there are no controversies, that's purely a man-made issue, more a product of group-think and individual incapability) I have found Joseph Smith to have been proven correct over and over again on nearly every point (see following paragraphs).  

Obviously I have my testimony that this is the Lord's restored gospel, and my testimony is not reliant on external facts or evidence beyond what it does for my life and how I hear the Lord, but the external presentation of facts and academia is also important in our world and something we have to be able to account for - or should be able to - in sharing the gospel with our friends and family or even before the world.  

However, there are and were things that I could not account for because either it has not yet been revealed, or we simply do not have enough knowledge, but given his track-record and the answers I have from the Lord these will be undoubtedly proven correct as well in time.  I've put my own questions to rest.  

However, as an academic who has an advanced degree in the social sciences, I am very familiar with epistemology or the study of how-you-know-something and to make a case professionally within the sciences and how to present and prepare for a peer review.  

Labraea tar pit horse skeleton

Most of my profession is about being aware of what you do not know and being able to demonstrate you took it into account - which is what makes so much of the anti literature so concerning; it is not that there is anti literature, but that the anti literature is a symptom and reflection of our own capabilities/incapabilities as a society.  Most of the anti literature takes an absolutist stance and makes no allowance for a difference of opinion, 

All of this brings me to the issue of horses in the Book of Mormon.  Anyone who has been around the church for any length of time has heard this assertion/claim: There were no horses in America before the Spaniards. ALL horses came from the Spaniards.  Anything else is false.  All else is false.  Nothing, no exceptions, no other possibilities. Clearly Joseph Smith made it all up. 

I'm not an expert on horses and I won't pretend to be one here, but I will share what I have recently found and learned. 

1) The story of no-horses-in-the-book-of-Mormon has been around long before I found the gospel a third of a century ago, it's been recycled forever.  

2) The Labraea Tar Pits excavations were discovering horses beginning around 1913 and discovered a type of phehistoric horse that's been believed to be extinct for some time.  

That fact right there has been around - at this point - for more than a century, but has never been considered in any of the literature or introduced should raise serious concerns about our public, academic discourse on this and any other number of subjects.  

The short of it being the epistemological question of: what else do we not know and what has not been publicly shared as a part of the public discourse? (There was also a time when the earth was thought to be the center of the universe and to think otherwise was blasphemy or considered a threat to civil society's order). 

Other things I recently learned/found:  

Cortez only brought 16 horses with him and the Spaniards only brought mares - no males, so no reproduction. 

The Spaniards, including Cortez kept a meticulous inventory of horses because they were the most valuable of their military equipment - humans could be replaced and trained as soldiers easier than horses.  They weren't losing these by any extreme amount.  

Horses also had a lot of difficulty being brought over the ocean.  The earliest record of European horses being brought over was by Cortez about 1519. 

Horses have a very slow reproduction rate.  You can produce one horse ready for breeding - if you're fortunate - in about 3 years at the fastest from pregnancy to being able to mate.  

In Jamestown horses were recorded as being a public nuisance because there were so many - Jamestown began in 1607.  Cortez landed in central Mexico about 80 years prior and ~2,000 miles apart. 

Natives on the west coast (Blackfoot) as having horses as early as 1754, and several native tribes report the horse has been a part of their history for nearly 2,000 years with words for it long pre-dating the Spanish arrival. 

It is simply impossible for all of the horses and historical accounts of them on this entire continent spread as far as they have been to be accounted for as coming from the Spanish in the short time and with the limited numbers that were brought here. 

At any rate, a testimony of the Book of Mormon is not built / cannot be built on horses, the Labraea Tar Pits, or any other trivial matter, but there's a lot that cannot simply be accounted for with our current popular narratives that we use in our society and history that profess to "disprove" the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith.  

My own testimony could be summed up with this: 

10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. (2 Nephi 33:10). 

We have a lot more to discover, but if we're waiting on science and the public discourse for our faith to be justified, I think we're going to be waiting a while and we just don't have that amount of time.  

My suggestion?  If you are at all interested in truth, go study and ask God in the name of Jesus Christ if those things are true and He will manifest the truth of it to you by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

A Great Apostasy Foretold

Apostasy is nothing new, not in this world at any rate.  It has been a struggle since the beginning of time and a condition of mortal agency and a fallen and telestial world. When Adam gathered his posterity at Adam Ondi Ahman before he passed away, the scriptures note only a residue of the people - those who were righteous.   It was some time before Noah's flood that only 8 people were saved alive by water. 

The only time we see apostates acknowledge they were wrong is just before/at their conversion.  But otherwise we see both sides assert they are correct and it is the other side that is deceived. 

The wheat and the chaff must grow together, side by side to full maturity.  

One lesson we learn from the Book of Mormon is the allegory of the olive trees, how precious the Lord's trees/fruit/families were to him and the great pains he took to save as many as he possibly could.  Nobody on this earth is beyond saving at this point until we pass through the veil.  So when we're experiencing opposition, it must be because the Lord has a purpose in allowing it to continue. 

We read in Alma 17 about the believer's in Christ's coming being burnt alive and that the Lord said to Nephi that they were not to stop it by the power of the priesthood because the Lord was receiving the righteous to himself, and the wicked were being let condemned. 

 Even the Savior Himself was betrayed and was abandoned.  

 Consequently, if we're still facing challenges, it is for a reason.  When we're getting away with something, or think we are, it's also for a reason - either to give time to repent, or time to condemn ourselves. 

There's all sorts of things happening in the world - we're going to see more on all sides, both in and out of the church, but when we are faced with challenges...we shouldn't be surprised, we just need to be sure we're in the right or striving to be right - "Oh be wise, what can I say more?" (Jacob 6:12). 

Nevertheless the Death of Nehor...Renounce War, Proclaim Peace

The world is speeding up, temples are being built at an unprecedented pace, the gospel is going forth like never before. 

Meanwhile the demarcation line between good and evil is growing ever more stark - the middle ground is disappearing. 

This is especially disturbing to me as I've always prided myself on my ability to walk in the intellectual circles, reach across aisles or make friends in unlikely places.  However, it's becoming apparent to me, that as the middle ground is disappearing, the sides are growing further apart.   At that point, it doesn't matter how talented and gifted you are.  You may find yourself in King Noah's Court or some other place where they will not receive you. 

At any rate, we're witnessing something remarkable.  Our president is working to fight back corruption and those who are corrupt are screaming and using every means at their disposal to stop him.  This has escalated to armed conflict, hidden-yet-open insurrection against the United States. 

It reminds me of a few scriptures: 

Alma 1:15 And it came to pass that they took him; and his name was Nehor; and they carried him upon the top of the hill Manti, and there he was caused, or rather did acknowledge, between the heavens and the earth, that what he had taught to the people was contrary to the word of God; and there he suffered an ignominious death.

16 Nevertheless, this did not put an end to the spreading of priestcraft through the land; for there were many who loved the vain things of the world, and they went forth preaching false doctrines; and this they did for the sake of riches and honor.

We could enforce all the laws we want, and yet these things will continue to spread.

Helaman 6:32 And it came to pass that all these iniquities did come unto them in the space of not many years, insomuch that a more part of it had come unto them in the sixty and seventh year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi.

33 And they did grow in their iniquities in the sixty and eighth year also, to the great sorrow and lamentation of the righteous.

It moves faster than we would like to think.

Alma 31:5 And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.

We can do all we want to stop these things, but there needs to be a change in our hearts. 

A harsh fact I learned as a military police officer that got driven home to me  was when you have to depend on force to protect yourself, there are no rules as to what the other team can bring to the table, and at that point you're just hoping things go well and you can come home when it's over. 

Life is much easier when people just behave themselves.  Butt when social expectation no longer holds on people and they can "do what they want" the natural human tendency is to gravitate towards the lowest common denominator:

Moroni 9:9 And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum.

I had just recently gotten out of the navy when 9/11 happened, I was on my mission at the time, and I walked out on a Tuesday and a neighbor told us "They are bombing New York!" and I said "What?" He said "New York is being bombed, it's being attacked, we're being attacked!"  I actually said this as a veteran: "...that's impossible..." 

I remember President Hinckley said that the attack was the work of Gadianton Robbers during his address to the nation, and only recently have I come to know what that meant.  

Ether 8:23 Wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shown unto you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins, and suffer not that these murderous combinations shall get above you, which are built up to get power and gain—and the work, yea, even the work of destruction come upon you, yea, even the sword of the justice of the Eternal God shall fall upon you, to your overthrow and destruction if ye shall suffer these things to be.

24 Wherefore, the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you;

I think we need to realize the spiritual power that comes in obedience to the commandments, it has a ripple effect on all people.  It touches hearts, softens them, and enlightens them.  But I can say that it takes a lot of work to soften a hardened heart.  It's more powerful than anything else - kindness, love - the subsurface unity of all things.  Everyone is our brother or sister.  

We need to speak out against wickedness, but not against people, not against denominations, not against politics.  We need to hold ourselves accountable.  We need to lift ourselves up.  We need to put our own oxygen masks on metaphorically /spiritually so we can help assist others.

It Depends on How You Measure it

I very often feel like I must be failing in life, as my life is definitely one of endurance, and most certainly perseverance.  I always wonder how I measure up in the test of life.

On another test in life, when I went to take my exam for my counseling license, I began to freak out in the middle of the exam because I know there was no way I was passing.  The questions seemed like they were all a catch 22 - there were no "right" answers.  I had studied diligently, but I knew I must be failing.  I was honestly going to get up and walk out and quit, study again and come back and try to pass again. 

The only reason I didn't get up and leave was out of Navy pride: we weren't taught to quit. 

I knew I had failed, and when I finished, I waited for the confirmation of my failure.  A minute passed, and then another.  Then they came back and informed me: "You passed! Congratulations!"

What?  There had to be a mistake. There was zero way I passed.

When I got my scores some weeks later, I had to do some digging.  It turned out the test I was given was an experimental test, and my score seemed to show I had not done so hot.  Through a bunch of complicated algorithms, though I had a lot of "wrong" answers, it turned out I scored in the top 1% nationally of licensed counselors.  The test had a massive failure rate, and when that was taken into account I was at the very top nationally.   I'm reminded of the test in Star Trek at the Academy where they were faced with a no-win situation. The test wasn't there they could win, but how they held up. I was astonished, but grateful I hadn't quit.  To think what would have been missed if I had.

I'm wondering at times if life isn't a test similar to my counseling licensure exam. It's impossible not to get wrong answers, yet we can still be doing amazing even when we feel like we're losing.  I know that most people don't succeed where I am. Most quit.  Most walk away. Most leave. 

I don't know how I'm doing, eternally, in terms of an actually test score, but I know my test isn't over.

Maybe we're doing better than we think. It just all depends on how we measure it. 

Steady: Endure it Well

 

I've been on a roller-coaster of a journey unlike any other spiritually at church over the past several years, and more than I've ever experienced. 

The short of it is we got a lot of tares and wolves in sheep's clothing, and as Elder Uchdorf urged us to ask in one of his conference talks, we have to ask at all times "Lord, is it I?" 

This lesson has been going on for two-and-a-half years of opposition, backbiting, sabotage, you name it - I certainly haven't done anything to deserve it, and I most certainly didn't cause it or make anyone do it - but that's not the point.  None of those things were me, and we can always do something different, but through all of this I know there wasn't much I could have done that would have stopped this.  Yet I still have a calling I'm expected to uphold and not quit, but I ultimately have felt powerless to stop any of what's going on.  So what's the point?

The point is: how do you handle it? 

How Did you Die - Edmund Vance Cooke

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It's nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there -- that's disgrace.
The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts,
It's how did you fight --  and why?

And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he's slow or spry,
It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts,
But only how did you die?

(Perhaps it could be, how did you try?)

 Sometimes we aren't there to fix it, very often the Lord allows things to happen and we are there to be strengthened and refined by learning to endure it well - to gain insights into ourselves and the Lord's operations and the kingdom itself, if we are wise enough to be able to do it.

The Lord has allowed wolves in sheep's clothing in the church for time immemorial, and it's precisely an inability to endure-it-well with such things that has cost many, many a saint their eternal glory.  They decide the church isn't true, or decide to leave because they decide it has apostatized. 

It has taken me all this time to learn these lessons, I've been given the time to learn these lessons. 

The question is, what are we to learn?  Joseph Smith was told in Liberty Jail "These things shall give thee experience."  

Endure it well. 

Pray that you do not shrink from the lessons and opportunities at hand, don't let emotion get the best of you, and certainly don't let anything cost you your testimony.

Be not moved.

Pray to the Lord in all things. 

Many things in the gospel will not be fair, and many more will not be "right" and other things will not be "righteous" but the Lord knows what He's doing with your life and the lives of those you have struggles with.  If we can't deal with unfair and not right, are we truly equipped for the higher things in the gospel? The savior had to subject himself to massive amounts of unrighteousness, and a sham trial by those who were supposed to be the keepers of the kingdom.  Why should we be any different?  What royal road of exception and privilege have we to traverse to our exaltation? 

Lessons learned, endure it well, make the time count.  Keep climbing higher regardless of the troubles, and be faithful as you do so.  And be grateful for an opportunity to serve, even when you struggle. Let it bless you.